I used to regularly join in with some of the discussions on Talkback, the message board of Writers’ News and Writing magazine: but earlier this year, a thread I began there about a reputable charity auction attracted several negative comments (I’m afraid you’ll need to be a member there to gain access to most of…
Tag Archive: plagiarism
Another Statement From Judith Griggs At Cooks Source
Judith Griggs at Cooks Source magazine has just issued another statement. Here it is in its entirety, in case it disappears like the last one just did. / Its sad really. The problem is that I have been so overworked and stretched that when this woman — Monica — contacted me, I was on deadline…
Cooks Source Issues A Statement
I had a brief look at the Cooks Source website this morning and it was still there in a somewhat truncated version: the home-page was pretty much unchanged, but most of the other links had gone. I just took another look, and all it contains now is a statement in which it claims Cooks Source…
Let’s Learn About Copyright: Get Blogging!
Some of you might have noticed (ha!) that last week I blogged about the Cooks Source copyright infringement story and suddenly, the number of visitors to this site has soared. I usually get between 300 and 800 hits on any single day; and until last week, my highest-ever number of hits was around 1,200 when…
Copyright Infringement And A Medieval Apple Pie
Tuesday, November 9 This affair has attracted a lot of ugliness which I find very disturbing. I know it’s an emotive issue; I agree that Griggs was wrong in using other people’s work without permission, and I don’t think she’s handled things well at all: but I don’t think she deserves the insulting and abusive…
I May Be Some Time (Again)
Here’s the thing. Remember that new computer which rescued me from having to undergo a complete internet withdrawal a couple of weeks ago? Well, it’s slowly collapsing under the weight of its own short circuits, and so it looks like I’m going to actually have to buy a new computer now. If I don’t appear…
Plagiarism: The Whole Story
If you’ve been following my anti-plagiarism blog posts, you might be interested to know that Vanessa Gebbie has now blogged about the whole sorry mess in detail, giving names of all the writers, stories and publications involved. It’s a sordid story, but I’m glad it’s all out in the open now. Here’s the link. To…
Anti-Plagiarism Day: An Update
Remember how so many of us joined forces to fight plagiarism? I’ve been told that the “writer” who sparked off all that outrage has once again won a prize for a story which seems to owe far too much to someone else’s work. And this time, the writer who wrote the original piece might well…
Anti-Plagiarism Day!
Before I start, I have to point out that I don’t want to scare anyone here. Despite the fears of many novice writers, plagiarism doesn’t happen often in the professional arena. Very few jobbing writers would ever even consider it as an option, and the odds in favour of a publisher or agent stealing the…
Anti-Plagiarism Day: Friday 17 July
Just a little reminder to you all that on Friday I’ll be blogging about plagiarism, and hope that some of you will write about it on your own blogs. If you’ve already written on the subject send me links (by email or in the comments to my plagiarism posts) and I’ll edit them into my…
Anti-Plagiarism Day: Friday 17 July
A few weeks ago I watched a nasty case of plagiarism unfold which involved some writers I’ve had close dealings with over the last few months. One trusted, talented member of an online writing workshopping group went much too far when looking to his colleagues’ writing for inspiration, and ended up in deep and particularly…
Message-Board Plagiarism (Part II)
This piece is one of a small group of my published posts which recently decided to hide themselves from view and move to my drafts folder. I am inept, and don’t know why that happened, but I’m posting them all again and hope that this time they stay where they’re put. Apologies for any confusion….
Train Wreck Now Boarding On Platform Two!
This one is going to be good. It’s so good I wonder if it’s just a staging for an elaborate April Fool’s Day Special To Trump All Others. But even so, here it is for your enjoyment just in case it’s for real. An unknown writer called Lady Sybilla has announced that her book, Russet…
The Street-Smart Writer, by Jenna Glatzer
Jenna Glatzer is a skilled, knowledgeable writer, and is the founder of AbsoluteWrite, which supports the best writers’ message board on the internet. In 2006, the Nomad Press published The Street-Smart Writer, which Jenna co-wrote with Daniel Steven, a noted publishing attorney. I’ve bought several copies of this book since, and dished it out to…
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is the act of using someone else’s work without their permission, and passing it off as your own. It’s fine if you refer to other people’s work in your own: if you’re reviewing a book or writing an essay, for example, you’re allowed to quote from other works so long as you acknowledge your…
Copyright vs. Publishing Rights
Copyright and publishing (or reproduction) rights are two different things. Copyright is a legal term. In the UK and the USA at least, all writers automatically own full copyright in their work as soon as they create it, and laws exist to protect them. Publishing rights are what writers sell, assign, license or otherwise hand…
Who Owns the Copyright?
Ownership of printed material does not constitute ownership of the copyright in the words that are printed on it. So, while you might own a bundle of letters which your first boyfriend sent you, you don’t own the copyright to what he wrote in them—that remains with him. Just as copyright in books remains with…
How To Quote On Message-Boards
Following the flurry of responses* that followed my post yesterday, I thought it would be useful to give examples of what is considered to be good and bad message-board quoting etiquette. The first post in this thread is an excellent example of how to do it right. The poster indicates who wrote the original piece;…
Message-Board Plagiarism (Part I)
I expect writers to have at least a basic understanding of the rules of plagiarism, and to respect the work of other writers, but it seems that I expect too much. This week I’ve read more than twenty cases of message-board plagiarism. And every case appeared on writers’ message boards. In some of the posts…