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Death be not plagiarizedMar 23 '01 (Updated May 07 '01) Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line Plagiarism is no laughing matter. The words you steal belong to someone else's soul.
I co-wrote a cybersex parody article with fellow humorist Larry Graves about two years ago entitled When Lanny met Angel. Our parody chat occurred in an AOL chat room between two strangers passing in the night, and the verbal antics and misunderstandings that can happen in the chatroom. When Plagiarism met Angela A man named Wally took the article, changed the names and claimed it as his own. He frequented a popular humor site and posted the story. The owners of the site were putting together an anthology of posts, and Wally's, or rather my story, was going to be published in the book. Finally being made aware of this, I read back through months of posts where people were congratulating him on the story. He became a mini-legend on this particular message board. He stopped the messages abruptly at one point. That's because Wally met with a tragic accident a year ago and passed away. If the book had been published, it would have been memoir to Wally. If Larry and I had pursued the rights issue, we would have been chasing after a dead man's honor. A few weeks later, the board's owner pulled all the messages, so the point is mute. We knew her well It's a very odd feeling seeing something you created under someone else's name. It's almost like being at your own funeral and listening to the comments around the casket. I'd imagine some of the conversations might go like this: ::pan to Sleeping Angels Funeral Parlor:: :Conversation from one corner of the room:: "She looks good, doesn't she?" "Oh yes..wonderful. I don't think she ever wore Mango Mango lipstick in her life, though." "Yeah.. it is kinda orangy." "We should wipe some of it off." "Ewwwww..are you kidding? I'm not touching her.. YOU do it!" ::and another corner:: "It's a shame she never wrote the sequel to her cybersex column." "I heard she had cyber with over 100 men to get the material on that one." NO! ::shoving her partner out of her folding chair:: Get OUT of here!" "Oh yes..I heard she would do anything for a good story..." ::in the corridor:: "Well, at least she was Author of the Week at Themestream before..the tragedy." "Oh yeah, I heard about that..isn't that the web site where no one edits your work and anyone can post anything and get a dime for it?" "Yeah, that's pretty much it." Life can be a whole stream of Urban Legends after you die. Sometimes while you're still breathing, too. It could go on and on, I suppose. But back to Wally. I should feel irate, but I can't help but feel that I contributed to someone's life, even in an extremely small way. People are left with a memory of him being a funny man. There are worse ways to be remembered. Writing successfully at Epinions Regarding the issue of Plagiarism here on Epinions: I'm not quite sure what I'd rather see, to be perfectly honest. Cruising the Just Ins, you tend to see a few entries such as the following example on a daily basis. Just in: "Review on Edgar Allen Poe's Tell-Tale Heart"- Title : it's good i like this story. this guy thinks he hears, like this beat beat beat and he keeps looking around the room and everything and really ya know he ain't hearing anything its his gulty konsciuous and i think its a good story. oh and please join this website www.annoyingannoying.com and use my id IKANTRIGHT so i get credit,ok?thanks!!! Hmm. Now in a case like this, I actually wish the author would have plagiarized someone. Anyone. It would have saved me the twenty seconds that I used to hit the article, scan it, and either get annoyed or angry or both. On a more serious note, there has to be a better system in place to scan these reviews and detect plagiarizers, or at least pull them. Here's a hint: if someone has ten Epinions that are rated somewhat helpful, or not helpful, and then manages to write a sterling game review, using actual grammar and punctuation, there's a good chance that said review has been swiped from a gaming site or book somewhere. Writing a successful Epinion isn't as difficult as you would think. Cover the elements of how you like the product. Don't write what you think others want to hear. Write your personal views on the product. For example, if you enjoyed this Baby Sling because you are very tall and the sling adjusted well to your body height, then this is a personalized note that the readers want to hear. Discuss if you don't like the product, but please say why. Just saying "I hate this CD" isn't enough. We can all like or hate something-it's the reason why that interests us. Please run a brief spell check or take a moment to read your review a few times before you post it. If you don't feel that you have enough to say on the subject, then skip it. That's really all that is asked of you here. The only thing you own when you leave this world is your reputation and your words. It's a shame when someone takes that away from you.  |
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