Theft and criticism become gifts when living off visibility

Evidence

Our traditional understanding of social relations generally makes us feel the criticisms addressed to us as threats to our narcissism and as acts of hostility against our public self. In the same way, our attachment to private property, combined with our pride as an author worried about protecting his rights, makes us think of thieves and plagiarists as outlaws. The attention economy encourages us, however, to reverse these kinds of judgement: ‘Anyone who copies you is turning their audience over to you, and thereby doing you a favour. Even anyone who tries to malign you or distort what you are saying calls attention to you in the process.’ — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 154

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the reader’s prior work on piracy/reputation economies and anticipates the profit-from-opportunist-visibility corollary. — connects to: Many cultures frame trickery’s greatest gifts as thefts of light from selfish holders — , A Year of World Stories, 14664; Giving something away can make it grow rather than diminish — , A Year of World Stories, 11790; Behaving oddly in cities can elicit kindness rather than rejection — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 1020
• SEED: Article angle: how the ‘bad publicity is good publicity’ logic inverts legal intuitions about theft and defamation in an attention economy.

Broader Connections

• Many cultures frame trickery’s greatest gifts as thefts of light from selfish holders #corroborates (0.82) — , A Year of World Stories, 14664
• Giving something away can make it grow rather than diminish #corroborates (0.78) — , A Year of World Stories, 11790
• Behaving oddly in cities can elicit kindness rather than rejection #exemplifies (0.75) — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 1020