a fool's musings

Fool, said my muse to me, look in thy heart and write...

Warning: Adult Content achromatic unfinished fic graveyard recs journal new stuff recent stuff my back pages January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 February 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 October 2002 September 2002 August 2002 July 2002 June 2002 May 2002 April 2002 March 2002 February 2002 January 2002 December 2001 November 2001 the five Ws, or, all about me profile e-mail victoria my livejournal the original P&R comments current mood: "pathological and unbalanced" Items of Interest People LiveJournal folks Baraita bishclone claritylit Jintian Kat Allison Kit Mason metablog mix-tapes Neil Gaiman Nestra Sarah T. Seema Shrift Sundry Mourning zendom Music Walk On - U2 Thunder Road - Bruce Springsteen If I Can't Change Your Mind - Sugar Sick of Myself - Matthew Sweet Town Called Malice - The Jam One - U2 The Space Between - DMB Books Lord of the Rings Catch-22 The Neely Trilogy Absalom! Absalom! Possession: A Romance Foucault's Pendulum Dreamhouse LA Confidential I Capture the Castle Sandman Waking the Moon Shows Angel Buffy the Vampire Slayer (in reruns) Alias West Wing The Simpsons webrings < ? fanfiction ! > < ? writers ! > diaryreviews.diaryland.com NYC Bloggers Comments by Haloscan.com all links, if I haven't screwed up somehow, should open in a new browser window

11.22.02 - 12:13 p.m. On Plagiarism You know, I'm reading through this whole thread about a story that was posted to the SSA that had uncited quoted material inserted into the text as part of the narrative. And there are two things that need addressing. The first is, the author posted the story publicly, and requested feedback. The feedback provided was, "This story reminds me of X poem. Huh. It quotes extensively from the poem, with lines inserted seamlessly into the narrative, and yet, there's no disclaimer or citation. I wonder what she was thinking." This is legitimate critique and it is a legitimate use of one's LiveJournal. It has nothing to do with personal feelings toward the author, and it's not a personal attack. It's saying, "Hey, read this and read that. Am I crazy, or is something not right here?" Writing to the author and asking if she realized what she did (i.e., left off the credit to the author she quoted) is a wise course of action, but posting in one's LJ about it isn't wrong, rude or anything else, especially if one has previously recommended the story and wants to clarify, as Ingrid did. The heated rhetoric coming from the author's friends is, imo, far more out of line. Yes, defend your friends. But remember that jumping on someone who expressed an opinion in polite and reasonable terms, even if it happens to be one you disagree with, is just wrong. Not everything is personal. And if you can't respond without making it personal, then wait until the first flush of anger passes. Secondly, fanfiction is not plagiarism. Even if the disclaimers we post do nothing to protect us from legal action on the copyright infringement issue, they are explicit acknowledgement that the characters and universe within the story are not of the author's own creation. Now, I don't know about you all, but I have had the definition of plagiarism drilled into me since eighth grade. When you quote from another source, you attribute. When you insert another author's words into your text without attribution that's plagiarism. This is not a function of fandom or whatever. This is the definition of plagiarism*. There are people out there saying things like, "Well, it depends on what you consider plagiarism," but plagiarism is not a matter of opinion in this incarnation. We can debate back and forth whether JK Rowling stole the term "Muggle" from whatever that woman's name was, and we can talk about the plot similarities of say, "Craving" and the fatsucking episode of the X-Files, and if the Millar/Gough team didn't acknowledge the, er, homage to the older show, then maybe some people (mainly the writers for XF) might be able to make a case of plagiarism of ideas. But we're talking about wholesale theft of text. Look, I'm in no position to cast stones at anyone who wants to take an existing text and rework it for their fandom. I direct you to A Harbor in the Tempest, The Mutant Bride and Night of the Dead Living - which are X-Men remakes of Casablanca, The Princess Bride, and the Homicide episode Night of the Dead Living, in some cases using dialogue word-for-word. And you know why that's not plagiarism? Because I cited in the notes that that is what I was doing. Everybody can chatter on about using archetypes and borrowing from mythology and pop culture, and that's great and we all do it. But you just don't take words from another writer and try to pass them off as your own. That's what the problem is, whenever there is a problem. If an author says in her notes, "Hey, see if you can find the Buffy references" or "this fic is based heavily on Anna Begins from the Counting Crows" (both of which I have done, btw), then it's no harm no foul. Otherwise, it's plagiarism. This particular instance was a case of sloppiness, not malice. But that doesn't change the basic fact of what plagiarism is, it doesn't make the author a talentless hack, and it doesn't make the people who picked up on the similarities vicious harpies out for blood. It just means someone made a mistake and someone else caught it and asked about it in public. Whether or not you consider that good manners is your lookout, but responding to what you consider poor manners with even worse manners is never a great option, you know? People need to step back and just chill. *from m-w.com: pla·gia·rize Pronunciation: 'plA-j&-"rIz also -jE-&- Function: verb Inflected Form(s): -rized; -riz·ing Etymology: plagiary Date: 1716 transitive senses : to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own : use (another's production) without crediting the source (emphasis mine) intransitive senses : to commit literary theft : present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source I think I blame Naomi. I never used to footnote my diary entries until I started reading her blog. ~victoria link [current mood: busy] [current music: Piece of My Heart - Big Brother and the Holding Co.] [random quote: In our interactions with people, a benevolent hypocrisy is frequently required-acting as though we do not see through the motive] ~*~ previous - next DiaryLand Disclaimer: Reading this diary is not required by law. If you do not like or agree with the contents herein, or find them to be offensive on more than one occasion, please go elsewhere and don't come back. Management is not responsible for any adverse reactions to content within. The painting is "Boreas" by John William Waterhouse. Again, not a muse, but I like her. She suits the color scheme. The quote is from Sir Philip Sidney. This site is best viewed with IE4+ | 1024x768 | true color | verdana | tables