Plagiarism is passing off as
your own someone else’s work, ideas, thoughts, opinions, theories, statistics,
facts, drawings, or paraphrasing the same. Recently several journalists and politicians
were caught plagiarizing. Doris Kearns Goodwin, a well-known Pulitzer Prize
winner, historian and political commentator was found to have plagiarized
portions of her book about the Fitzgeralds and Kennedys. Other books she
authored have also come under criticism. She admitted to some of it saying “that she had
an understanding that citations would not be required for all references, and
that extensive footnotes already existed. Many doubted her claims, and she was
forced to resign from the Pulitzer Prize board.” [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_plagiarism_incidents]
Jane Goodall, internationally
known primatologist, was proved to have plagiarized many sections of her book Seeds of Hope. Jonah Rehrer who was a
science and technical writer for the NYT was accused of falsifying quotes as
well as general plagiarism. Freed Zakaria, CNN commentator and editor at Time magazine was
ultimately reinstated after he was accused of plagiarizing his own work! He
failed to note that the lines in one article in TIME had been published in another
magazine.
Joe Biden withdrew from the
presidential race in 1988 after it was found that he plagiarized a paper in law
school. He was also found to have copied for his campaign speeches without noting from British politician
Neil Kinnock. Rand Paul has been caught plagiarizing
in one of his books. Vladimir Putin is accused of lifting several passages of his economic
dissertation from a text book written by two University of Pittsburgh teachers.
Alex Haley, Barack Obama, George Harrison and many video game authors have been
accused and/or charged with plagiarism.
There are 5 common forms of plagiarisms:
1. Duplicating another’s words or phrases, etc. without
identifying the speaker or author, or not using quotation marks.
2. Same as #1 except including quotation marks.
3. Using another’s ideas by paraphrasing them without
noting sources.een accused of plagiarism.
4. Submit, enter or sell as your own work by merely
rearranging words and/or phrases without footnotes.
5. Intentional or unintentional, ignorance of the law
is no defense.
The
devil is in the details, however. According to copyright laws established in
1989, works are now protected with or without the copyright symbol; they are
considered intellectual property. As long as the material can be shown to
belong to someone other than you, even though altered but similar to the
original form, without acknowledgement, it is considered plagiarism. Copyright
laws do not protect facts considered “common knowledge.” Common knowledge is
defined loosely as information generally known or known by a large group of
people, e.g., Roosevelt was the author of the New Deal. Copyright laws can be
in effect up to 75 years after the death of the author. There are many variants
of the length depending upon how old the work is and who owns the copyright.
Another gray
area is “public domain.” This often, but not always, means intellectual
property that “belongs” to the public and can therefore be used freely. There
are variations of law depending on copyright laws in different countries as
well as patents and trademarks. It is best to check with an attorney.
The
punishments are of varying degrees often depending upon the venue and the
amount of material copied. It seems to also depend upon your status in your
field and your sponsoring company. Authors writing for well-known magazines or
newspapers sometimes seem to be able to slide past legal reprisals, as do some
financially lucrative authors. The publishers protect their popular writers.
For the rest of us, the greater the amount of material copied the greater the
punishment can be. Most cases are
considered misdemeanors bringing fines between $100 and $50,000 and can be
accompanied by up to one year in jail.
Generally, your offense is considered a
felony if you earn more than about $2,500 from the book or article with the
plagiarism. The punishment could be upwards of $250,000 and ten years jail
time. In a business situation, the punishment is usually not of the
prosecutorial kind (unless sued by the original author). It takes the form of a
demotion, denial of promotions, monetary fine or firing. In the academic world,
the punishment is often meted out by the professor which can result in a
failing grade, failing the course or, under the auspices of the dean’s office,
expulsion from the college or university. The easy use of the Internet has
increased the instances of plagiarism in all venues.
There
are a few ways to protect yourself from prosecution of plagiarism.
First, avoid plagiarizing
by understanding what constitutes plagiarism. When taking notes from various
sources for your writing, clearly identify anything that is not in the public
domain or not in your original words and thoughts. Keep all your notes,
electronic, recorded and penned, in several backups in various venues; back up
your computer file each time under a different name, e.g., essay plagerism-1,
essay plagerism-2, etc. This will give you a paper and time trail to strengthen
your case should you be charged or you wish to charge someone else with
plagiarism.
Check the style
manuals for the organization for which you are writing as to how to format your
written word. APA is the American Psychological Association used primarily in
liberal arts settings, ACS (American Chemical Association) for writing in the
science field, AP and Chicago styles for general writing. Publishing houses and
business often have in-house guidelines they wish authors to follow. Charles
Dickens in A Tale of Two Cities,
began his book, “It was the best of times…” If you fail to properly credit your
sources in your writing, it could easily become, “…the worst of times.”
(Disclaimer: this author
does not represent the material in the essay to be thought of as legal
knowledge or advice under any terms or conditions.
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