Pontificating About Plagiarism.
Today, I'm going to blog about plagiarism.
NB: I am not including Fanfic in this. I personally have no problem with it. Professional Fanfic sells very well (just look at the amount of Star Trek, Supernatural, and Doctor Who TV tie-in novels there are for example!) and I have no problem with that, either. I even - *gasp* - own a couple of these tie-in novels. I know, fetch the smelling salts, post haste! Quelle horreur! Etcetera. So no, this post is not a beef with Fanfic. It's a beef with theft. Which I go into detail about below.
I'm a graduated academic. The rules and university policies regarding plagiarism where I studied were/are very stringent. In fact, I would hazard a guess that they are equally stringent in tertiary institutions everywhere. From day one of uni, it was pounded into our heads: plagiarism is bad. In academia, plagiarism will get you expelled. It will get your papers trashed, your academic credibility destroyed. It could well impact on your future career path. In research and writing fields, plagiarism is a big no-no. Plagiarism is defined thus:
Word Origin & History
plagiarism
1621, from L. plagiarius "kidnapper, seducer, plunderer," used in the sense of "literary thief" by Martial, from plagium "kidnapping," from plaga "snare, net," from PIE base *p(e)lag- "flat, spread out." Plagiary is attested from 1597.
- Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
I love etymology, don't you?
plagiarism definition
Literary theft. Plagiarism occurs when a writer duplicates another writer's language or ideas and then calls the work his or her own. Copyright laws protect writers' words as their legal property. To avoid the charge of plagiarism, writers take care to credit those from whom they borrow and quote.
Note : Similar theft in music or other arts is also called plagiarism.
- The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
ANYHOODLE. Why am I pontificating about plagiarism? Well, it's not what you might think.
I've been reading a lot of articles and blog posts about the plagiarism going on in Amazon's self-publishing arm, Createspace. I've been absolutely stunned by it, the sheer level of gall some of these people have, including emails with strings of 'HAHAHAHA' and worse when confronted about the situation; and an example of one of the plagiarised titles, Bram Stoker's Dracula repurposed with a new title and author name. It was sold with the title/author of Dracula Amazing Adventure by Maria Cruz. (And the bad grammar in the title alone makes my teeth hurt.)
The NPR article there (link again) is really eye opening. There seems to be some sort of online course whereby someone wanting to make big bucks quick can learn how to do so - as a plagiarist. A lot of the books being sold through Createspace that are plagiarised are stories that have come from the Literotica site, which is free - so the plagiarists are taking these free stories, plonking them in a file, having it kindle formatted and selling it. Other people's words and effort are being exploited by someone else for their own gain. From the article, I quote:
"You can get on some forums, one is called WarriorForum, where they discuss all sorts of marketing things," Penenberg says. "How to make money on the Internet is the idea behind it. The guy that I heard was pirating [...] got onto these forums where they sell you a collection, a zip file full of stories that have been ripped off the Internet and repackaged."
Fast Company has a thorough article about this, here, where they talk to the individual who set up the above. I'm astounded at the amount of 'get rich' schemes that seem to focus on stealing other people's writing. Most of it, too, seems to be erotica. Another article on FC goes more in depth, with side-by-side screengrabs to show the level of the plagiarism. And, it's breathtaking in its audacity, as you can see.
Plagiarism Today has an excellent article on the subject, too.
Then there's this fellow. A David Boyer who, according to this fascinating, thorough blog, has plagiarised over sixty authors, including George R.R. Martin, Dean Koontz, William S. Burroughs and musicians such as Sade and Shania Twain, to name a few. The evidence presented is damning. It's appalling. It made me :O for several minutes. Does the perpetrator care? Not even a little.
I'd never heard of this guy until I went link hopping from the cut-and-paste-and-resell stories about Createspace. But boy howdy, he does get around. Prepare to lose a lot of hours reading about this dude - there is SO much stuff. I'm boggled he's still tripping merrily along his plagiarising way.
It's been said that plagiarists are unhappy people. I think that's disingenuous. Plagiarists don't care. That neither requires happiness or sadness. Though you honestly think a plagiarist is unhappy if they're making good money off someone else's work? Um. I'd say that was a big fat NO.
After all, original creators sweat and tears went into the work, and they reap the benefits by pinching and selling it as theirs. And that, for want of a much better word, SUCKS.
NB: I am not including Fanfic in this. I personally have no problem with it. Professional Fanfic sells very well (just look at the amount of Star Trek, Supernatural, and Doctor Who TV tie-in novels there are for example!) and I have no problem with that, either. I even - *gasp* - own a couple of these tie-in novels. I know, fetch the smelling salts, post haste! Quelle horreur! Etcetera. So no, this post is not a beef with Fanfic. It's a beef with theft. Which I go into detail about below.
I'm a graduated academic. The rules and university policies regarding plagiarism where I studied were/are very stringent. In fact, I would hazard a guess that they are equally stringent in tertiary institutions everywhere. From day one of uni, it was pounded into our heads: plagiarism is bad. In academia, plagiarism will get you expelled. It will get your papers trashed, your academic credibility destroyed. It could well impact on your future career path. In research and writing fields, plagiarism is a big no-no. Plagiarism is defined thus:
Word Origin & History
plagiarism
1621, from L. plagiarius "kidnapper, seducer, plunderer," used in the sense of "literary thief" by Martial, from plagium "kidnapping," from plaga "snare, net," from PIE base *p(e)lag- "flat, spread out." Plagiary is attested from 1597.
- Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
I love etymology, don't you?
plagiarism definition
Literary theft. Plagiarism occurs when a writer duplicates another writer's language or ideas and then calls the work his or her own. Copyright laws protect writers' words as their legal property. To avoid the charge of plagiarism, writers take care to credit those from whom they borrow and quote.
Note : Similar theft in music or other arts is also called plagiarism.
- The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
ANYHOODLE. Why am I pontificating about plagiarism? Well, it's not what you might think.
I've been reading a lot of articles and blog posts about the plagiarism going on in Amazon's self-publishing arm, Createspace. I've been absolutely stunned by it, the sheer level of gall some of these people have, including emails with strings of 'HAHAHAHA' and worse when confronted about the situation; and an example of one of the plagiarised titles, Bram Stoker's Dracula repurposed with a new title and author name. It was sold with the title/author of Dracula Amazing Adventure by Maria Cruz. (And the bad grammar in the title alone makes my teeth hurt.)
The NPR article there (link again) is really eye opening. There seems to be some sort of online course whereby someone wanting to make big bucks quick can learn how to do so - as a plagiarist. A lot of the books being sold through Createspace that are plagiarised are stories that have come from the Literotica site, which is free - so the plagiarists are taking these free stories, plonking them in a file, having it kindle formatted and selling it. Other people's words and effort are being exploited by someone else for their own gain. From the article, I quote:
"You can get on some forums, one is called WarriorForum, where they discuss all sorts of marketing things," Penenberg says. "How to make money on the Internet is the idea behind it. The guy that I heard was pirating [...] got onto these forums where they sell you a collection, a zip file full of stories that have been ripped off the Internet and repackaged."
Fast Company has a thorough article about this, here, where they talk to the individual who set up the above. I'm astounded at the amount of 'get rich' schemes that seem to focus on stealing other people's writing. Most of it, too, seems to be erotica. Another article on FC goes more in depth, with side-by-side screengrabs to show the level of the plagiarism. And, it's breathtaking in its audacity, as you can see.
Plagiarism Today has an excellent article on the subject, too.
Then there's this fellow. A David Boyer who, according to this fascinating, thorough blog, has plagiarised over sixty authors, including George R.R. Martin, Dean Koontz, William S. Burroughs and musicians such as Sade and Shania Twain, to name a few. The evidence presented is damning. It's appalling. It made me :O for several minutes. Does the perpetrator care? Not even a little.
I'd never heard of this guy until I went link hopping from the cut-and-paste-and-resell stories about Createspace. But boy howdy, he does get around. Prepare to lose a lot of hours reading about this dude - there is SO much stuff. I'm boggled he's still tripping merrily along his plagiarising way.
It's been said that plagiarists are unhappy people. I think that's disingenuous. Plagiarists don't care. That neither requires happiness or sadness. Though you honestly think a plagiarist is unhappy if they're making good money off someone else's work? Um. I'd say that was a big fat NO.
After all, original creators sweat and tears went into the work, and they reap the benefits by pinching and selling it as theirs. And that, for want of a much better word, SUCKS.