Hey...
Chanced upon this thread just recently. You have made a series of very valid points as regards plagiarism. Just wanted to add that what also bothers me, is the gray area where the rules or mores aren't very clearly understood or applied.
Let me narrate a personal experience of mine here--since I do not want to start a firefight I shall not name the author in question.
Some months ago, I came across an OS (was designated as such though it had several parts). Now imagine my surprise when I discovered that the last chapter of this OS had several paras that were copied word for word from one of my favorite novels.
I didn't want to report this without first giving the author a chance to rectify this, so I pm-ed her. I received her reply, acknowledging this lapse, and assuring me that credit would duly be given. Also the reply included a patently dissimulating excuse, that the said novel was a huge favorite of hers, and had become 'so much a part' of herself, that 'she'd forgotten it was separate'...😛
The reason I term this dissimulating, was that the paras had been reproduced exactly from the novel, with just the character names changed! Quite clearly, the author had to have had the book propped open on her lap as she merrily typed away...also I can't get how you can 'forget' the source of your inspiration!
But anyway, the said author duly gave credit on her blog, and also promptly removed the OS from IF (I hadn't asked her to do that, so the only reason there could have been, was that she knew it violated the forum rules).
Even after giving this credit however, this chapter remained as it was on the blog. In my opinion, this was too much referencing from the novel. Maybe I would not want to term this 'plagiarism' as, after all, the source was now credited. But how much 'inspiration' is too much?
Is it enough just to give the source a blanket credit at the beginning of a FF? Does this permit complete paras to be borrowed verbatim or nearly so? Is it not incumbent on the author, even while using settings/ themes that are inspired by another work, to exercise their own imagination to rework the details?
My view--even with crediting the inspiration for the work at the prologue/ introduction stage, it should be unacceptable to reproduce entire paras.
If attributable & unchanged phrases/ quotes/ sentences are borrowed in a chapter, it should be mandatory for the author to highlight/ asterisk this and credit the source on the individual chapter page.
Would like to hear what others think constitutes 'over inspiration' or 'undue influence' 😊 In my opinion, this is just as much a problem as outright plagiarism, as in many cases it goes undetected or unquestioned...
Disclaimer--I am not making this post to provoke any quarrels or start a bashing spree, so please do not ask me to disclose the name of the author I referred to. The idea was to understand what others feel of this grey area which may not be 'plagiarism' but (in my opinion) is being somewhat intellectually dishonest all the same.
Edited by RamnVij - 12 years ago
Shiv Shakti
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