Archive for the ‘Plagiarism’ Category

Someone asked a question today about whether using the opening line of a poem as the opening line of their story constituted plagiarism.

You know what? I’m not sure. Personally, I don’t think so. I really don’t. For one, it sounded like the whole of the story was a riff based loosely on a relatively famous poem and that the one line she wanted to borrow was just a lead-in. I think that if the poem or a stanza or line of it could be used as a frontspiece, that might make it easier for readers to identify it. Or if there was attribution made elsewhere, then it would fall into the area of intertextuality, rather than theft.

I could be wrong. There seem to be rules, written and unwritten, about how many actual words you can use in a row before reference becomes theft. Not to mention, the rules that ARE written are skewed toward non-fiction and academic writing rather than fiction. Writing fiction in a cultural context, then, becomes sticky when you want to use things that would be quoted and attributed and footnoted in academia, but are just plain awkward when you work it into a story. Unless you’re Susanna Clarke and the footnotes are part of the story.

The gray area often stems from how much we can expect our audience to know. If the reader knows that the line is from the poem, then he or she will read it as simply being a nod to the poet. They’re going to get that allusion. But perhaps the poem is more obscure than I think it is. In that case, there needs to be some direct attribution, either within the story or even in a footnote.

I have to say, I think it’s a little sad that we’re so taken up by the fear of plagiarizing that we’re losing that connectivity between literary works that makes for a rich cultural discussion. We can’t let that niggle of fear stop us from making connections and enriching our stories.

Intertextualizers, unite!

Raise your hand if you remember Cassie Edwards. Or black-footed ferrets.

It’s been a year since the story of her plagiarism broke. It seemed so huge then, and just the other day, I was wondering if it had completely died. But you know, I think the ripples changed things. The, um, Butterfly Effect, I think it’s called.

Smart Bitches and Dear Author led the charge to bring her crimes against the community of writers to light and, much to my utter shock and dismay, they’re still getting blamed for her bad judgment.

Follow up responses to the original posts, some comments made months after the fact, display that a rabid fangrrl will always be a rabid fangrrl. No matter how moronic they may be.

And people still either don’t understand what plagiarism is, or they think it’s no big deal.

Really? That’s just crushingly depressing.

Now, as then, I refer you to the brilliance that is Teach Me Tonight, humbly subtitled “Musings on Romance Fiction from an Academic Perspective.” They’re still discussing the nitty gritty of defining plagiarism. By and large, we tend to understand it (unless you are, in fact, a moron), but it does have some gray areas.

In any case, I merely thought it important to acknowledge the anniversary. Keep learning about it, keep talking about it, keep teaching about it. That’s how we win.

Dear Author has posted a wonderfully personal bibliography of several of the authors from whom CE stole.

For any who say that plagiarism is a victimless crime, this should put paid to that notion. These people suffered to get their words on the page. They had the courage to write, regardless.

Please read about these original authors here.

To recap.

Cassie Edwards plagiarized — a lot — but one of the sources she used was an article about Black Footed Ferrets by Paul Tolmé in Defenders of Wildlife Magazine.

In order to try to salvage something decent from this debacle, Nora Roberts (long may she reign) has decided to help. From Smart Bitches, Trashy Books:

Nora Roberts has volunteered to match up to $5,000.00 USD any donations made by Smart Bitches readers to Defenders of Wildlife, a 501©3 nonprofit that works to preserve not just ferrets but endangered wildlife across the US, most particularly that species much loved by paranormal romance writers: the wolf.

Click on the SBTB link to read the entire article. They provide links there for donations and they’ll be keeping track of how much money we raise.

You know what equality under the law means to me? It means that I can’t care if the person who engaged in unethical, potentially criminal, behaviour is 71 or 17. I can’t care if it’s a man, a woman, black or white, Republican or Democrat. Justice is blind.

And an intellectual thief is still a thief.

The issue at hand is the crime that has been committed. The fact that a guilty person suffers is … well, that’s the way it goes. The guilty are punished. Those contemplating committing a similar crime are thereby warned.

If you plagiarize, you will be punished. A court of law can do nothing, so you will be tried by a jury of your peers. Evidence will be presented and We Will Judge. We should always judge based on evidence, though. Character *cannot* be an excuse for criminality. And God knows that there are voices from all sides, as many pleading for mercy as there are who demand an execution. The final decision will necessarily fall somewhere in between, but it will still fall.

Under NO circumstances can you steal from others in your community.

It’s what we do in a community. It’s not the sweet and pretty part of it. It’s not the ribbons and hugs part. It’s the part that makes most people very uncomfortable. It’s not the seedy underbelly. It’s the hard bedrock. Without that foundation the community crumbles.

I will not stand here and say that those who stand on the bedrock are incorruptible or without flaw. I will say that those who choose to stand there and support their community don’t do it for fun. There is easier fun to be had elsewhere. But though they may be imperfect, I would far rather that they did their best than not be there at all.

The ladies over at Teach Me Tonight have been doing some quietly awesome work on the base issue of the Cassie Edwards scandal. They’re talking about plagiarism and appropriate usage of secondary sources. It’s a fascinating discussion, pretty academic, and largely nonflammable.

I think in light of the highly charged emotions surrounding this topic, it’s worth our while to take a scholarly look at how fiction and research intertwine.

Smart Bitches has new evidence that Cassie Edwards not only stole from her research documents — she appears to have plagiarized a Pulitzer Prize winning novel!! Some of the instances they highlight are … questionable. Others, blatant. I mean blatant. Obvious. As in “Please stop me before I kill again!”

No more, she’s old.

No more, she may not have known not to copy from research.

Stealing from fiction doesn’t make the original crime any less egregious, but stealing from fiction takes away any excuse at all that she didn’t know any better.

It’s past eye-rolling and into gut-wrenching now. I’m completely flabbergasted.

And this latest falls under copyright infringement as well because the novel Laughing Boy by Oliver LaFarge (Pulitzer winner in 1930) is still protected.

You’ve been warned.

Yesterday, my good buddy and web guru, Haven, asked me to write an article/opinion piece about Plagiarism = Bad. She runs a group blog called Romantic Inks , so the whole long-assed piece is over there today.

No fishwifing, I promise.

ETA: The New York Times has picked it up and run their own story, not just a reprint of the AP article. The Telegraph in the UK have also done a story.

The Cassie Edwards debacle continues its downward spiral.

The AP picked up the story, featuring Nora Roberts. Signet’s half-assed response of “Ms Edwards did nothing wrong” is included, but the reporter also garnered a quote from John M. Barrie, the guy who invented software designed to sniff out academic plagiarism. He says, “Ms. Edwards’ unattributed use of other peoples’ work as her own definitely constitutes plagiarism.”

I think y’all should know that RWA Pres Sherry Lewis isn’t qualified to spot plagiarism. Her words, not mine. Again, from the AP article: “It’s not clear-cut to me,” she said. “You can see similarities in the passages, but I’m not qualified to make that assertion.”

Hand that woman a Ginsu knife. It slices, it dices, it detects intellectual theft.

CNN, FoxNews, MSNBC and Yahoo are also all carrying the story. At the time I am writing this, it is CNN’s 10th most popular story. Overall. Wars, politics, and plagiarism.

I’ve written a rough draft of a letter to Penguin/Signet, but I’m letting it simmer overnight. I realize I have a tendency to fly off the handle and I’d rather send a letter that sounds like a literate, educated person wrote it rather than a rabid fishwife.

It’s depressing as hell. Because unless Penguin does the right thing — and I’m cynical enough not to hold my breath for that — what can be done? I can talk to people about it. Point them toward the evidence. Encourage them not to buy her books. But it feels like saving one wobbly dish while the other fall and crash.

I think it’s important enough that I’ll be bringing it up at my next RWA chapter meeting. Watch some of them be rabid CE fangrrls. I’ll have to scoop up my entrails with a shovel.

But this is a good hill to die on.

First, go to Smart Bitches.

Then, go to Dear Author.

Now, from Plagiarism.org :

According to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, to “plagiarize” means

1. to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one’s own
2. to use (another’s production) without crediting the source
3. to commit literary theft
4. to present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source.

In other words, plagiarism is an act of fraud. It involves both stealing someone else’s work and lying about it afterward. (emphasis mine)

You can continue reading through their site for more on plagiarism and how to prevent it. The site deals primarily with plagiarism in an academic context, but the theories apply across the board.

Now, go straight to the Copyright Office for a better understanding of copyright and what constitutes infringement.

What Ms Edwards did does not necessarily violate copyright. Several of the sources she used were old enough that their copyright was expired. (The fact that she used resources that were so old and out-of-date doesn’t speak well to her research abilities, imo, but at least she DID research.)

From the examples cited at SBTB, however, plagiarism is not such a stretch.

I’m not a fan of her work (yes, I’ve read it before), but this isn’t about my opinion of her books. People are taking sides, jumping all over her writing style as if that’s the real issue here. It is not.

This is about ethics. How we as writers deal with plagiarism in our community, and how we can raise the issue to the reading public, since they’re the ones holding the power here.

I know what I’d like to see happen.

I’d like to see her publisher drop her like a hot potato.

I’d like to see all her books off the shelves everywhere.

I’d like to see her come clean and say that what she did was wrong — no excuses.

But barring all that, I’d like to see us all learn from this and from every plagiarism scandal that has rocked us.

Learn what constitutes plagiarsm and what doesn’t.

Learn about copyright for your own protection.

Learn from Kaavya Viswanathan, Janet Dailey, JJ Massa and Cassie Edwards. You can’t get away with it. Whether it’s fan-fiction or non-fiction. Whether it’s stealing background information or an entire situation complete with dialogue and relationships. Someone, somewhere will find it. It may take a long time, but at some point unethical behaviour will always come back to bite you in the ass.

Learn how to attribute and cite sources. Learn how to paraphrase information and work it into your writing. At the very least, learn to say “Thank you!” in your acknowledgements!

And pass it on to every new writer you meet.

PS. Also, see Selah March, Eva Gale, and this discussion at Romance Divas.

PPS. Novelists, Inc., a professional association for fiction writers, also has a page dealing with copyright and plagiarism.