Do you ever find yourself creating taboos because you're afraid that by posting something, whether it's a poem, script, novel, short story, (possibly even wallpaper), that you might be attacked by an original owner of whatever material of theirs you're using? I'm curious to know how far you think it's ok to take an idea. When does it become stealing?

Hay unless it copyrighted nuts to them. well sort of. if i really liked the art/poem or whatever then i would propbly seek out the original artris permision 1st but most of the time nut to them

I guess the problem is more of plagiarising than that of poetic licence. In universities they have a zero-tolerance policy towards copying works from other writers without acknowledging them. In my view this is fair because even though the whole procedure of acknowledging their efforts can be a pretty tedious one sometimes it ultimately gives credit to the hard work or originality they've put in. I mean, to come up with something new isn't that easy as it seems, especially where works of poetry are concerned. Thus giving credit where it is due is essential.

The same principle therefore applies to the world of cyberspace where people post their writing or artworks online. People put in time and effort (not to mention loads of typing and clicking) to produce the work we see on our Internet browsers; and to neglect that by claiming it as your own is simply disrespectful of the original author/artist.

Then there are also copyright issues to consider. For printed media people could get sued for copying another person's idea, but penalties for that become fuzzy in cyberspace. Perhaps this is why people can blatantly post stuff online and claim it as theirs even though they evidently ripped it off some website. Without proper laws and guidelines in plave there is a higher likelihood of stealing material online and staking claim to it as your own. As the phrase says, "do unto others what others would do unto you".

Also one would have to be pretty delusional to think that after they post something (be it a poem, story, piece of artwork) on the internet that they are going to have any kind of continuing control over it's use even if they actually copywrite it...
once it's in the web control of it is gone. period. someone somewhere is going to snag it and do with it what they please. that is a given.

I'm starting to think dante666 should practice some poetic licensing on yourself = )

I never plagarized in school, but I remember fellow students getting in huge trouble for it. Is it really that hard to just add a note saying said-idea was originally thought of by said-person? Credit should be given where credit is due, and if you like a piece of writing enough to post it somewhere, you should also take the effort to acknowledge the original person. What fan would not want to give praise to someone they look up to?