User Comments

1. 

   2/27/09

   gtally

   That's why I keep all my content original.
   
   Hey, some of you might find this interesting. A "rising star" at Fortune mag resigned after the author of a NYT magazine piece, a piece from 2004, noticed some similarities between his old article and a Feb 2, 2009 Fortune article written by Barney Gimbel.
   
   www.observer.com/2009/media/fortunes-barney-gimbel-leaves-magazine-amid-pla...
   
   

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   1. 

      2/27/09

      busylizzy

      You, goofball!!
2. 

   2/27/09

   Anok

   Yes, I agree that some of the passages were a little too familiar sounding. Although, to be fair some of it was just rehashing public accurate information (bio's and such) but the wording in other areas was just too...well unless he's a mind reader or something I don't know how some of the sentences could be exactly the same.
   
   I wonder if he consciously plagiarized, or if he had read the article along time ago, and some of it just stuck in his head?

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3. 

   2/27/09

   melindaville

   I'm not surprised--plagiarism is absolutely rampant. I teach college classes and just caught a student plagiarizing a paper. This student (not the sharpest knife in the drawer) actually cut and pasted a paper from a website--and he copied the page in its entirety--so much so that the URL was listed at the bottom of his paper. He didn't realize that he copied his source of plagiarism.
   
   And I mean, the entire thing was word for word.
   
   Duh!

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4. 

   2/27/09

   cooper

   I think there is also a misconception out there still in that some people think paraphrasing the words of others is not plagiarism. I believe a girl at Harvard ran into this problem a couple of years ago - when she wrote a book that was originally hailed a brilliant - in a rather well publicized case.
   
   You'd think of course someone like the author at Fortune would know better though.
   
   I also wonder though, myself having read a lot during my life and having a pretty good memory, if at times the ideas expressed in certain things we read don't become part of our brain somehow and therefore become part of what we know and share despite the idea having come from somewhere else.
   
   This case seems pretty clear but there are some cases which appear at times to be a little foggier.

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5. 

   2/27/09

   gtally

   I haven't read the article yet, but now I will look for it.
   
   It's also all about attribution. I re-purpose a lot of content from around the internet, as a lot of bloggers do. But I always include the headline, author, publication/source, a link back to the original article and use quotes when I am quoting. It's absolutely essential to demarcate when the content is not your own, even on a blog.

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6. 

   2/27/09

   aningeniousname

   I hate plagerism, plages are no different than the rest of us and when people finally realise this maybe we can all live in a decent world.

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