No, really, plagiarism doesn’t ‘just happen’

(No, I don’t spend a lot of time looking up these stories, they just show up on my horizon.)

If one were very, very charitable, one would imagine that someone who doesn’t read much, or who doesn’t spend much time online, would not know what plagiarism actually is, and therefore, one would be able to excuse/justify/explain people like Cassie Edwards (“oh, she’s so old, she couldn’t have known better”) or Kristi Diehm (“oh, but she’s just a blogger”), plagiarists.

I am not that charitable, by far. My mother is about Ms Edwards’ age, and she knows very well, not only what constitutes plagiarism, but that plagiarizing is both intellectually lazy and morally wrong. For her part, Kristi Diehm had written (and then deleted), a full post on the topic before going on to steal other people’s intellectual content. Also, I’m ‘only’ a blogger *snort* and I’ve known what plagiarism is well before colleges and high schools started using turnitin to catch it.

I’m even less inclined to excuse people like, say, Timothy Parker, who earned a Guinness World Record as most syndicated crosswords compiler back in 2000. Parker gets paid royalties and fees for this work; instead,  he copied old crossword puzzles almost clue by clue, raking in plenty of money over the years, for work other people had already done–or by reusing his own word under fake bylines.

The original investigation was published earlier this month by fivethirtyeight, and the story was picked up by the New York Times and other big news outlets today.

What’s up with this?

This being a blog read by virtually no one, I had gotten zero spam. Then came the spike in views from the people following the Kristi Diehm, plagiarist dêbacle¹–and now I get tons of spam comments.

The truly funny thing–to me, at least–is that 99.9% of it lands in my review of Cheryl St. John’s Heaven Can Wait.

Heh.

On and…does anyone else find it hilarious that there is a copyright notice at the bottom of the plagiarist’s site?

~ ~ * ~ ~

¹ Anyone who happens to wonder what I mean, here they are in alphabetical chronological order:

Why does anyone care… (about apologies)

Oh no, she didn’t! (sadly, she did) (chutzpah and lies, she has ’em)

Long ago, in a galaxy…wait a minute–it is now and just next door (about what we should do when facing chutzpah and lies)

No, plagiarism doesn’t just “happen” (and the lies, they keep coming)

So. On that plagiarism, apology, forgiveness thing? I’m more of a cynic than I thought (sadly proven right by events)

So. On that plagiarism, apology, forgiveness thing? I’m more of a cynic than I thought.

For those kids who didn’t bother to read the meta page: many posts in this blog are reposted from Karen Scott’s blog. Deal with it. This particular entry was originally posted on May 22nd 2012 at 8:00 am London time.

Yes, I’m sure many here are tired of the topic, particularly since it seems to crop up regularly, all over the place.

Me, I’m one of those who believes that talking about it, keeping the perpetrators and their victims clearly separated, is the only way to reduce the instances of plagiarism. (Like racism, there are some people who don’t realize what it is–or that they are indulging in it¹–until someone points it out to them.)

But, onwards with today’s post.

On May 21st 2012, Jill Sorenson commented, over at Karen’s,  on my latest post on Kristi Diehm, plagiarist

My own reply to Ms Sorenson took me back to RRRJessica’s awesome post on the scandal (seriously, go and read the whole thing; it’s wonderful and full of win. The part about moral autonomy and women? Win, I tell you).

Upon re-reading the post, my mind, that horrible, suspicious, cynical fiend, fixated on the following bits:

No, plagiarism doesn’t just “happen”

Back when the shitstorm surrounding Kristi Diehm, plagiarist, aka The Story Siren¹, broke out, I posted about apologies, and how I think it’s useless to expect–or indeed to receive–an apology from a plagiarist. Like many other offenders, said apologies tend to be of the “fuck, I’m sorry I got caught” variety. Or, much worse, they include so many excuses, explanations, rationalizations and justifications that in the end, to many an uncritical follower/fan, they read like a justification to hate on the victims of the plagiarist.

Well, that queen of chutzpah, Kristi Diehm, is at it again. The short hand for those who don’t go to the SmartBitches: apparently this plagiarist, who has still to apologize properly (as in, without excuses) to her victims, and who has failed to address her fans outright hounding of said victims, has decided to organize a week long event on plagiarism, designed to ‘educate herself’ (yeah, because that very pointed post she wrote on the topic, after allegedly being plagiarized herself, shows that she reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelly didn’t know what the fuck she was doing when she stole Beautifully Invisible and Grit and Glamour. Right.)