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Copying is the duplication of
information Information is an abstract concept that refers to that which has the power to inform. At the most fundamental level information pertains to the interpretation of that which may be sensed. Any natural process that is not completely random ...
or an artifact based on an instance of that information or artifact, and not using the process that originally generated it. With
analog Analog or analogue may refer to: Computing and electronics * Analog signal, in which information is encoded in a continuous variable ** Analog device, an apparatus that operates on analog signals *** Analog electronics, circuits which use analog ...
forms of information, copying is only possible to a limited degree of
accuracy Accuracy and precision are two measures of ''observational error''. ''Accuracy'' is how close a given set of measurements ( observations or readings) are to their ''true value'', while ''precision'' is how close the measurements are to each oth ...
, which depends on the quality of the equipment used and the skill of the operator. There is some inevitable
generation loss Generation loss is the loss of quality between subsequent copies or transcodes of data. Anything that reduces the quality of the representation when copying, and would cause further reduction in quality on making a copy of the copy, can be consid ...
, deterioration and accumulation of "
noise Noise is unwanted sound considered unpleasant, loud or disruptive to hearing. From a physics standpoint, there is no distinction between noise and desired sound, as both are vibrations through a medium, such as air or water. The difference aris ...
" (random small changes) from original to copy when copies are made. This deterioration accumulates with each generation. With digital forms of information, copying is perfect.
Copy and paste In human–computer interaction and user interface design, cut, copy, and paste are related commands that offer an interprocess communication technique for transferring data through a computer's user interface. The ''cut'' command removes ...
is frequently used by a
computer user A user is a person who utilizes a computer or network service. A user often has a user account and is identified to the system by a username (or user name). Other terms for username include login name, screenname (or screen name), acco ...
when they select and copy an area of text or content. Español México Most high-accuracy copying techniques use the principle that there will be only one type of possible interpretation for each reading of data and only one possible way to write an interpretation of data or data classes.


In art

In visual art, copying the works of the masters is a standard way that students learn to paint and sculpt. Often, artists will use the term ''after'' to credit the original artist in the title of the copy (regardless of how similar the two works appear) such as in
Vincent van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, inc ...
's " First Steps (after Millet)" and
Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...
's "Luncheon on the Grass, after Manet" (based on Manet's well-known work). In sculpture, copies have often been made using devices such as the
pointing machine A pointing machine is a measuring tool used by stone sculptors and woodcarvers to accurately copy plaster, clay or wax sculpture models into wood or stone. In essence the device is a pointing needle that can be set to any position and then ...
, the
pantograph A pantograph (, from their original use for copying writing) is a mechanical linkage connected in a manner based on parallelograms so that the movement of one pen, in tracing an image, produces identical movements in a second pen. If a line dr ...
or, more recently, computer guided router systems that
scan Scan may refer to: Acronyms * Schedules for Clinical Assessment in Neuropsychiatry (SCAN), a psychiatric diagnostic tool developed by WHO * Shared Check Authorization Network (SCAN), a database of bad check writers and collection agency for bad ...
a
model A model is an informative representation of an object, person or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin ''modulus'', a measure. Models c ...
and can produce it in a variety of materials and in any desired size. Another way of copying three-dimensional works is by
lost-wax casting Lost-wax casting (also called "investment casting", "precision casting", or ''cire perdue'' which has been adopted into English from the French, ) is the process by which a duplicate metal sculpture (often silver, gold, brass, or bronze) i ...
and other forms of molding and
casting Casting is a manufacturing process in which a liquid material is usually poured into a mold, which contains a hollow cavity of the desired shape, and then allowed to solidify. The solidified part is also known as a ''casting'', which is ejected ...
.


In literature

Prior to the invention of the
printing press A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in which the ...
, the only way to obtain a copy of a book was to copy it out by hand (see
scrivener A scrivener (or scribe) was a person who could read and write or who wrote letters to court and legal documents. Scriveners were people who made their living by writing or copying written material. This usually indicated secretarial and ad ...
). Throughout the
Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
, monks copied entire texts as a way of disseminating and preserving literary, philosophical and religious texts.


In office work

Offices need more than one copy of a document in a number of situations. They usually need a copy of outgoing correspondence for their records. Sometimes they want to circulate copies of documents they create to several interested parties. Until the late 18th century, if an office wanted to keep a copy of an outgoing letter, a clerk had to write out the copy by hand. This technology continued to be prevalent through most of the 19th century. For these purposes, offices employed copy clerks, also known as copyists, scribes, and scriveners. A few alternatives to hand copying were invented between the mid-17th century and the late 18th century, but none had a significant impact on offices. In 1780 James Watt obtained a patent for letter copying presses, which
James Watt & Co Boulton & Watt was an early British engineering and manufacturing firm in the business of designing and making marine and stationary steam engines. Founded in the English West Midlands around Birmingham in 1775 as a partnership between the Engl ...
. produced beginning in that year. Letter copying presses were used by the early 1780s by people like
Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...
,
George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of ...
, and
Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was previously the natio ...
. In 1785, Jefferson was using both stationary and portable presses made by James Watt & Co. During the 19th century, a host of competing technologies were introduced to meet office copying needs. The technologies that were most commonly used in 1895 are identified in an 1895 description of the New York Business College's course program: "All important letters or documents are copied in a letter-book or carbon copies remade, and instruction is also given in the use of the
mimeograph A mimeograph machine (often abbreviated to mimeo, sometimes called a stencil duplicator) is a low-cost duplicating machine that works by forcing ink through a stencil onto paper. The process is called mimeography, and a copy made by the proc ...
and other labor-saving office devices."


Biological copying

Organically, copying of
genetic information A nucleic acid sequence is a succession of bases signified by a series of a set of five different letters that indicate the order of nucleotides forming alleles within a DNA (using GACT) or RNA (GACU) molecule. By convention, sequences are usu ...
can take place using
DNA replication In molecular biology, DNA replication is the biological process of producing two identical replicas of DNA from one original DNA molecule. DNA replication occurs in all living organisms acting as the most essential part for biological inheritanc ...
, which is able to copy and replicate the data with a high degree of accuracy, but mistakes are common, and occur in the form of
mutation In biology, a mutation is an alteration in the nucleic acid sequence of the genome of an organism, virus, or extrachromosomal DNA. Viral genomes contain either DNA or RNA. Mutations result from errors during DNA replication, DNA or viral repl ...
s. However, in the process of
DNA repair DNA repair is a collection of processes by which a cell identifies and corrects damage to the DNA molecules that encode its genome. In human cells, both normal metabolic activities and environmental factors such as radiation can cause DNA da ...
, many of the mistakes are corrected by checking the copied data against the original data.


Digital copying

The same principle is applied digitally, in devices such as in hard disks, but in a different form. The magnetised data on the disk consists of 1s and 0s. Unlike DNA, it only has two types of information, rather than four types, however, it still has a polar concept of transfer. In this case, the read-write head acts as an intermediary. A data section reading "1", can only trigger one type of response, and "0" for the other. These responses from reading are converted into an
electrical Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described ...
form that gets carried through the circuits. Although this can be later converted and processed for other ways of using the data, which can be modified, if a file was being copied from one hard disk to another, the principle ensures that the data is transferred with high fidelity, because only each type of signal can only trigger one type of data write, in this case, a 1 or a 0. This excludes exceptions where the data was written incorrectly or the existing data has been corrupted while on the disk such that no distinction can be made, but usually the hard disk returns the area as unreadable. The other concept that using digital copying is website copy, digital copying has more interpretation than just the basic concept of disk read and write itself.
Digital Copy A digital copy is a commercially distributed computer file containing a media product such as a film or music album. The term contrasts this computer file with the physical copy (typically a DVD, Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, or Ultra HD Blu-ray disc) w ...
is a sample of interpretation of digital copying.


Copying rights

The concept of copying has a particular significance in certain areas of
law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...
. In each of the primary areas of
intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, cop ...
law, a number of cases have refined the question of what exactly constitutes the kind of copying prohibited by law, especially in areas such as
copyright law A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educatio ...
. A related concept is plagiarism, copying others' work and passing it off as one's own. Many schools will take plagiarism to academic suspension, or even the failure of a course.


See also

*
Copier A photocopier (also called copier or copy machine, and formerly Xerox machine, the generic trademark) is a machine that makes copies of documents and other visual images onto paper or plastic film quickly and cheaply. Most modern photocopiers ...
*
Copyscript A scrivener (or scribe) was a person who could read and write or who wrote letters to court and legal documents. Scriveners were people who made their living by writing or copying written material. This usually indicated secretarial and admi ...
*
Duplicating machines Duplicating machines were the predecessors of modern document-reproduction technology. They have now been replaced by digital duplicators, scanners, laser printers and photocopiers, but for many years they were the primary means of reproducing do ...
*
Fauxbergé Fauxbergé (Russian: фальшберже) is a term coined to generally describe items that are faking a higher quality or status and in specific terms relates to the House of Fabergé (Russian: Дом Фаберже), which was a Russian jewelle ...
* Replica *
Typescript TypeScript is a free and open source programming language developed and maintained by Microsoft. It is a strict syntactical superset of JavaScript and adds optional static typing to the language. It is designed for the development of large app ...


References


External links

{{Wiktionary, copying
DataduplicationCopying Is Not Theft
Copyright law Copy protection Writing Transcription (linguistics)