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I believe bestselling author Mark Dawson is a serial plagiarist

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Re: I believe bestselling author Mark Dawson is a serial plagiarist

#61

Post by hgomersall »

avar wrote: post #21

The reason they're not accusing them of copyright infringement is presumably that a few sentences allegedly lifted with modifications from other books won't rise to that level. Perhaps UK law is different, but presumably this is just something that might make you unpopular among other authors and literary critics, not a civil or criminal matter.

If this is done in the UK, I'd be very wary of receiving a libel lawsuit. Saying someone is a serial plagiarist is a damning accusation to an author, and examples I read (and TBH I got bored after the first 5 or 6) were rather tenuous: turns of phrase or even just a common adjective-noun pair.

Re: I believe bestselling author Mark Dawson is a serial plagiarist

#62

Post by unwind »

mandmandam wrote: post #6

Seems like someone could write a script that analyses a massive book torrent library to highlight plagiarism like this. Am a little surprised it hasn't been done yet tbh. Might be a fun project.

I know there are systems like that for academia, student papers etc.

Re: I believe bestselling author Mark Dawson is a serial plagiarist

#63

Post by matsemann »

Off topic, but on Friday the minister of Science and Higher Education in Norway had to step down, after someone found out about 22 % of her master thesis was plagiarized. Why did someone look into this? Because she and her department is taking a case against a student to our highest court about "self plagiarism", which everyone thinks is unfair. So quite ironic she was the real plagiarist.

And then media jumped on the wagon and started checking everyone. A second minister is now also in trouble after not only having plagiarized, but then invented source interviews (aka science fraud).

Re: I believe bestselling author Mark Dawson is a serial plagiarist

#64

Post by keepamovin »

perihelions wrote: post #25
keepamovin wrote: post #8

All the pulp greats are. Tarantino just embraced this and lifted it, p-adic style, to art. Good artists borrow, you know the rest la hahaha :)

Off-topic—what does "p-adic style" mean in this sentence? Is it a math pun?

In the context of p-adic numbers and p-adic analysis, "lifting" generally refers to a process where an object defined in a simpler or more restricted setting (like modulo a power of a prime number) is extended or 'lifted' to a more complex or complete setting (like the p-adic numbers).

Re: I believe bestselling author Mark Dawson is a serial plagiarist

#65

Post by matsemann »

spuz wrote: post #54
tussa wrote: post #40

I still don't see how this is a crime though, I mean sure, he has a sense of inspiration and borrows sentences and phrases from somewhere. But, that doesn't mean the entire plots of his books, or the primary reason they sell is because of him stealing a few sentences from others.

There are two questions at play here: 1. How much of other people's work did Mark Dawson plagiarise in each of his books? 2. How much of other people's work would someone need to plagiarise before you consider it to be unethical? We can't answer 1. just yet, but if you are going to make a judgement about him here, at least try to give your answer for 2. The first question is a question of fact and the second question…

3. How many books have he really sold / people downloaded? Or is it all just a ruse to sell his courses?

Re: I believe bestselling author Mark Dawson is a serial plagiarist

#66

Post by nefrix »

matsemann wrote: post #63

Off topic, but on Friday the minister of Science and Higher Education in Norway had to step down, after someone found out about 22 % of her master thesis was plagiarized. Why did someone look into this? Because she and her department is taking a case against a student to our highest court about "self plagiarism", which everyone thinks is unfair. So quite ironic she was the real plagiarist. And then media jumped on th…

I thought this is happening only in Romania, but looks like is been a common practice for politicians all over.

Re: I believe bestselling author Mark Dawson is a serial plagiarist

#67

Post by MattGaiser »

burnished wrote: post #44
MattGaiser wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was in high school/university, they taught us that plagarism was taking even ideas and reusing them directly. Copying a sentence like that was an explicit example, even if generic. We were told that it gets suspicious at even 4 more complex words that are the same. Even reusing your own work between classes was an example of plagiarism. Plagiarism, at least as presented to me, is a very strict standard.

I know that definition of plagiarism exists in schools (how broadly I couldn't say) but it's completely incoherent and unused in any other context.

Outside of academic contexts, the concept of plagiarism in itself doesn't make a lot of sense or have much meaning until it reaches what would otherwise be copyright infringement or involves trade secrets/non-disclosure agreements.

Nobody would care in a business meeting if you copied a random graph without citation or included data in a pitch deck. Reusing a presentation or publishing an article several times in trade publications with a bit of tweaking is pretty normal.

Re: I believe bestselling author Mark Dawson is a serial plagiarist

#68

Post by tyingq »

perihelions wrote: post #25
keepamovin wrote: post #8

All the pulp greats are. Tarantino just embraced this and lifted it, p-adic style, to art. Good artists borrow, you know the rest la hahaha :)

Off-topic—what does "p-adic style" mean in this sentence? Is it a math pun?

"In number theory, given a prime number p, the p-adic numbers form an extension of the rational numbers which is distinct from the real numbers, though with some similar properties"

Re: I believe bestselling author Mark Dawson is a serial plagiarist

#69

Post by gumby »

Havoc wrote: post #43

If it wasn't for the dates I'd say that's LLM completion at play. If you think about copilot etc...that would produce the same pattern. Fragments being obviously matching existing work. Not sure I'd go quite as far as calling an author a plagiarist on the basis of specific short fragments matching. It would need bit more of an overarching say plotline matching or similar. Who here hasn't copied some code off stack ov…

> Who here hasn't copied some code off stack overflow?

How do you know it’s correct for your need without actually reading and internalizing it? It might even be correct…but not compute what you thought it does.

Plugging code from SO into your program is like assuming that if your program compiles it must be correct.

Re: I believe bestselling author Mark Dawson is a serial plagiarist

#70

Post by tyingq »

LudwigNagasena wrote: post #53
burnished wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is that fraud?

Artificially inflating sales numbers to get higher on bestseller lists seems like an intentional deception to secure unfair gain. How is that not fraud?

There's no automatic connection from immoral to illegal. I can think of lots of intentional deception that secures unfair gain that is not illegal.
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