Aruna bumped the thread at post #6 to include the latest plagiarism scandal, different from the Poe one.
Quoth the author: nevermore? Another plagiarism scandal.
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The technology of today makes it 'easier' to plagiarize.
That same technology makes it also easier to be found out and caught.
As for plagiarism in the schools, many teachers require students to do writing projects in class, written on paper, or in the school writing or computer lab, with the teacher watching over the student's shoulder. There also exist programs to 'spot' plagiarized works. I taught on a team and most team writing projects were done under teacher supervision in the classroom. (Bugged the parents no end, especially those who liked to 'help' their kids with projects.)
I found a plagiarizer during one of my last years teaching - a student turned in a poem that was very similar to one I'd recently read online. I did a search of the first few lines and found it. The mother, however, was horrified and upset - with me. (Mind you, I'm the science teacher, not the English teacher and I still found it.) She told me the girl only 'borrowed' a few lines, then 'changed the order of the words' in the rest. (The mother was also a teacher.)
Many 'well-educated' adults have no idea what plagiarism really is.
That same technology makes it also easier to be found out and caught.
As for plagiarism in the schools, many teachers require students to do writing projects in class, written on paper, or in the school writing or computer lab, with the teacher watching over the student's shoulder. There also exist programs to 'spot' plagiarized works. I taught on a team and most team writing projects were done under teacher supervision in the classroom. (Bugged the parents no end, especially those who liked to 'help' their kids with projects.)
I found a plagiarizer during one of my last years teaching - a student turned in a poem that was very similar to one I'd recently read online. I did a search of the first few lines and found it. The mother, however, was horrified and upset - with me. (Mind you, I'm the science teacher, not the English teacher and I still found it.) She told me the girl only 'borrowed' a few lines, then 'changed the order of the words' in the rest. (The mother was also a teacher.)
Many 'well-educated' adults have no idea what plagiarism really is.
Heh, on the flip-side, I remember writing a poem at school, then translating it into French. When the teacher marked it, she refused to believe I had written it, and accused me of plagiarism.
Nice teacher.
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Heh, on the flip-side, I remember writing a poem at school, then translating it into French. When the teacher marked it, she refused to believe I had written it, and accused me of plagiarism.
Nice teacher.
Hah -- that happened to me too, except in my case, it was a short story.
My understanding is that at least one of the plagiarized authors plans to file a formal ethics complaint with RWA.
That's yet another case! (It must be open season.) There's a book in the m/m romance genre called Bear, Otter and the Kid that is allegedly a rip off of the movie called Shelter Chaos Titan linked to. That one's being discussed on Goodreads and on the blog of Teddypig, a reviewer and general commentator on the m/m romance genre, in a post about Dreamspinner Press's reputation. (Dreamspinner is the publisher of Bear, Otter and the Kid.)
I wonder if the Romance genre is more prone to this, since there are just so many books there's a good chance of staying undetected for a while. How many undetected plagiarists are there out there? Are the ones who've been caught only the tip of the iceberg?
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My personal theory is that the romance genre is more prone to this because writers know that it is a market that will never die. There is always money to be made some where in romance. I have meet a few writers who loath the romance genre who admit to have written romance novellas before solely for monitary gain.
Well, all things considered, the argument is that it IS being back in fandom again, no? Just with the serial numbers filed off?
I don't think of this particular one that way. I know of a few books that started life as fanfics and were adapted. That's a whole different thing than lifting the premise, the plot and chracters of a movie.
At least in a fanfic (and I used to be a ficcer myself) the writer comes up with their own plot and some character development - since just because they start with already created characters doesn't mean the characters don't change and grow in a story. A rip off doesn't do any of that. To me that's a very different thing for either a fanfic or a fanfic with the serial numbers filed off.
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