Is it Inspiration or Theft...

Copyrighting has and will always be a huge issue regardless of what idea, design, discovery, invention etc. is being protected. We as designers all seek inspiration from the work of others to help assist us in developing our own ideas. Many like to say it's inspiration they search for and others consider it stealing. In all reality getting inspiration from others will help but it can also be seen as manipulating a preexisting idea. As a result the work is not original but redesigned.

For example if you look at the logos below you'll see that University of Georgia logo looks very much like the Green Bay Packers logo. Now would you call this inspiration or theft? In a way copyrighting is a waste of time because we all borrow or get inspired from one another. In my opinion many who copyright their work do so to say they thought of it first. In reality, that person was able to protect the work they basically stole from another. You can choose to call it inspiration or theft but we all do it. No one idea is solely original because as designers we all feed off of one another's creativity, work and ideas.