Is there such a thing as stealing a question?

Question:Are there really any original questions?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Are there really any original questions?

"Original" or not depends on whether the audience or readership has heard or seen it before. Otherwise, truly original questions, considering that mankind has been asking them for about 10,000 years, are very rare--but possible, as you are example of.

Everyone is different,
and everyone wants to know something even if it is the same as a question already asked on here.
People like it when people answer their questions.
If that makes sense.

Are you the first one to ask that?

Good Artists Copy Great Artists Steal.

Every question is original but to the reader or answerer it may not be. If I painted a picture of an already existing piece of art and it was done perfectly (which that itself is impossible) it still wouldn't be the same for you see it's not the picture or the words that are shown or said but the idea behind them and the reason for their existance. Behind every picture is more than you can ever see and behind every sentence is a level of thought that you can never understand.

Only if you represent it as your own.

why are you always arguing you love me so much that you just can't hide it now you are even arguing with me in publict ayayyy.lol....I know you miss my answers lol...

not really, unless you intentionally copy paste someone else's question as your own, sometimes while posting my questions, i notice very similar ones posted before, but 90% of the time, mine are original.

the ones i do find similar, i don't consider them stealing, there can be similar thoughts, can't there be?

For every question, there is at least two more. This may be provable, so let me try.

If C and D are any two numbers [questions], there exists a number between them. Lets call this E. In between C and E there also exists a number, as well as a number between E and D. So from 2 we get 5. We want to see what happens as this logic goes to infinity.

The limit [2/n] as n approches infinity is zero. The divergence test suggests that this indicates divergency of the series. Since it is divergent, we can say it has no bounds (it goes to infinity). So there are infinitely many questions out there, all with there various changes, either subtle or drastic.

Sorry for all that math mumbo jumbo, your question is an interesting one (you will see I stared it) because you ask that if we pick one of these questions at random, and had to say weather it has ever been asked before, would we find that it can never be that case.

Let us define ownership first though. I would say that if someone thinks of something that required intelligence to come to that thing, it is theres. But, in the strictest sense, it could be argued that the thing has to be original for it to be truly yours. Well, consider this.

There are two civilizations separated by 1000 miles. In between these civilizations is a mountainous area which is far into the outstretches of there control. So one day, an explorer from the eastern civilization goes west. Another explorer, this one from the western civilization, goes east. The eastbound explorer discovers the eastern side of the mountains, and shortly (or greatly) longer later, the westbound explorer discovers the west side of the mountains. Who has the right to claim that mountain range as theirs? They both know not of each other, so they each think they have discovered something new. Both explorers put the same effort into finding it, and with no help from anyone else. So there claim to it is (should be) equal.

It seems to me, the only consistent thing here is the help involved. As long as each party thought their idea is original, they both are, even if they are the same.

Back to this question of how many questions are out there, we have concluded that there are infinite. This is not to say that one can not or will not be repeated. And that in some of these cases, both parties will in fact think their questions are "new". They share in its ownership equally. So lets say this question has already been asked before, as long as you don't know that, it hasn't, because it's the implications of the question that matter. What effect will this question have on other people? It does not matter if it has already effected a different group of people, so long as it is new to this group of people.

Sorry for this lengthy answer, I was inspired. I hope this answers your question. In my view, its only stealing when the intent is stealing. And I believe that in a world of infinite questions, their are original ones to be made.

I suppose there will be some people who maybe copy others but I would take that as a complement...... But for the life of me I cant fathom out why anyone would want to?? There's one thing for sure I don't think any one could come up with questions similar to yours, and it wouldn't be noticed!! that is meant as a complement, keep them coming!!.....