A rose by any other name...is still someone else's damn rose

[frost_light]

All last week, I watched the news unfold about the Cassie Edwards plagiarism scandal. For those of you who haven't heard of it, you can get the details by going HERE and HERE. For a hilarious, irreverent timeline with opera-themed explanation, go HERE.

Long story short, Mrs. Edwards is an author who was first accused of copying passages from

Comments

[b_sheridan]

An unforgivable crime?

I have to give a qualified no only because I see something unforgivable as being horrible on the scale with cold, calculated murder and any crimes involving children.

Is it wrong? Definitely.

Would I buy a book from an author like Edwards in the future?

Probably not. While I'm sure any house that chose to publish them again (especially under the tainted author name) would go to great lengths to ensure that there was no further plagiarism involved I think the trust issue is important. I trust authors to give me their best in each book as I try to do in my own writing.

When this first broke I was willing to understand how Edwards could have taken information from reference texts without any intended malice. Thirty years and more ago schools didn't drill into students that detailed citation was needed when quoting a reference work. It was strictly left to everyone's common sense to use facts without using the exact phrasing of those facts. "Put it in your own words" was about all we were taught and the word

[green_knight]

Can't speak for thirty years ago, but twenty-six years ago I was taught that in order to write a short paper I should be looking at different sources, paraphrase them, and decide myself what to put in or leave out, and that I was not to rely on any one source or use them without quoting.

At the time I was ten.

I don't know what it was like when the author in question was at school, but it's not rocket science, and my mother - who is reasonably in her agegroup - certainly was told at _her_ school that to pass someone else's words for hers was wrong. Only in school they usually call it cheating.

[melissa_writing]

I'm all for the anti-plagiarism, but umm, what's wrong with working at Walmart? :)

MM

[melissa_writing]

Aaah . . . I see. I'm not a shopper so I can't comment on the happiness thing, but I have gone to a Walmart for Star Wars & Pokemon toys. The toy people were very helpful. They even told us when the new arrivals would be shelved--which was VERY important when looking for the hard to find figures.

Sorry. I was just curious. /Tangent.

MM

[woodrunner]

Unlike m_stiefvater, I don't have a history academic background. My background is scientific. Not only does anything that is paraphrased or quoted need to be cited, but a concept that has been formulated by several other scientists is likewise referred to appropriately.

Maybe because of my background and reports all over the news in the last few years of scientists fudging their data and publishing the results, I can't help but to compare Ms. Edward's situation in a similar light. From the examples that were posted, her books are not uniquely her own work. That, to me, seems as if she fudged her work to get the result she wanted in the end.

One thing that's been said that's bothered me for some time was that Ms. Edward indicated it was not required of historical romance writers to cite their work. I don't know if that's true or not. Maybe someone told her that and she never doublechecked that. But come on. I can rattle off a list of books in several genres of fiction that cited their references or at least acknowledged their sources.

[melissa_writing]

Ok, I taught university lit and writing for a bit over a decade, so I'm pretty hardcore in my anti-plagiarism stance. Stealing words? Bad. It's a sort of lying, imho

[swan_tower]

The Smart Bitches have done their best to warn people that boycotting the entire publishing line is a really bad and inappropriate response. Shame is the much more effective route. ^_^

[melissa_writing]

I do like the Smart Bitches. *nods* I do. I do. I've lost myself reading on their site a couple times . . .

MM

PS I tried to fwd you the con stuff, but the email bounced. (I used the one listed on your website.) Can you fire me an email, & I'll reply to it?

[swan_tower]

It bounced? Weird.

Er, I'd e-mail you, except I can't find an address on your website. (Am I just missing it? Or is it posted elsewhere?) Anyway, marie dot brennan at gmail dot come should work; if it didn't, then it can't be more than a momentary glitch.

[aeddie]

Evidently the publisher is back tracking a bit on their total support:

Our original comments were based on Signet’s review of a limited selection of passages. We believe the situation deserves further review. Therefore we will be examining all of Ms. Edwards’ books that we publish, and based on the outcome of that review we will take action to handle the matter accordingly. We want to make it known that Signet takes any and all allegations of plagiarism very seriously.

from here: http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com/index.php/weblog/update_updated_statement_from_signet_regarding_cassie_edwards/