Plagiarism on the internet

You would think that the ease of publishing something on the internet will spawn creativity. Ah, people would at last find an easy outlet for their creative juice to flow. People could be using email to write more often to one another. People could be writing blogs, putting up pictures, and sharing short video clips.

Well, it seems that while all of the above is true, the internet seems to be the place to push jokes and other people's writings around; often without acknowledging the authors or the source. Plagiarism is no longer a dirty word. I have seen jokes resurfacing after months or years. I have very often  received other people's writings from more than one email source at around the same time. I have seen beautiful prose being nonchalantly reproduced on somebody's Facebook wall, seemingly assuming that the reader knows it has been "borrowed". Likewise, beautiful pictures are shared on Facebook and other social media without informing the reader as to the source. Recycled literature just keep churning through the internet. It seems that the distinction between original work and "borrowed" work has blurred.