Friday, October 13, 2006
That Which Doesn't Kill You...
Paul Conley excellently evokes the sadness that plagiarism can cause in this post on ComputerWorld's response to its recent theft-of-intellectual-property incident.
I guess if you've been in media for any length of time, you've encountered some form of plagiarism. My story goes back to my earliest days in print, as one of the editors of my high school literary magazine. A student submitted a terrific poem on a controversial subject. Our teacher-advisor wouldn't allow us to accept the poem, since its subject matter was deemed inappropriate for our suburban student population. We editors fought and appealed all the way to the principal and got the poem in. A great victory.
Of course, after the literary magazine was printed, we learned the poem had actually been written by Langston Hughes.
The sense of humilation and deflation we felt back in 1977 lives with me today. Paul notes that plagiarism is a learning experience for the editors who have to deal with its effects. True enough.
And thankfully, I haven't had to deal with it since (as far as I know).
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I guess if you've been in media for any length of time, you've encountered some form of plagiarism. My story goes back to my earliest days in print, as one of the editors of my high school literary magazine. A student submitted a terrific poem on a controversial subject. Our teacher-advisor wouldn't allow us to accept the poem, since its subject matter was deemed inappropriate for our suburban student population. We editors fought and appealed all the way to the principal and got the poem in. A great victory.
Of course, after the literary magazine was printed, we learned the poem had actually been written by Langston Hughes.
The sense of humilation and deflation we felt back in 1977 lives with me today. Paul notes that plagiarism is a learning experience for the editors who have to deal with its effects. True enough.
And thankfully, I haven't had to deal with it since (as far as I know).
