Or they could simply use my ideas to create derivative works. They could borrow my language and ideas the way fourth-graders used to borrow passages from the World Book . Publishers will insist that they have no intention of plagiarizing or substantially altering free-lancers' work without permission, and I'm willing to believe them, for now. Despite the promise of the Internet, public discourse is becoming increasingly homogenized. The corporate media value originality much less than imitation, which is easier to market.
Consumerism relies on the appeal of the familiar.
People wear clothes proclaimed fashionable by magazines or aggressively marketed by national retailers. They vote for politicians who test their ideas and attitudes in focus groups or polls and who successfully package what's popular. Free-lance writers are hardly immune from this disease. Whether or not they retain control over their own intellectual property, they still have to please editors, and many share popular tastes or willingly pander to them. I don't mean to romanticize free-lancers.