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Is Plagiarism Wrong?

thepointmag.com

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Re: Is Plagiarism Wrong?

#21

Post by jamessb »

> It is true that I did not know about “intellectual property,” but even if I had, that would not have helped. . . But what if I want to go around quoting Hamlet and claiming the words as my own? In that case, there’s no issue of depriving Shakespeare or his immediate descendants of the money that is rightfully theirs. It is at that point that plagiarism norms kick in.

The author seems to think that copyright is just about economic rights, but in reality it also confers moral rights.

For example, the Berne convention states: "independent of the author's economic rights, and even after the transfer of the said rights, the author shall have the right to claim authorship of the work".

You cannot justify violating the right to attribution/recognition of authorship on the grounds that it does not cause any financial loss to the author - they are independent rights.

Re: Is Plagiarism Wrong?

#22

Post by creatonez »

buboard wrote: post #10

Incidentally, these auto-plagiarism-detection systems that academic journals use seem to go overboard. You 're not allowed to quote yourself, and sometimes they detect completely silly things. It's just not possible not to plagiarize "serial section electron tomography".

I would hope these automated systems are being used with human oversight, anyways.

I've heard some anecdotes of students dealing with TurnItIn's flimsiness, with the professor/teacher being too stubborn to actually re-evaluate what the tool thinks is plagarism. But most professors out there are going to see that the tool isn't perfect.

Re: Is Plagiarism Wrong?

#23

Post by MereInterest »

mjw1007 wrote: post #18
daseiner1 wrote: post #11

Yes, obviously IMO. Surprised I haven’t seen it mentioned here yet but the chief reason plagiarism is wrong in my view is that it’s typically employed in situations in which the finished work is used to “certify” the ability to prepare the finished work. By “stealing” that finished work, the plagiarizer is granted credentials that they don’t deserve, thereby rotting their given institution from within by being grante…

I think part of the problem here is that universities have repurposed the word "plagiarism" to include forms of cheating which it doesn't naturally cover. For example, if a student pays someone else to write an essay, nowadays that gets classified as plagiarism. But it's hard to see it as a theft of ideas, any more than it's theft if I buy something from a shop.

There are more than just two parties to plagiarism. In the example given, the student buying an essay has not wronged the student who wrote the essay, anymore than a politician has wronged their speechwriter. However, when they turn in that essay for credit in a class, they have wronged the university by fraudulently representing it as theirs. The cost of the degree is in work that they have personally completed, not work that they have subcontracted out. This is the reputation that has been stolen, that has been inappropriately assigned to the plagiarist.

Where I would agree with your general statement is the concept of "self-plagiarism", typically defined as submitting the same work for credit in multiple forums. Plagiarism requires a third party whose work is being passed off, and self-plagiarism is an oxymoron.

Re: Is Plagiarism Wrong?

#24

Post by goto11 »

mjw1007 wrote: post #18
daseiner1 wrote: post #11

Yes, obviously IMO. Surprised I haven’t seen it mentioned here yet but the chief reason plagiarism is wrong in my view is that it’s typically employed in situations in which the finished work is used to “certify” the ability to prepare the finished work. By “stealing” that finished work, the plagiarizer is granted credentials that they don’t deserve, thereby rotting their given institution from within by being grante…

I think part of the problem here is that universities have repurposed the word "plagiarism" to include forms of cheating which it doesn't naturally cover. For example, if a student pays someone else to write an essay, nowadays that gets classified as plagiarism. But it's hard to see it as a theft of ideas, any more than it's theft if I buy something from a shop.

Plagiarism is to misrepresent something as authored by yourself. Whether you paid someone else for writing it or copied it without permission does not matter for the plagiarism charge - the wrongdoing is the misrepresentation.

It is not the same as copyright infringement - although it might be both at the same time if you copy something without permission and publish it under your own name.

Plagiarism is not always illegal. Publishing a book which is ghostwritten by someone else is not illegal AFAIK (as long as they get paid). But in education and research it is illegal - and they don't care if you bought the material fairly, the point is that decisions (grades, hiring, funding etc.) are based on the assumption that the material reflects your abilities.

So it is not really "theft of ideas", it is "faking credentials".

Re: Is Plagiarism Wrong?

#25

Post by mjw1007 »

MereInterest wrote: post #23
mjw1007 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think part of the problem here is that universities have repurposed the word "plagiarism" to include forms of cheating which it doesn't naturally cover. For example, if a student pays someone else to write an essay, nowadays that gets classified as plagiarism. But it's hard to see it as a theft of ideas, any more than it's theft if I buy something from a shop.

There are more than just two parties to plagiarism. In the example given, the student buying an essay has not wronged the student who wrote the essay, anymore than a politician has wronged their speechwriter. However, when they turn in that essay for credit in a class, they have wronged the university by fraudulently representing it as theirs. The cost of the degree is in work that they have personally completed, not…

Certainly the student has wronged the university, but to my mind it's the same kind of wrong as if they'd smuggled a calculator in to an arithmetic test. That also lets the student gain a reputation they didn't deserve.

I would prefer to reserve "plagiarism" for the case where the true originator of the ideas is potentially being eclipsed.

(Incidentally, according to my local university's academic misconduct policy, if the vice-chancellor uses a speechwriter without crediting them they are indeed a plagiarist. That doesn't seem entirely unreasonable to me, though I suspect it may not be enforced, but I would prefer to use a different term.)

Re: Is Plagiarism Wrong?

#26

Post by MaxBarraclough »

daseiner1 wrote: post #11

Yes, obviously IMO. Surprised I haven’t seen it mentioned here yet but the chief reason plagiarism is wrong in my view is that it’s typically employed in situations in which the finished work is used to “certify” the ability to prepare the finished work. By “stealing” that finished work, the plagiarizer is granted credentials that they don’t deserve, thereby rotting their given institution from within by being grante…

Another angle: it's a form of dishonesty. Dishonesty cannot be tolerated in academia, or in professional contexts more broadly.

This article is pretty weak sauce.

Re: Is Plagiarism Wrong?

#27

Post by ragerino »

goto11 wrote: post #24
mjw1007 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think part of the problem here is that universities have repurposed the word "plagiarism" to include forms of cheating which it doesn't naturally cover. For example, if a student pays someone else to write an essay, nowadays that gets classified as plagiarism. But it's hard to see it as a theft of ideas, any more than it's theft if I buy something from a shop.

Plagiarism is to misrepresent something as authored by yourself. Whether you paid someone else for writing it or copied it without permission does not matter for the plagiarism charge - the wrongdoing is the misrepresentation. It is not the same as copyright infringement - although it might be both at the same time if you copy something without permission and publish it under your own name. Plagiarism is not always i…

I agree fully. I left academia because of exactly this reason.

While academics have high morale on not stealing more than four words in the same sequence, they don't have any issue putting their names first on some engineers idea.

Re: Is Plagiarism Wrong?

#28

Post by MachineMan »

"Is Plagiarism Wrong? by Agnes Callard"

Why did the author write his name in the article if the argument is that attributing any kind of ownership or provenance is without value? It's almost as if the author cares about his original work.

Re: Is Plagiarism Wrong?

#29

Post by rdtsc »

> “ American children are too stupid to memorize poetry, so they were jealous that you could do it.”

Anyone else surprised that the child had no concept of cheating, and grew up writing articles asking if plagiarism is wrong?

Plagiarism is a fancy word but cheating is something that kids by that age should understand.

Also that’s a pretty darn nasty and entitled attitude from an immigrant family, who should have been grateful for the country which received them.

> I have a simple recommendation for you: do a half-decent job teaching undergraduates.

Part of teaching well is sending the message that cheating is not tolerated. It is demoralizing and stressful for honest, hard working students to see others cheat and blow the curve.

> There is no moral bedrock in which prohibition of plagiarism is inscribed.

Pardon the snarkiness, but there doesn’t seem to have been a moral foundation put down in the case of this author. Yes, if parents and educators don’t build and reinforce that foundation, then there won’t be any.

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