Plagiarism

Plagiarism refers to the use of another's information, language, or writing, when done without proper acknowledgment of the original source. Essential to an act of plagiarism is an element of dishonesty in attempting to pass off the plagiarised work as original. Plagiarism is not necessarily the same as copyright infringement, which occurs when one violates copyright law. Like most terms from the area of intellectual property, plagiarism is a concept of the modern age and not really applicable to medieval or ancient works. An example of plagiarism would be copying this definition and pasting straight into a report.

Famous examples of plagiarism

• Helen Keller was accused of plagiarism as a young girl for a school composition. Mortified, she determined to have all future compositions screened by her friends before submission.
• According to a Boston University investigation into academic misconduct, Martin Luther King plagiarized approximately one third of his doctoral thesis. He also appropriated others' text, without credit, for his famous speeches, including "I Have A Dream".
• George Harrison was successfully sued for plagiarizing (though perhaps unconsciously) the Chiffons' "He's So Fine" for the melody of his own "My Sweet Lord". http://abbeyrd.best.vwh.net/mysweet.htm

:George later wrote a bitter-lyric song on the subject. Ironically, he also "plagiarized" himself at least once, as the introductory chord for The Beatles' I'm Looking Through You is nearly identical to the introductory chord from End of the Line by his later group, the Traveling Wilburys.

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• Senator Joseph Biden was forced to withdraw from the 1988 Democratic Presidential nominations when it was revealed that he had failed a course in law school due to plagiarism. It was also shown that he had copied several campaign speeches, notably those of British Labour leader Neil Kinnock and Senator Robert F. Kennedy. In both cases he was essentially exonerated. http://www.nutsandboltsguide.com/plagiarism.html.
• Popular historian Stephen Ambrose has been criticized for incorporating passages from the works of other authors into many of his books.
• Psychology professor Ren? Diekstra, also well-known as author of popular books, left Leiden University in 1997 after accusations of plagiarism. Proceedings continued as of 2003, with Diekstra contesting a report about him on this matter.
• Alex Haley was permitted to settle out-of-court for $650,000, having admitted that he copied large passages of his novel from The African by Harold Courlander.
• Eres tú, Spanish song at the Eurovision Song Contest 1973 was a plagiarism of Slovenian (then Yugoslav) song from ESC 1966 (Berta Ambrož: Brez Besed) but due to political reasons (Cold War) it wasn't disqualified.
• Jayson Blair, then a reporter for the New York Times, plagiarized many articles and faked quotes in high-profile stories, including the Jessica Lynch and Beltway sniper attacks cases. He and several high-ranking editors from the Times resigned in June 2003.
• Moorestown, New Jersey, high-school student Blair Hornstine had her admission to Harvard University revoked in July 2003 after she was found to have passed off speeches and writings by famous figures including Bill Clinton as her own original prose in articles she wrote as a student journalist for a local newspaper.
• In 2003, the United Kingdom Government was accused ^{http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/2736149.stm} of copying some text from the work of a CSU Monterey Bay post-graduate student for its security dossier on Iraq, dubbed by the media the 'dodgy dossier'.
• The doctoral thesis written by Kimberly Lanegran at the University of Florida was copied nearly verbatim by Marks Chabedi and submitted at the New School. When Lanegran discovered this, she launched an investigation into Chabedi, and he was fired from a professorship at University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, and New School revoked his Ph.D.
• Kim Lanegran's account of this incident published in the Chronicle of Higher Education
• A retraction issued by a scholarly journal that published an article Chabedi plagiarized
• (For those who wish to look up the actual dissertations in Dissertation Abstracts Online, the OCLC number for Lanegran's dissertation is AAG9801108 and the OCLC number for Chabedi's "dissertation" is AAI9980001.)
• The 1922 film Nosferatu was an unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel Dracula. Stoker's widow sued the producers of Nosferatu, and had many of the film's copies destroyed (although some exist to this day).
• Science fiction author Harlan Ellison sued and won in a case against James Cameron, claiming that his film The Terminator plagiarized his episodes "Soldier" and "Demon With a Glass Hand" of the show "The Outer Limits"
• Doris Kearns Goodwin (2002 scandal)

Timothy Noah's Nov. 2003 "Historians Rewrite History" slate.com article on Goodwin and her defenders:

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http://slate.msn.com/id/2091197/

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• Nicholaos K. Artemiadis has recently published a book, History of Mathematics from a Mathematician?s Vantage Point, which is plagiarised from Morris Kline's classic text Mathematical Thought From Ancient to Modern Times. http://www.log24.com/log05/050710-NA.html.
• Writer and television commentator Monica Crowley was accused of plagiarism for a 1999 article on Richard Nixon.
• Ethnic Studies professor and activist Ward Churchill is currently being investigated on charges of plagiarism, falsifying research and until recently, forging his resume and ethnic identity

Cherokee band says Churchill's claim of membership a fraud

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(Charlie Brennan, Rocky Mountain News

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May 18, 2005) http://www.insidedenver.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_3786590,00.html ) by the University of Colorado-Boulder http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Colorado_at_Boulder.

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links:

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Scholarship under scrutiny

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Churchill's essays lack originality, says N.M. law professor

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By Berny Morson, Rocky Mountain News

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February 11, 2005 http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_3540066,00.html

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An Interview with Ward Churchill Accusations and Smears

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By JOSHUA FRANK

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http://www.counterpunch.org/frank07182005.html

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Red-flagged career

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Churchill's tenure at CU marked by warnings of trouble

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By Charlie Brennan And Stuart Steers, Rocky Mountain News

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February 17, 2005

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http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_3554608,00.html

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Churchill's quick rise 'doesn't compute'

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Former CU official who backed his hire surprised by tenure

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By Berny Morson, Rocky Mountain News

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February 17, 2005

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http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_3554563,00.html

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Shadows of doubt

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(Rocky Mountain)News finds problems in all four major areas before CU panel

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By Charlie Brennan, Kevin Flynn, Laura Frank, Berny Morson and Kevin Vaughan, Rocky Mountain News

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June 4, 2005

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http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_3830149,00.html

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The charge: Plagiarism

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Did Ward Churchill publish the work of others as his own?

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By Laura Frank, Rocky Mountain News

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June 7, 2005

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http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_3836139,00.html

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'Connect the dots' a wild goose chase

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By Kevin Flynn, Rocky Mountain News

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June 9, 2005

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Ward Churchill provided some cryptic directions 11 years ago when questions were raised on the University of Colorado campus about his Indian heritage.

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http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_3841642,00.html

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CU asks for more info on professor

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Documents sought to pursue alleged research misconduct

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By Charlie Brennan, Rocky Mountain News

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July 27, 2005

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http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_3956944,00.html

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Complaints by former wife's family sent to Churchill panel

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By Charlie Brennan, Rocky Mountain News

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August 27, 2005

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http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/state/article/0,1299,DRMN_21_4034888,00.html

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