In the age of copy and paste, the customer truly is king

Of all the things we take for granted, the act of highlighting something, copying it and dropping it somewhere else has to be among the most mundane. But have you ever really thought how powerful a tool this is? Me neither, until I started playing around with HTML and realising that I could simply take a piece of impenetrable code, copy it, make some small changes and it would appear in a different colour, with new images and my own text.

And who in their right mind would type this code into their blog platform to embed a YouTube clip?

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/_V8TDCiPBUU&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/_V8TDCiPBUU&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

The same applies to sharing a link on e-mail, Facebook or Twitter, quoting from Wikipedia, editing a document, moving files around - you name it, copy and paste is crucial to virtually everything we do virtually today. And copying and pasting is not restricted to text, this simple process is also indispensable when it comes to editing images, music and film. How did we ever live wothout it?

The ability to copy and paste underpins our civilization and all forms of knowledge. On the most basic level, our brains are our clipboards, storing skills and information in a form that can be drawn on and put to use in a variety of ways at any time. Scientific advancement is the process of taking existing knowledge, data and assumptions and adding something new. It's not as simple as dragging and dropping, but that's the principle of copy and paste.

The most powerful innovation in this respect was of course the printing press, a tool that facilitated the spread of information by automating the process of copying text and images. Write something down once and it can be replicated millions of times at minimal cost.

More than half a millennium later, the key combinations of "Ctrl + C" and then "Ctrl + V" are just a natural progression, but the uses for copy and paste extend much further than simply sharing information.

As we advance into the digital age, everything we do can be recorded, copied and pasted. You can select this text and copy it into a word processor or your website and pretend it is yours. You can rewrite the bits of it you don't like and create something better, or spice it up with some images. Feel free, but I will be angry if you don't give me credit for my work by copying and pasting a link to this address  (this website is published under the Creative Commons license).

Building a website is no different. Visit most websites and click View>Page Source (in Firefox, it's somewhere else in Internet Explorer) and a window will pop up showing the code that makes the images, tables and text appear as they do. Copy that into a text editor and you have the code for that website right there on your computer to manipulate and play with. You can take any piece of code and incorporate it in your own website as you wish. Whether you credit the original creator of the website is a question of your own honesty and integrity.

This is an amazing thing, but what does it mean?

In geek circles, the process of copying something and making it into something new is called a "mashup". You might think of it as a "remix" or, in business speak, "adding value".

Being able to create a website or "mashup" that is better than the source material does not require vast technical skill. Anyone can copy something they like, paste it into some form of editing software and manipulate it. Software tools to modify files are becoming easier to use all the time and there are video tutorials online for almost any task (from making a bomb to delivering a baby).

As the man and woman in the street starts to learn about and become comfortable with these processes of taking, changing and sharing (how often do you use copy and paste in a day?) so their attitudes to data, knowledge and creativity will inevitably change. And, of course, their attitudes to copyright. After all, copyright is a restriction placed on knowledge as an incentive to those creating it. It follows that as the processes of creation and distribution become easier and cheaper, culture becomes more free.

We have already seen the disruption this can cause with music. Because technology exists that allows music to be shared freely, knowledge about music and the shared experience of enjoying it are becoming as valuable as making the music itself. This is the force behind the rise of the DJ and the summer festival - and why the only real losers are not the artist, but the record companies who "own" and "distribute" the music.

The ease of taking someone else's work and using it as your own (once known as "sampling") is a boon for the bedroom creative. At the same time, the accessibility of digital media increases interest and appreciation. Now that everyone is a photographer, people's respect for good photography - and good photo manipulation - has increased. The nuances of art and music are much better understood by the masses. In time, so will their willingness to pay for quality work. At the same time, finding and knowing when and where to use a particular image or sound is as great a skill as making it. In the age of Twitter, the person retweeting the link also earns a tiny bit of kudos.

While the freedom to copy and paste other people's work poses a new connundrum for those looking to make money from their creative skills (or, in the case of record companies, the skills of others), it is also a vast opportunity to make the world a better - and more efficient - place.

This is where free and open-source software is blazing a trail. By giving people access to the code that makes software run (actually, today's "software" is as much about icons, design elements and usability as it is about creating powerful new features), the end "product" can improve incrementally as people all over the world contribute to create functionally improved, more stable and better-looking software. Thanks to modern communications, such as instant messaging, forums and wikis, it is easy to manage a team of developers working all over the world, fix bugs and exchange snippets of code. In other words, copy and paste makes it possible to make the world a better place one tiny byte at a time.

As each of these people have their own specialist area, from the guy who designs the logo, to the people who keep track of user comments and improve usability, to the developers adding new features (often based on code and interfaces with other shared software) and even the user who reports a bug, they each earn credit among their peers and among other users. Through the development process, they build an online reputation for themselves as individuals while learning skills that can be turned into financial gain elsewhere. The virtual university if you will - and more people are signing up by the day, because they want to be part of a global movement. And this movement will award those companies that are open to the openness and helpfulness of their customers. It will not be long, before this applies to every possible industry - the principles of open source are already being used to design bespoke prosthetic limbs and sequence the human genome, for example.

This is a remarkable cultural change that will effect every aspect of our lives. As each day passes, the benefits of sharing are outweighing the benefits of keeping knowledge to yourself. First, the ease of sharing anonymously (on a site like Wikileaks, for instance) will ensure everything comes out in the wash sooner or later. More importantly, consumers are coming to expect openness and transparency as standard - they want to know exactly what they are buying and to be able to switch to a rival product if the relationship doesn't work out.

While it is the natural instinct of businesses to protect their ideas, any company that attempts to restrict copying can expect to run into increasing pressure from consumers, and be left behind by their competitors. A new breed of consumer will chose products that don't lock them in, that embrace standards and that are open to tinkering and tweaking. They will feel indebted to those companies that give them a service for nothing by taking the time to spread the word and buy related products when the opportunity arises. Because if they see or experience something they like, they want to share it and add their own input and comments. They want to contribute by sharing. Because by spreading the word and getting involved, they know they are doing you a favour.

At last, "the customer is king" is much more than a empty marketing slogan.