Has anyone ever stolen an idea from you and claimed it theirs?

Question

Back in 2000 I went to art school with this guy. He helped me install an piece in the winter. recently, I was on the school website and found out he was now a professor there. So I clicked on his portfolio and low and behold, he had a slide of an installation with the same exact idea. Better yet, his concept was the same premise as mine. The only difference being that he "conceived" this piece in 2006. What irks me is that I kept my ideas close to my chest in school and this classmate was one of the few people I talked to and now he's faculty there. It just reinforces the stigmas attached to art school and the competitve level that exists there.

Do you know of anyone or if this has happened to you? Whether in school or in your professional life. I hear it happens all the time, whether it's cookie recipes, websites or other products.

Answer 1

Certainly it became a plague with the advent of the WWW, and copy rights are largely disregarded any more. The curse of the net is like Anthrax.

   I must say however, there are truly no more ORIGINAL ideas, merely ways of presenting them. It would seem you presented too much, no offense.

   I suggest it had little to do with "school" as the relative trigger for his theft. Beyond that I have to believe he is in way over his head in his position, and may one day be on a corner, holding a cardboard sign. Karma gets us all, good or bad.

Answer 2

My old-fashioned mother told me to take things like that as a compliment, because apparently stealing someone's idea is a form of flattery. I didn't-- and still don't-- care if someone liked my idea. It was mine, and that person had no right to take my work and claim it as their own.