I have to confess a little. I really can’t stand copying until recent years, not understanding what I can learn of it. Don’t get me wrong I have always had my favourite artist and sometimes even had an idea about at least imitating their work. But it always ended “I can’t do that! It’s not right!”, and being upset about my work not being “original.”
Of course copying is and always was part of our lives as it has already been said so many times. When people think about copying it’s mainly about visuals(music, paintings, movies, etc.). But can you imagine being a history student and knowing that there is almost no chance of coming with something new in your lifetime. Of course it can be all about subjective priorities but still.