Hey there modern vegans and vegan curious.
It's Margaret, and welcome back to ModVegan.
Today I want to talk about something that I believe is worth addressing within the vegan
community.
And that is the issue of plagiarism.
This was brought up earlier in the week by a vegan gossip columnist that is called the
Vegan Cheetah.
And he went after a very influential and very helpful of the vegan community, Emily from
Bite Size Vegan.
...Accusing her of plagiarism, and saying that she had taken some of the information
for her video on wool from another YouTuber called Erin Janus.
In his initial video, Vegan Cheetah made reference to two videos about wool:
The first from Erin Janus, the second from Bite Size Vegan.
Both were about wool, and both seem to contain fairly similar facts.
But I do believe that some very important additional pieces of information were left
out of this video.
The first is that Emily from Bite Size Vegan had produced a video about wool just a few
months earlier,
that discussed many of the same things that were in both of the subsequent videos.
And the second, very important piece of information is the fact that Emily's videos are much shorter
than Erin's.
They have very different approaches to their content,
and I must say, Emily is one of the reasons that I became a vegan, and her short, bite-sized
bits of content are an incredible asset to the vegan community.
One of the things that Charles neglects to mention in his video is the fact that every
vegan voice is unique.
We live in an information age, and information passes at the speed of light.
We all have unique voices, and I would say that Erin and Emily have extremely unique,
different voices that appeal to very different audiences,
and convey information in very different ways.
Whether or not they use some of the same facts in their videos is immaterial.
We all tend to use the same facts.
Especially when we're talking about something such as wool,
where there are a series of pieces of information that we may use in any order whatsoever, that
are all fairly similar.
The first contention that I would like to make,
is that this is an open source community.
And it has to be.
One of the unique characteristics of social media, and of YouTube in general, is that
content creators need to be agile.
We need to be swift in our ability to convey information to each other.
And we all have unique and different points of view.
The idea that we need to keep our information to ourselves,
and retain our intellectual property, is the antithesis of what we should be doing in this
movement.
If your concern is primarily protecting your intellectual property,
YouTube is not the place for you.
You probably should be engaging in more traditional forms of media,
such as traditional broadcasting, such as book publishing.
And if Erin Janus wishes to produce books on her topic,
and state them there for the record, she's absolutely welcome to.
But if she wants to share information with the vegan community at large,
and have vegans believe that she genuinely cares about veganism as a movement,
she needs to understand that we are all sharing information here,
and that is vital.
Now I do believe that it's important to give credit to the people that have inspired you.
I recently made a video about Dr. Travis Stork and his entire new book about the "Lose Your
Belly Diet",
and the fact that it was kind of a reducetarian diet, in effect.
I was inspired to do this video when I saw Happy Healthy Vegan's video about the topic,
and I decided to go and read the book for myself.
My video obviously is somewhat different from Ryan's,
because in my video, I tend to focus more on the fact that it's reducetarian,
he talks about it being plant-based.
Those are different approaches and they're from very different personalities.
And I appreciate very much that Ryan noticed that first,
and I would love to give him credit right here.
And that's something that we can do as YouTubers.
We can always acknowledge other people,
and that's a wonderful part of YouTube, is that it's very easy to mention the inspiration
that we have for our videos.
But, if the movement is your motivation,
you should never be concerned about having a video "copied."
I recently made a video about leather that took me weeks to research.
I spent hours and hours - I have no idea how much time - researching that topic.
And only a very small portion of that information went into the final video,
because I wanted it to be short enough for people to be able to absorb the information.
I was pleased the other day to see an article in an online publication related to the same
topic,
using a lot of the same sources that I did.
And rather than being concerned that they had "stolen" my content or some stupid thing
like that,
I was very proud and happy that other people were beginning to be interested in the same
topic.
And that's the attitude that you need to have if you want to be involved in social media.
You need to be excited.
If you see something from one of your videos included in other people's videos,
be excited!
Be proud!
Whether they cite you as a source or not.
This is a movement.
And more importantly than just being any other part of social media,
veganism is about changing hearts and minds.
And if we want to do that, we need to spread information.
I was also pleased when a friend of mine asked if he could share my video on his channel.
He actually took (and frequently does) he'll take the entire video and upload it and show
it to other people.
And that makes me very happy, because I know that my audience is small.
I realize that many of you don't get to see all of my videos,
that my videos are just a tiny portion of vegan YouTube.
And I get that!
And I'm happy whenever anyone is talking about some of the things that I do.
If someone, like a large vegan channel such as Freelee the Banana Girl, or Vegan Gains
uses something from one of my videos, I would be honoured!
And you should be too.
This is about sharing information, it is not about intellectual property.
And I think that's something that really needs to go on in the vegan community.
We need to understand - and in YouTube as a whole -
we need to start to understand the open source nature of what we are doing.
If you are constantly concerned about having your content "stolen"
or having other people use the hard work that you've done,
then you're in the wrong business.
You should be in a traditional publishing format,
and you would probably be much happier there.
We are fortunate enough to live in an age where our ability to influence others is not
limited by the speed at which a medieval monk is able to copy the sentences he finds in
manuscript!
It is far different, and I am so grateful for that fact.
I am infinitely grateful that we live in an age when I can tell you something immediately
and have you guys see it the next day.
Or that day, for that matter.
Or live, for that matter.
It's a wonderful gift.
And the idea that we should be jealous of this information,
that we should be saving it and keeping it for ourselves,
making sure that we get the proper credit -
is not only selfish, it's impractical in this day and age.
If there's anything that we have learned from the open source era,
it's that we all have a different lens through which we look at information.
Since time immemorial, people have been taking stories and using them in different ways.
If you're familiar with even medieval literature,
you understand that many of the sources for those stories
are taken from stories written long, long ago.
And as they say, "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery".
And that is not for any small reason.
We use information because it's valuable.
And we share it because it's valuable.
If you created something that is valuable,
that you want other people to share, you should be proud when you see it elsewhere.
Every single person who uses that information is going to see it from a different lens.
We all have different life experiences, we see things differently.
We have a different approach.
And that is a wonderful thing.
It is one of the most beautiful things about the internet.
Because it allows us all to see things from a unique perspective and to share things in
our own unique way.
And that is something that we are able to do here within vegan YouTube.
And I think that it is a tremendous gift.
It is imperative that we have multiple voices sharing information.
Particularly within a movement as small as the vegan YouTube movement.
We are a tiny movement!
I don't think it's possible to pretend that we are anything else.
We're a small portion of the population attempting to share what we know with a larger audience.
And within that framework, it is so valuable to have those different voices.
I think we can all appreciate that certain YouTubers are more influential with us than
others are.
I know there are some voices that are easier for me to understand and work with than there
are others.
There are others that perhaps just don't resonate with me.
And that's fine!
That's one of the beauties of this platform.
Fortunately, a voice like Emily's carries with it a lot of weight.
She's able to reach a large audience, and that's evident within the numbers from her
channel.
What I would ask you, as an audience member, as a viewer, as a content creator -
if you appreciate what Emily does, I would just love it if you would share with her how
much she has meant to you.
I sent her an email yesterday, I don't know if she'll ever even get the chance to read
it,
but at least she will be able to see that other people support her.
Emily's "bite-size nuggets" are an essential and vital source of information.
And I appreciate them so much, and I know that countless others do so as well.
I have young children, and so the fact that her wool video was intended for children is
extremely important.
I've got a five year old and a seven year old,
and they're going to get more out of her video than they would from a video like Erin Janus'.
If you like Emily and you appreciate her content,
what I would recommend: please don't go to Charles' channel or to Erin's channel.
I really don't want any of you guys to do any of those things.
What I would like you to do is to express your appreciation directly to Emily.
If she's made a difference in your life, please just take this as a chance to let her know
what she's meant to you.
I can't even begin to say what Emily has meant in my life,
in the life of my kids, who very much appreciate her bite-size nuggets.
She's an extremely important resource, and such a valuable voice in our community.
Someone that can be recognized by traditional mainstream press and also by people within
the vegan movement.
She is one of my favourite YouTubers,
and I think that almost anyone can say that she contributes a huge amount of value to
the vegan movement.
The kind of work that she does -
even if she were just taking other people's information and condensing it into a bite
sized nugget,
it takes a lot of time, research and effort in order to be able to do that.
And it is valuable in the extreme.
To say that is a form of "ripping people off,"
or that it is a way of taking advantage of others is just sad.
Let Emily know how much she's meant to you.
Please tell her how much you value her.
And I must say that within the past few months since I've joined YouTube,
I have been so desperately saddened to see many people quit because of cyber bullying.
This is ridiculous.
And it's getting to the point where it is threatening the vegan movement as a whole.
We need to stand up to these bullies, and not by going after them directly.
Instead, what we need to do is support the other voices.
To let them know that they are listened to,
to let them know that they are heard.
To let them know that we appreciate them and the hard, hard work that they do.
Please do that.
I would love to see everyone who sees this video sending a message to Emily letting her
know that they appreciate the work that she does.
Even if Emily's latest period of silence has absolutely nothing to do with this cyber bullying,
I think she'd still appreciate it.
So my recommendation for you is to please just send her a note of appreciation.
Let her know that we can't afford to lose any more voices within this movement.
It is absolutely tragic that we have lost so many people over the past few months,
simply because people feel so much pressure.
When Charles says that people like Emily of Bite Size Vegan are "scamming people" and
taking their money, it is laughable.
The idea that a few dollars so that someone can actually make this their life's work is
scamming people
- is somewhat sickening to me.
I find it absolutely unintelligible, the notion that allowing people to do this as a life's
mission is somehow scamming people.
If people want to share their resources in order to be able to extend the capacity, the
reach for some of these people like BIte-Size Vegan, that is a wonderful thing.
We should be encouraging content creators to continue creating great content and helping
everybody else within their own efforts.
Creating content is not easy.
And that is one very true part of Charles' video.
It's not easy.
It's a lot of work.
It's hard work.
It's long hours put in for no return whatsoever.
And the amount of money that Emily makes off of these things is absolutely miniscule compared
to the amount of effort that she puts in.
To begrudge someone that, to begrudge them the fact that they're able to put in a life
working in activism - is frankly nauseating to me.
The idea that we should be doing this
- either for nothing, or that we should simply tear down others in order to make our money
-
is ridiculous.
It's not easy to make it on YouTube.
I can say for myself that I spend far, far too many hours every week working on YouTube.
And I'm sure that many of you probably realize this and are probably in the same boat.
But I certainly do not begrudge Emily the fact that she has been able to make this a
decent minimum wage job based on her efforts.
If that is scamming people, then we need a lot more scammers in this world.
The idea that making a minimum wage income off of YouTube is "scamming people" is frankly
ridiculous.
If someone is putting that many hours into research and dissemination of important information,
then more power to them.
I wish more people were able to do YouTube full time!
It would be a wonderful thing.
And I think that is a decent goal for anybody.
The fact that...if you can make a living off of YouTube, then that's a wonderful thing!
I'm not jealous of you, I don't begrudge you anything.
I think that's fantastic!
Especially if you're doing something worthwhile with your time.
If you have a message, that's beautiful!
So instead of being jealous of people,
instead of fearing people taking our content,
let's share.
Let's make this an open source project.
Let's share the information and grow the vegan movement,
and let's roundly and loudly reject the idea that this is an issue of intellectual property
and keeping our information to ourselves.
We're sharing this information because it's important.
Because it needs to get out.
And if people don't like that, then they need to join another medium.
Go to traditional publishing.
If you're that great at creating content, go to NBC, ABC -
any of the traditional media outlets, and share your information with them!
You'll have plenty of lawyers keeping your intellectual property sacrosanct.
But if having your intellectual be sacrosanct is your highest ideal,
that's the place for you.
Not here.
I want to thank you all for watching, I realize this is not what I normally make videos about,
but I do think it's important for the vegan movement as a whole.
And I'm concerned about how many people that we've lost in recent months.
And Emily cannot be another one.
I will not stand for her being another casualty of cyber-bullying.
Let's stand up, let's show her how much we care.
Please send her a message, let her know how much her videos have meant to you, and let's
turn this around and let the cyber bullies know that this is not what veganism is about.
This is not what the YouTube movement of veganism is about.
And let's just work together to make this a better world.
Thank you so much for watching,
and I will see you in my next video.
Take care,
bye.
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