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 (The fact that she used resources that were so old and out-of-date doesn’t speak well to her research abilities, imo, but at least she DID research.)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.

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