×

Pirates plunder others’ words, even pre-emptively

Burt's Eye View

Much to-do over a twice-done speech was made last week. It’s far from the first time plagiarism reared its ugly, photocopied head.

It’s like the late, great guitarist Jimi Hendrix once said, “I’ve been imitated so well, I’ve heard people copy my mistakes.”

At least I think he said that. I pasted the quote straight from the internet, so it must be true.

As I’ve often said, plagiarism is the wrongful appropriation and stealing and publication of another author’s language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions and the representation of them as one’s own original work.

No wait, that’s what Wikipedia says.

My version is: “Quit copying. I don’t know the answers, either.”

A big problem with last week’s alleged cribbing was the apparent piracy from one source. As we all know, “To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research.” Steven Wright said that.

Maybe.

It’s also been found, with some wording variations, in writing over the last 80 years by guys named Wilson Mizner, Ralph Foss, Joseph Cummings Chase, Asa George Baker, Leslie Henson, Tom Lehrer, Bob Oliver, and the most prolific quote machine of all, Anonymous.

Back in my days of cobbling together term papers, I tried to reword the works of at least two books and three encyclopedias — I went to school before Google was invented — and hoped that the teacher didn’t have the same volumes sitting on her shelves.

If my research uncovered the statement, “George Washington (1732-1799) was a skilled surveyor and natural leader who became the commander-in-chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, the first president of the United States, and is recognized as the ‘Father of our Country.'”

I copied it into my own words: “George Washington did a bunch of important stuff. Then he died.”

Writing reports like that never earned high marks, but only because I wasn’t sure if plagiarism was a federal crime. I didn’t want to risk it. I suspected that if I landed in prison, it would hamper my odds of making the seventh-grade basketball team.

The fight to expose plagiarism is fraught with complications. Take, for example, what author Robert K. Merton calls “anticipatory plagiarism.” That happens “when someone steals your original idea and publishes it a hundred years before you were born.”

It’s how I lost credit for my greatest work, “Winnie-the-Pooh.”

I conceded that A.A. Milne came up with the idea for Rabbit on his own, but everything else he appropriated from me. He got away with it on the mere technicality that he managed to slip it into publication before I — or even my mother — merited a birth certificate.

It’s been difficult getting a judge to hear my case.

While I continue to fight to bootleg back the rights to my own work, I keep in mind this note from former British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli (unless he preemptively stole it from Winston Churchill): “Plagiarists, at least, have the merit of preservation.”

Our works live in the credit of others.

— Send Cole your original words — or the best you can find on Google — at burtseyeview@tribtoday.com or on the Burton W. Cole page of Facebook.

NEWSLETTER

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *
     

Starting at $4.85/week.

Subscribe Today