A tale of plagiarism
My friend Hildy Gottlieb had an interesting thing happen to her a while ago: someone lifted one of her entire articles off the internet, and sold it to a journal as his own.
There’s a lot to be learned from her story, including the very useful conclusions she drew from it. Go read Hildy’s report on it and let me know what you think.
Technorati Tags: Writing, Publishing, Internet Copyright, Copyright Infringement, Plagiarism, Hildy Gottlieb, Some People Are Just Shameless
Copyright on the internet is something most people don’t think about.
I’m sure MySpace is just flooded with copyright infringement, but since that usually isn’t for monetary gain, it usually goes unresolved.
Robin,
Many kids today think nothing of cutting and pasting when “writing” reports for school assignments. That’s why I had my elementary students do all their research and writing under my watchful eye in school. In that way, I could show them how to take notes and not copy verbatim from a book…or from an Internet website.
I did catch one of my university students plagiarizing. She copied book reviews written by professional reviewers from online booksellers’ sites.
I think the saddest and most troubling thing about your friend’s story–and other stories like hers–is that even some professors, journalists, authors, and other professionals think nothing of passing off other individual’s work as their own.
Interesting. I can only imagine what the editor of that journal felt as he saw the two highlighted documents for the first time.
With all the spam blogs and empty link sites that are just looking for Google hits, web content seems so extremely vulnerable right now.
Copyright infringement occurs all the time. Who out there can claim that they never load a pirated piece of software, listen to a song gotten free off the internet or watch a movie copied by a friend from them.
We rationalize it by saying the owner of the copyright is making enough money already.
We either respect all Intellectual property rights or none at all.
“While expressing his ‘deepest regret and apology’ and noting that he had resigned his UNC-Charlotte position due to other factors, he says he made an ‘honest mistake.’”
(That’s from the Glenn Cook editorial on the story.)
Mmhm. Honest mistake.
Well, at least he didn’t claim to have “subconsciously internalized” the work like that girl from Harvard, Kaavya Viswanathan. Remember the Opal Mehta scandal?
Plagiarism…bleh. And there are plenty of kids at school who really think nothing of it; CliffNotes and SparkNotes in particular have gotten several people through language arts, because others have already posted the answers to all the questions that’ll get asked. Oy.
I have a bit more understanding and compassion for school-aged children who plagarize than I do for adults. I’m not excusing any of it, of course, but there is a certain desperation when a school-aged child finds him or herself overloaded with assignments that require original thoughts (when the person hasn’t been around long enough to have original thoughts about the ramifications of past wars and how they affect current events). The student needs guidance and instruction about what constitutes plagarism, including the plagarism of ideas. I remember where I strayed, and I’m ashamed of it, which is probably why I’m so passionate about plagarism issues now!
By the time one gets to college, a system for citing one’s sources really should be in place. Oh yeah, and an inner ethics compass, too.
Yeah, I’m in on the whole “honest mistake” excuse stinks. But that’s what they always say: an honest mistake. I don’t see where the honesty comes in.
I agree with Alkelda, I have more sympathy for young kids who may not always realize what they are doing.
The Viswanathan scandal scared the crap out of me, as it scared the crap out of a lot of my writer friends. We’ve all written lines where we’re like, wait a second, that’s what Luke says to Leia on the deck of the Death Star! But you know, we realize it and erase it, or turn it into a Death Star joke. But it’s scary to think that you may NOT realize…
I agree with you guys that there’s a difference between kids and adults on this. I’m not so sure kids understand that just because something is on the Web, that doesn’t mean it’s there for the taking and use.
Elaine, I like your idea of having the kids do the work right in front of you–in part because I think learning to research without Googling is (still) a valuable skill.
Alkelda, I like your point about kids being called upon to state opinions about things they haven’t had enough life experience to have opinions about yet. How true!
Diana, I’ve certainly had that gut-clench moment (or two) myself–”Did I make this up? Or did I read it somewhere else?” We all like to think that our thoughts are our own, but there are so many influences out there.
Miri, not to be too much a goody-two-shoes here, but where’ the satisfaction in getting by in school through CliffNotes and posted answers? But maybe not everyone feels that way.
Herb, you make a strong, and ethical, point: “We either respect all Intellectual property rights or none at all.” I generally opt to support artists by purchasing their work–even to the point of buying a book rather than getting it from the library–but yes, I’ll confess I’ve enjoyed some copied movies in my day. That’s really not cool.
Patrick, I’m sure you’re right about that–it’s too much trouble to track, and even more trouble to do something about. But again, I’m one of the people who enjoys those YouTube and other downloads, so I can’t rightfully complain.
And Katie, can you imagine? Wouldn’t your guts just have been pudding when you saw all the yellow lines? Ugh.
Robin, you’re talking to the biggest goody-two-shoes who ever lived. I agree completely.
Of course, for plenty of kids, not getting grounded for their grades is satisfaction enough. Sigh.
I agree that there is a difference between kids cutting and pasting information they find on the Internet…or copying directly from books. I guess I didn’t make my point clear that it’s the responsibilty of adults to teach children HOW to do research…and WHY plagiarizing is wrong.
Everyone makes a mistake now and then, whether capturing a phrase or watching a movie without thinking where it came from. And I agree with Alkelda about kids. But an adult copying an entire article is not making a mistake. Honesty is the issue, basic honesty in dealing with the rest of the world. And to a frightening number of people, honesty is simply a liability in how they want their lives to be, whether they are seeking admiration, recognition, money, career placement, whatever. I’m sometimes really shocked to see how easily people lie.
Wow. I had the same reaction as Miri to the “honest mistake” comment. How could he actually say that?
I also agree with Elaine that we need to teach kids about it. However, I think that if somebody is dishonest they will do it anyway. I suspect that the university professor, who taught ethics, was well aware that it was wrong to copy Hildy’s entire article.
Like Elaine, I also had students who copied and pasted from internet articles. It was usually obvious that they had copied someone else’s words. I would search for one of “their” sentences in Google and find the original source. I agree with Hildy’s conclusions about plagiarism. With my students, I did not focus on punishing them. Rather, we discussed how their choices kept them from learning and making sure they understood the importance of doing their own work.
My first year of teaching, a 6th grader handed me an encyclopedia article printout for her research report. I was shocked, but as years went on I came to feel that we ask students to regurgitate facts that other people have already written about extensively. They may as well just print out an encyclopedia article! One fateful day I heard Joyce Valenza speak at a conference, and it changed my thinking and teaching. If students have to actually think about the information they gather by making decisions and forming opinions & conclusions, they learn the same skills and facts but in an original, meaningful and interesting way. It is also less likely that plagiarism can and will take place.
Off the soapbox now (sorry)…After reading Hildy’s article I tried the link at http://www.copyscape.com and was surprised to find that another librarian had copied MY Virtual Library website WORD FOR WORD. In the past people have contacted me and asked if they can use images or links, and I appreciate them asking. I really don’t mind if they use it and most of them are nice enough to put a link to my site giving credit for what they used. But this person never asked or acknowledged where it came from and it feels very weird. On one hand, it’s nice to know that someone liked what I did enough to use my words and layout. On the other hand, THEY COPIED MY STUFF!
I appreciate that Hildy shared her story. And the link to Copyscape. Try it!
Miri, we may have to arm wrestle for that.
Elaine, I did understand, and I’m thrilled that you and other teachers or parents take the time to teach kids how to do their research using the tools of other sources, without copying them. That’s not an innate skill. The internet makes everything so accessible, why wouldn’t a kid assume everything is for the taking?
Deborah, I’m with you–it is shocking to see how easily some people lie. But it’s reassuring how many examples there are out there of honest, ethical people for kids (and adults) to model themselves after.
Michelle, that’s so wild that you found out someone copied your work! And I understand the dual reaction–cool that someone liked it so much, but grrrr for ripping it off.
And thanks for that Question Brainstormer you linked to. I love any sort of teaching that involves kids getting to make decisions and form their own conclusions. I wonder with all this test-oriented schooling whether that gets to happen as much as we’d all hope. But how much more satisfying for a child to get to use his or her brain for critical thinking instead of just memorization.
Wow, this reminds me of a little plagiarism saga a few years ago, where someone started stealing posts from writer/blogger Tequila Mockingbird and passing them off as his own. It was a little weird, in that there wasn’t anything financial or otherwise to gain from it. Julia (a.k.a. Tequila) went ahead and got her lawyers involved. As I remember the saga, the guy who stole Julia’s work (one Bryan Lamb — a web search on that name used to bring up all the details right away) played it belligerently (not even trying for the ludicrous “honest mistake” defense), claiming not only that he’d done nothing wrong, but that he had a perfect right to do it, since he hadn’t gotten many complaints. He kept up this tack until a veritable army of bloggers leapt to Julia’s defense — or, more accurately, went on the offensive against Mr. Lamb.
I can almost understand a situation in which someone passes off someone else’s work as their own, for whatever misguided reason. But to turn around and get self-righteous about it when exposed? Completely beyond me.
Wow, Bill, that’s an outrageous story. “Completely beyond me” pretty much sums it up for me, too.