January 29, 2013

Plagiarism: Talking it Out


This will not be a post about naming names or beating plagiarists to death, because I'm sure that you're honestly all sick and tired of reading posts like that. This is just what I think, in what I hope is a respectful and unbiased way. I believe that I can see both sides of the proverbial line, and I'm an opinionated kind of gal that has to say something about it.

Plagiarism is a word that is VERY  overused in the blogosphere. Every time we turn around, someone else is saying "Hey, that's my review/feature/post. You stole it. Now I will tell the world that you're an awful person, turn all of my followers against you and make you a pariah." Sometimes, that's deserved. Sometimes (no names, folks), the person has  been plagiarized. Their exact words have been taken, and they feel awful, like their child has been kidnapped. The plagiarist (or the plagiarist's coblogger) as the case may be, gets very defensive. They're rude to the person who was just trying to nicely point out that something was taken from them. But other times, have you ever asked yourself: "Is this really plagiarism, or did these people just have similar feelings about similar things?"

It's possible. Have you ever just scrolled through goodreads reviews? A lot of the times, people are saying the same things. Sometimes, when someone reads the same book, they feel similar to someone else. Same with movies and music-- some people are going to feel the same. But sometimes, that someone else finds the other person's review and decides that they don't like the hits/comments/whatever that the other review/feature/article is getting, and they attack the reviewer/feature hoster/journalist. People have a mob mentality. But we're not here to talk about mob mentality, we're here to talk about plagiarism. What it truly is, according to Dictionary.com:

pla·gia·rism  [pley-juh-riz-uhm, -jee-uh-riz-]
noun
1.
an act or instance of using  or closely imitating  the language and thoughts of another author without authorization and the representation of that author's work as one's own, as by not crediting the original author: It is said that he plagiarized Thoreau's plagiarism of a line written by Montaigne. Synonyms: appropriation, infringement, piracy, counterfeiting; theft, borrowing, cribbing, passing off.
2.
a piece of writing or other work reflecting such unauthorized use or imitation: “These two manuscripts are clearly plagiarisms,” the editor said, tossing them angrily on the floor.

But think about it-- plagiarism. Taking someone else's work or idea and using it as your own. That's what plagiarism is. But I've gotta ask you-- what hasn't ever been been said? What hasn't EVER  (we're talking never ever here, folks) been plagiarized? What hasn't ever been said or thought about by several different people who think that it's all their own idea? I'm trying to show both sides here, but I may be failing.

I'm not  saying that it's okay to copy and paste someone else's work and say, "Yeah, I wrote every bit of this," because that is  wrong. But who's to say that some people just don't have similar  (not the same, that's seriously impossible) thoughts about one book, one subject, one idea. People think similar things about music and movies all the time! But life is what it is, and some people are going to think that they are the most original thinkers out there. That's absolutely fine with me.

But where do you stand? What do you think plagiarism is? To me, plagiarism is stealing someone else's creative  work. Just straight up, copy and paste, change this word, new verb here, new noun there. But others will feel differently. I wouldn't doubt that you feel differently. For instance, someone once told me this:

"I guarantee you the manual for a GE microwave says the same shit the Panasonic one does, but you don't see them up each other's asses over it."

And that is absolutely  true. So think about it before you accuse someone. Are they really taking your work? Are they stealing your content? Or are they just saying similar things, because they feel the same way? Think before you ruin another person's reputation. If you've thought it through, read the post several times, get a second unbiased  person's opinion, and you still see the similarities then  you can proceed. Honestly, I'm not trying to ruffle any feathers, I'm not pointing fingers, for gosh sake I'm not even saying that anyone is guilty of any of this. I aim to get my opinion out, and that's it. Maybe I'm misguided, maybe I'm spot on. And if you don't have something nice to say, well, say it if you want.

But my opinion stays the same. Technical writing is different than creative writing, as illustrated by that direct quote up there. I believe that. I also believe that it's easy to have similar thoughts on a book. They both read the same thing. Just like it's possible that posts on plagiarism are plagiarizing each other.  In a world where everything has been said before, and everyone has an opinion, it's easy to get the lines crossed over each other. It's all so easy to accuse someone, but it's also easy to be on the other side, the one where the accused stand. Life is what it is, and people are who they are.

I want to know what your thoughts on the subject are. Where do you stand? Do you agree with me, or do you have your own (un-plagiarized!) thoughts on the subject?

LASTLY: I'm not condoning plagiarism. I'm not saying that it's right. I'm just giving my opinion on this subject...and it will make some people hot to trot. But I NEED to say what I think, otherwise I'll explode. If you take nothing else from this, take this idea: How would you feel in either place? Accused or accuser, we're all just people. We make mistakes. That can go either way, y'all. And at the end of the day, both the accused and the accuser are crying their eyes out, because both of them have been taken from.

20 comments:

  1. Wow, Megs! Your post is just perfect. I have nothing to add indeed xD *claps hands*

    xoxo

    Ana

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    1. Aww, thank you Ana! I'm glad that I'm not the only one to feel the way I do! (: *hugs*

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  2. Thank God!Finally a post that's free of all the name calling and pointing fingers!
    "Accused or accuser, we're all just people."-you couldn't have phrased that better.
    I'm so glad that I'm not the only one who's not appalled by all this.There's a possibility that two people have the same thoughts especially when we read other reviews before reviewing the book-I'm just a newbie at blogging so I maybe wrong.

    Anyway,Thanks for sharing,Megan!

    P.S.- Happy Blogversary! :)

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    1. Ay, I was a tad bit tired of those myself, but if that's what people wanna write about, I have no problems with it. Thank you, LOL. Sometimes things are easy to say. ;)

      I could be wrong too! That's the beauty of it-- we're all wrong. And it's all just a matter of opinion, right? I love that thought! Haha, I agree. I really do think that people can have similar thoughts on a book. It's easy, actually-- think of how many times you've talked to someone about a book, LOL!

      You're welcome! Thanks for reading it, Nuzaifa! <3

      P.S.--Thank you! :D

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  3. Yup. Read the same thing ;) Hope you enjoy being a year old!
    I couldn't say this better so I won't say it all :P Sorry, awkward comment XD

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    1. Hahaha, you confused me for a second. I was like, "Whaaaa???" I do! It's fun, LOL!

      Awww, but I wanted to hear what you were going to say. *pouts* Haha, it's fine. (:

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  4. WooHoo You are now controversial Megan. How does it feel?

    You've got more guts than I do girl ^_^

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    1. Hahaha, I love you Sarah! It's actually a bit strange. o_O

      Thank you...I think. ;)

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  5. This post is so refreshing :) I agree with so much of what you just said! After all, every thought we have has been thought before !

    Happy Blogoversary BTW :) !!

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    1. Thank you! Haha, that's nice to know. Yay! And we're a bit proud of it! ;)

      Thank you! <3

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  6. I get it, this is kind of like the Dennis the menace UK vs Us, this two cartoonist had the same idea yet executed it in a different way, their cartoons both talk about a boy named Dennis, where published for the first time in the same year and month, both Dennis's use overalls and, their pet dog and well... they both get into a lot of trouble.
    But that doesn't mean one is the copy of the other, they both had similar ideas and besides their similarities each cartoonist made it his own. The cartoons have a different air and their adventures aren't the same.
    It's fact like Dennis the menace that make you think if every review that looks the same really is a product of plagiarism, with more then 7 billion people on earth this weird statistical phenomenons aren't as rare, the possibilities have grown in proportion to the population.
    So you are right Megan maybe us bloggers shouldn't jump at every review that looks similar to us and cry the bloggers "wolf", first some real investigation should be done.
    Thank you for your post Megan

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    1. Exactly! Though I've never read Dennis the Menace, I think that I get what you're trying to say with the cartoon reference. People can make similar ideas their own-- that's what I'm saying! It's easy, because with so many of us, surely some of us are thinking similar things about similar articles, or books, or movies or music. It's all relative!

      And I like that you put statistics in-- on another point, out of those 7 billion, approximately 2 billion (let's just say), are on the internet in some way posting their thoughts. And if someone thinks similar to someone else, they're probably going to say it. That's exactly what I mean! (:

      Thank you for reading it and taking the time to comment, Lil Berry! <3

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  7. Great post Megan. And I think you're totally right. Obviously, with so many people reading these books, there are going to be similar opinions floating around. I'm actually quite happy when I see a review that's similar to mine, and probably more likely to comment on it even if I'm not familiar with the writer.

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    1. Thank you! I'm glad that you think so-- it helps me feel a bit like I'm not talking to myself or throwing my opinion at people who don't want it, LOL. Exactly! I can't say that I've seen any reviews similar to mine, but I love it when people have similar opinions! I'm going to like you if you have similar opinions on books, LOL. Thanks for commenting, girly! (:

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  8. I'm not sure where I stand. The only thing I know is that I feel very sad when I see another "plagiarism" post popping up in my mailbox. But you do have a point there :)

    Mel@thedailyprophecy.

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    1. I know! Plagiarism posts are taking over the blogosphere, but I HAVE to read them...because I'm unbelievably nosy. Eh, where you stand is all relative. ;) Thank you! (:

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  9. Plagiarism is one of those things that is incredibly heart breaking to see. Each blog that I see with a plagiarism accusation really just makes me want the blogging community to do some Kumbuya thing. I know that we're all generally really close, but plagiarism ruins a blogger.

    It's definitely something wrong, but I feel like I don't have a right to say anything, since we haven't been a victim of it. Still, it is incredibly hard to say that a sentence with eerily similar content and structure is not plagiarized because we all think differently. Still, your points really address things that seem to have been ignored for a while.

    Angie @ YA Novelties

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    1. Plagiarism DOES ruin a blogger for life. And almost everyone connected with them too. It's a horrible thing, but honestly I think that it needs to be talked about. People need to understand what it is, but they also need to think before they just randomly start throwing accusations out. That ruins blogging for all of us. And I don't know any of the word to Kumbuya, so it would be hard for me...I could learn. ;)

      And that's good! I'm glad that you guys haven't been victims. I'd like to say that we all think differently, but from a relative standpoint, lots of people think the same. There are SEVEN BILLION (thanks, Lil Berry!) people in this world, so I think that there are BOUND to be people that think the same. But very rarely does someone say something that is exactly the same, LOL. Er, well thank you! (:

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  10. I agree with you :) It's so sad to see that so much more plagiarism seems to be occurring now. I think it's terrible when people spend time copying and pasting someone else's review as their own, when they could just write one themself. Great post!

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    1. Awesome! The Badass Bookie did a wonderful post yesterday about how plagiarism is ruining the community. (: I'm not sure why they would do that, honestly. Reviews are so easy.

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