Here’s a hypothetical situation for you: Let’s say a guy who pays attention to Japan and its various output stumbles upon some interesting videos. These videos feature a popular video game character and his adventures in worlds modified by an expert in the field of virtual world modification.

A few, let’s say the best, of these videos are collected by this man (let’s call him Rac Rentz) and posted in his blog. It doesn’t take long before this blog post attracts the attention of other denizens of the internet. In fact, it becomes so popular that a few rather large and heavily trafficked sites feature the post on their main page. This, in turn, generates a large number of visits to Rac’s blog. He is happy to have brought the wonderful videos to so many, and goes to bed knowing that the world is a slightly happier place than before.

But what is this? Here come another site on the horizon which seems to think that Rac’s content and hard work is actually their own! More than one site, in fact. Sites that find joy in various stiqs, others that seem to study wire, even one with humorous college anecdotes. They want to pretend that they, in fact, are the ones who spent the time and effort to find, collect and promote those excellent videos. Perhaps they feel as if their target audience is not intelligent nor vigilant enough to have been part of the initial post’s popularity. Of course, they must be aware of the original post’s popularity. It would, in fact, be nearly impossible for them to have missed it, seeing as how they are largely dependent on gathering news and information from others and are therefore well aware of these massive content collectors.

Sure, they could use the same content and simply give credit to Rac. This is, in fact, a fine and noble tradition among similar web-based sites. They could even hide this "link" to his post using clever subversion, without ever using his name. Alas no, instead they simply change the wording and callously ignore him.

Yet, Rac Rentz is no fool. He is wise to the ways of the internet. It’s users have laid claim to the works of others time and time again, and this situation is no different. He knows that this will not be the last time that others attempt to pull the wool over the eyes of their readers. He even knows that, at its heart, the content of his own post was not his to lay claim to, and that he was merely a conduit, sharing it openly with others. It is this altruistic purpose that sets him, and the other noble explorers like him, apart from those who seek to take that which is not theirs and claim ownership to its fruit, from those who would choose to slash and burn all of history, out of spite for not having been there first.