A few of us have been joking about making plagiarism bingo cards so we can check off the predictable responses to any discussion of plagiarism. It is jaw-hang depressing to see the same repeated responses, patterns and excuses, but we really could fill a bingo card at this point.
AnimeJune rounded up a perfect list of responses to the clarification and comments at The Story Siren's page, and I want to focus on this one:
7. Plagiarism is not less wrong than BRINGING UP PLAGIARISM
Clearly, this blogger tried to go the “silent but deadly” route but misjudged the amount of clenching required to pass a bubble of rights-infringing flatulence. But the ones who smelt it are not the ones who dealt it. But tell that to this commenter on the blogger's “Apology” post:
This, dear readers, is what is known as victim blaming. The people who had their CREATIVE CONTENT STOLEN are depicted as being hostile and unreasonable when the plagiarist “gave them what they wanted so they demanded more” – more being the demand to have their rightful creative content, which had been taken without their permission, off the website. What divas!
Worse, this commenter flogs the plagiarist's victims for being so unclassy as to “create drama.” It's bad enough you were so ungrateful as to be angry when a popular blogger stole from you – but you had to make a stink about it, too? Why can't victims just shut up and be quiet? Why do they have to speak up and make us think about bad things when we'd rather be thinking about Hugh Jackman on a unicorn?
B. from Beautifully Invisible forwarded me some of the email she's received since Jane and I started posting about Kristi Diehm's plagiarism at The Story Siren last Monday. The sad irony is that B, Vahni, Jane and I were accused of bullying because we exposed and discussed Kristi's plagiarism. I'm not including the email addresses of the people who sent these messages, because I do not know if they are minors. I do know that they're ignorant.
Name: Kristi's Friend
Message: Dear B, I hope you are proud of yourself for ruining the reputation of one of the nicest people I have ever known. And for what? A few extra hits on your pathetic blog?
Kristi has done more for the blogging community than anyone I have ever known, and now you and your friend have started a witch hunt that will tarnish that forever. She didn't do anything wrong. Your posts weren't worth stealing. She is a better writer and human being than you could ever hope to be. So back the fuck off and call off the dogs that are out to get her.
B at Beautifully Invisible and Vahni didn't do anything to ruin Kristi Diehm's reputation. Kristi Diehm did that all on her own, by plagiarizing two people who run excellent sites about fashion and their own interests.
Name: Amy G.
Message: Get off your high horse and leave Kristi the fuck alone. She didn't do anything to you so stop making shit up.
Kristi did do something to us. Her behavior made the book blogging community look like a bunch of idiotic hypocrites who holler when we find authors plagiarizing but ask for forgiveness and receive it when one of us commits the same act.
Kristi also plagiarized six entries from two blogs, lied about it, asked to have it hidden, and then only acknowledged the matter when we started talking about it four months later.
Name: book blogger
Message: You=bitch. Kristi=awesome.
Me = 0_o?
Name: YA READER
Message: i know everyone is trying to make u 2 seem like the victims here but its clear that you & gg are just jealous of kristi. shes smart and cute and people look up to her and appreciate her and imm and she works w/tons of authors. you blog abt fashion because you arent smart enough to blog abt something important. get a life.
Check your scorecards, everyone. Smart and cute trumps dishonest theivery, and book blogging trumps fashion blogging in the rock-paper-scissors of douchebag.
Name: anon
Message: I think I need to buy you a dictionary because you clearly don't know what plagiarism is. Plagiarism involves original content and what you posted is anything but. Blogging tips? Really? My 5-year old could write those and she would do a better job than you did. So what if Kristi used your posts as a template? THAT ISN'T PLAGIARISM!!! In order for it to be plagiarism your post would have to be UNIQUE and ORIGINAL. You spent what 5 MINUTES? on those. Maybe 10? ANYONE COULD DO IT. Do a google search and you'll see what bullshit this is. Need me to spell it out for you? G-O-O-G-L-E-D-O-T-C-O-M.
Loser.
I am very concerned for this person.
Name: Lauren S.
Message: I just wanna say that you should be ashamed of yourself for doing this to Kristi. She's a sweetheart and you are just a bitch! Why don't you crawl back into the whole you came from and leave her alone?
I believe the word Lauren is looking for is “hole.” As in, “asshole.”
It sucks to bring up plagiarism, talk about it, discuss what it means and what the consequences are, because then there's hate mail from truly ignorant individuals who, as AnimeJune put it, would rather think about Hugh Jackman on a unicorn that acknowledge that someone they admire has fucked up royally.
This kind of bullshit makes it more intimidating to bring up plagiarism, and if we don't bring plagiarism up, it won't stop. But we also have to discuss the intimidating and haterating that follows any revelation of plagiarism, because those reactions also seem to follow a predictable pattern, and probably do plenty to convince those who have been plagiarized, or who have discovered it, to keep quiet because have mercy, it is not pleasant.
I do not think Kristi Diehm is responsible for the ignorance and poor decision making of anyone who reads her blog and sent hate mail to B and Vahni. I would very much like to believe that those who sent these messages have, at other times of the day, the ability to make rational decisions. They are responsible for their hate mail. This kind of response is not acceptable. It is not ok. I hope these people step on a Lego in the dark, bless their hearts.
I do blame Kristi for not being stronger and more clear in her response, but all of Kristi's edited apologies make the entire thing about her and her hurt feelings, and about hiding the fact that she did exactly what she said not to do in a now-deleted blog post about plagiarism.
I hate that there is plagiarism bingo.
But I hate that there's plagiarism more than I hate playing plagiarism bingo. If we don't talk about plagiarism, it will continue.
To quote Hubby as we were discussing this over lunch: among writers, plagiarism is like treason.
I think he's right about that. It is a betrayal of our work, our effort, and our community. Responses like these make it more intimidating for people to report plagiarism when they find it, and support that betrayal more than they support any friendship. Responses like these also make it seem that within our community, some are very forgiving of, and ignorant about plagiarism, including Kristi Diehm herself.
What more can those of us who understand plagiarism and its consequences do about situations like these?
Keep talking.
Refuse to back down when we're told we're mean and cruel for saying that plagiarism is wrong.
Keep talking and keep talking some more. Otherwise, the theft continues.
Wait til I get going!
Serve’s me right for attempting to be civil. Never any fucking point with people of this ilk.
I am very afraid to ask what happens if you turn it up to 11. Like, really. Do you need me to post Hugh Jackman on a unicorn again?
“Do you need me to post Hugh Jackman on a unicorn again?”
Depends. Am I allowed to do what I want with the horn? Cos I’m getting some great ideas from this discussion.
If the problem isn’t discussed, it encourages a culture of silence, meaning it’s that much easier to perpetuate this sort of thing and it leans to more victims of it.
May I ask you, and I’m being honest… have you ever been plagiarized? Do you know what it’s like to pour your heart and soul into your work and then have somebody try to tear it away from you?
If you haven’t, then you can’t understand the way it feels, which you have no ground to stand on when you tell people how they shouldn’t and should feel.
Do I think spitefulness and ugliness and attacks have any place in this? I personally don’t And yes, that’s coming from somebody who has been plagiarized, who has had their work stolen from them..and I understand the anger, the pain, the betrayal.
Trust me on this, it is a betrayal. It’s a slap in the face, it’s a stab right in the gut, and I can also tell you this, that a book blogger who supposedly has done so very much for the book community…that makes it even more troubling.
Now do I say this out of spite? No. She didn’t steal my words. I say this because I’ve been there, and I know what it’s like and when one person does it and nobody speaks up against it, it leads to more…and more.
Do I say this out of envy? Ah…well, what exactly do I have to be envious of? She blogs? So do I. She talks to authors? Um…well, I’m an author, I talk to authors. So why would I be envious?
Now here is something that really puzzles me…I’m really puzzled that anybody would think a blogger like Sarah would be jealous of TSS. Yes, TSS might be big in the YA world, but the SB blog is one of THE blogs in the adult romance industry. They talk to authors. They talk to publishers. and hell, SARAH is an author. What does she have to be envious?
The tone you’re seeing here is outrage, and it’s justified.
Somebody STOLE. “Allegedly”
And instead of stepping up and doing the right thing…plain and simple… “I was wrong and I screwed up, I’m sorry…” with no excuses or reasoning it away, she made a few rationalizing posts.
Then, to make matters worse, numerous emails have “allegedly” emerged where she has bullied and harassed other bloggers/reviewers…including a child. Somebody younger than my 13 year old, and let me tell you this, if she had sent that email to my kid? I would have gone on a warpath.
And now her followers are harassing those who spoke out. Instead of doing the mature thing, because I don’t believe she isn’t aware, and staying publicly, “Guys, I appreciate the supports, but I SCREWED UP. They aren’t to blame…” She is saying nothing.
All of this is perpetuating a problem.
Had she, from the beginning, just owned her problem, which is hard, but had she done that, people would have seen that. Maybe they wouldn’t have done this…“OH, these bloggers are mean and they are picking TSS crap.”
Had she stepped up and said a few days ago, “I appreciate your support, but these mistakes are mine. Please don’t attack those who spoke out…” then blog posts like this probably wouldn’t be necessary.
And I can tell you this… THAT would have earned some respect back. Because it would be doing the right thing.
And that takes courage, especially when you’ve screwed up.
but she’s not doing that. She’s carrying on as if nothing is wrong and that only adds to the problem.
Are some people getting ugly? Yes.
But she could have stopped a whole hell of a lot of it.
Nah, Ann… be civil. Because it’s proving them wrong, and despite what they think, it’s just making them look foolish. 😉
PS… it’s always interesting when you and I are on the exact same side of the line.
I make no limitations on what you do with horns.
I find it interesting that despite the fact I was perfectly civil in my response to Elizabeth, you feel it necessary to tell me to do what I was already doing.
We might be on the same side, Shiloh, but you make my teeth ache because you still have to get your snide in. Leave it alone for once, will you?
Apologies… I was joking. My tongue in cheek didn’t come thru well.
Please note that I am not a lawyer, just someone interested in intellectual property law
If you are providing links and attribution, you are probably safe from an accusation of plagiarism. However, unless you have obtained the image creator’s permission, or acquired it from one of the very few public domain image sources, there is a very good chance you are violating the artist’s copyright.
If you don’t care about copyright (and many people on the internet don’t) feel free to stop reading; but be aware that more and more copyright owners are taking legal steps to protect their materials from online theft. Some usage of artwork online is PROBABLY protected by “fair use”: for example, book covers to illustrate reviews.
But this is still a legally grey area; the courts haven’t (unfortunately) given definitive answers. Here’s a pretty good introduction: http://www.socialmediaexaminer…
I *personally* ALWAYS ask for permission. I have never had it denied to me. Many artists seem pleased to give more exposure for their work. Others don’t seem to care. It is possible (I have heard this in private communications from artists) that many *do* care, but are more fearful of the negative backlash from denying permission than of losing control of their work. (Whenever I suspect this is the case, I do not use the image)
I hope this helps.
I appreciate the apology. Thank you.
How mind-bogglingly insecure do you have to be to think that people are pointing out wrongdoings just because they’re jealous?
And why would it matter at all if they were? Are their arguments suddenly less valid because of their emotions even when they’re pointing out FACTS?
You know, that’s exactly the same kind of BS bigots come up with to dismiss anything said by a minority. “Yes I know my comment was racist but that black woman who pointed it out was just so spiteful I don’t feel like listening to her!”
Plagiarism is stealing…simple as that. And now in this age of quick-publishing, it can be stealing money from someone else.
I imagine the hate-mailers thought that they were being loyal to someone they liked; however, that doesn’t condone that type of speech (writing). Never, ever put anything online (blog, email, loop, etc) that you will not be willing and able to defend in 50 years. Online messages last forever and can be “heard” around the world.
Guys, keep defending yourself – you are in the right.
And…
Karma’s a bi—atch.
I’m really proud to be apart of your blog and community.
I wonder if these defenders of plagiarism think it is okay to copy someone else’s test or pay someone else to write an academic paper for them? Plagiarism is cheating! Maybe we should put it into terms a child would understand? Plagiarism is peeking when you are It for Hide and Seek. Plagiarism is moving up a Chute and down a Ladder. Plagiarism is using a dictionary during a spelling test. Plagiarism is copy/pasting someone else’s work and submitting it as your own. Plagiarism WILL get you expelled from Every College or University and Most High Schools! Expelled means “kicked out for life!”
Do you check to see if they have a statement about copyright WRT their photos? Some blogs do, some blogs don’t. Even if they have a Creative Commons license, there are different levels of permission and you need to check. Flickr accounts mostly have information about permission, and my experience is that a lot of them require explicit permission for each image. Unless they say in plain words that you can use their pictures without contacting them, you’re taking them without their permission. It’s nice that you link to them and give attribution, but you haven’t received permission, and depending on the copyright, you may be infringing (even if you’re not plagiarizing). So no, you’re not doing all you can.
Many bloggers are much less careful about getting image permission than they are about words, especially given they’re not using the images in a “fair use” context. It’s one of the many ironies of the internet.
This was my thought as well.
Kristi should have posted a request for her followers to behave politely and to stop sending these hate-fille emails. She has not seen fit to do that, so I can only assume that she is basking in the warm fuzzy feelings of having mindless drones rushing to her defense.
She should be ashamed of her lack action.
Sadly, I think you are totally correct: I wonder how long she will let it continue before she pulls her ‘poor martyr’ act?
Yes, I liked the rant about how their posts would only take 5 mins to write . . . erm . . . you’re making an excellent point for why Kristi shouldn’t have bothered stealing them there! DOH!
Well, at least you can take comfort that these plagarism defenders seem to lack any sort of reason, manners, intelligence, or basic writing skills. They’re hardly supporting their “case” when their whole basis seems to be “this writer rocks n you suck.”
Support writers, who sit in front of an empty page/screen and create something out of nothing. Revile plagarists who steal from the aforementioned writers, blatantly swiping their words and claiming unwarranted credit.
Treason is absolutely right. Writers stand or fall by the strength of words, and anybody who’s heard a group of practiced writers talking know that this is a craft, with its own rules and obligations. Stealing another writer’s work is unconscionable, period. End of story.
What gets me is the person insisting that the author of the original post didn’t take much time on her work (or so it’s assumed), and therefore it’s okay to take it. WTF? Stealing is wrong, whether it’s a candy bar or a bank job. “Oh, it’s just a LITTLE plagiarism” is an argument that doesn’t wash.
I teach political science. This happened to me THIS semester. I always have a statement regarding plagiarism in my syllabus, and there is a plagiarism assignment early in the semester so that no one can later claim ignorance of the issue. And yet, this semester, a student turned in a paper that was 100% copied from a paper I received last semester. I always run papers through SafeAssign or similar software for this reason.
Yes. I failed this student. In fact, since it was not the first offense ( WTF?!) the student is suspended for one year. You know what? I don’t think that’s enough, actually.
Oh. Yum. Can he be riding on the unicorn under a rainbow? Can there be glitter? He can maybe do a big production number? Wait. I need to stop. I think I need a cold shower.
But… I want the big production number, too. And glitter.
Well Said!
I started frequenting this site after my friend got me “Beyond Heaving Bosoms.” I thought the section on plagiarism in the book was fascinating. I suppose I was ignorant, but I was shocked that a publish author could get away with it for YEARS! And the reaction was even more astonishing. That because someone is “nice” they shouldn’t be punished for stealing? If someone stole your car, you would want them to be reprimanded. No one would accept “Well, he’s really handsome and nice” as an excuse to ignore it. I’m sure Bernie Madoff was really nice to his clients, does he get a free pass? Of course not. Stealing is stealing.
Also:
I laughed out loud at the “I hope they step on a lego in the dark.”
Never fear, Elise! Unicorns fart glitter.
I probably shouldn’t step into the middle of this, but: Ann, I didn’t think Shiloh was being snide, I just thought she was finishing a rhetorical argument (“tear ‘em a new one” vs. stick with what you’re doing, and “be civil”).
I think the attacks on folks who went public with the plagiarism are awful, and do appear to reflect an oft-seen rabid protection of the “beloved figure” at the expense of the victimized. At the same time, I can’t shake the feeling that the dismissals of plagiarism contained in a significant number of those attack emails are worthy of further, serious consideration.
I am so fascinated by the issue of plagiarism. I am currently teaching my second term of college, plus I have a middle-schooler, and I have to say that I think there is something missing in many discussions of plagiarism. I can’t put my finger on it, exactly, but it seems like there has been a cultural shift which is reflected in (many) younger folks’ perceptions, yet our efforts to teach the issues of plagiarism aren’t fundamentally any different than they were 30 years ago when I was in school. Yes, it’s true that students are subjected to lecture after lecture on plagiarism, but in my classes (and in the classes of my colleagues), there is always a significant portion that really, truly does. not. get. it. Even those that get that “plagiarism is reading someone else’s work and then turning around to write something that uses their words and concepts struggle to figure out how to come out the other side to original thought. (I have some students who, in an attempt to avoid plagiarizing, just paste large swaths of quotes from the text. They avoid accidental lifting, but they can’t say things in their own words.) If I’m honest, getting this right took me most of my high school and college career, too.
But back to the cultural *something*. Although the letters are petty and victim-blaming and ridiculous, I believe that we need to take their defenses seriously, at least when it comes to investigating cultural perceptions of plagiarism. I believe that to simply dismiss them as ad hominem attacks or defensive b.s. overlooks the fact that most of these letter writers believe what they are saying with regard to plagiarism. Therefore, they provide a disturbing insight into a mindset that will not be overturned by yet another lecture on plagiarism (at least, not by the lectures we’re giving these days). We are talking past each other, and if there’s any hope of bringing people around, we need to start deconstructing their language and the concepts embedded therein.
I have a few immature hypotheses about this current cultural moment and potential contributing factors, including: a) the use and reuse of images and content through internet memes; b) the majority of students learning that school is about teaching information they’ll have to regurgitate, and therefore not recognizing the process and work behind generating new ideas even when using prior ideas to get there; c) the vastness of the internet further reinforcing a perception that all “knowledge” already exists, in a very depersonalized way. I haven’t really researched this, though I’d be fascinated if a teen- or twenty-something (or a keen observer of same) has published any analytical work on the topic.
In a similarly un-considered fashion, I suspect that perhaps one of the strongest tools for fighting plagiarism might be exactly what happened in this case: The plagiarized stepping forward and describing the nature of the plagiarism, followed by widespread support of the plagiarized. I think this particular situation is such a teachable moment. If Kristi read the original posts and then wrote her own post, and didn’t really think that she was stealing content or ideas, that’s a great starting point for a discussion on “how does plagiarism work”? We probably aren’t going to reach/teach those rabid Kristi supporters, but I think a lot of others may learn a thing or two. (And I am already contemplating how to use the story to help deepen my own students’ grasp of what is or isn’t plagiarism.)
I am sure that the looming threat of this sort of attack and the ugliness that has filled emails and comment threads (plus the fears of libel lawsuits) keeps a lot of plagiarism victims from speaking up, or from naming their plagiarizers. Some of my favorite bloggers have written of their sense of violation when they discovered their own words on other sites, yet they have always made a point of not naming the plagiarists (usually because they’ve reached a private understanding with the other person, which either explicitly or implicitly requires the victim to remain mum). I wonder if a dedicated network of support would be enough to help more people speak out, or if there is anything else we could do to provide active assistance to victims of plagiarism in naming the thieves.
As of this moment, it seems her credibility remains intact. I’d love a peek at her blog stats. I am sure all this has brought her tons of traffic.
Did I say this before? Cassie Edwards’ books are still on store shelves.
I believe we will never be able to draw a distinct line. Mises.org goes on for pages and days in a single blog about Intellectual Property Rights. We cannot define who owns the 26 symbols we communicate with. We must define the parameters of using someone else’s work for your personal gain. But what about inspiration? To me, plagiarism has to be equated with copying and anyone using “inspiration” as a defense is going to have to hoe a damn rocky row. Even the concept of having information stored in a “cloud” is f-ing terrifying to me.
As I said on Twitter, while I’m always up for a rousing discussion of the one Hugh Jackman riding atop, bareback I might add, a unicorn, I’d much prefer to not perform my colonoscopy with my own face. I’ve said by bit on all of this but the hate mail going to the victims is truly disgusting. People make me lose faith in humanity.
Carrie Gwaltney – That is beyond depressing. My daughter attends an academically rigorous, rather old-fashioned private school that makes a big deal out of its honor code. If I ever found out that the administration caved in to parents on such a serious issue I would raise holy hell.
Keep at it Smart Bitches! You are in the right and if they commit the wrong, they need to accept the consequences.
Thanks to Smart Bitches (Sarah especially) for addressing the problem of the Story Siren’s radio silence and reporting/commenting on the harrassment you and the Jane and the REAL victims of this intellectual property theft have faced.
You have all my admiration for speaking up against a wrong and not letting the bullies get to you.
I’m not a writer or involved in the writing community in any way other than as a reader, but I have recently experienced a similar situation in which I felt someone was treated wrongly. It was not just harsh or not nice. It was WRONG. As timid as I normally am, I spoke up in her defense and now feel like I’m a target. Of a small group of grown women – mothers, wives, professionals in their 30s and 40s. Because I told them I didn’t think someone was unreasonable to challenge their questionable behavior and didn’t deserve the retaliation they were dishing out.
Some people clearly never mature beyond high school. It makes me deeply sad for our society and for my own young daughter.
I love it. BE NICE. If you’ve been wronged or see that someone has been wronged and you speak up about it, that’s nice nice. If you’re not nice, it’s because you’re a creature driven solely by jealousy. Because women who can’t BE NICE are a bunch of jealous bitches. YAY FEMINISM.
Weighing in as a high school teacher here, who has to struggle constantly with the cut-and-paste wikipedia culture. (By the way, whatever health teacher did that should have to run a gauntlet of her angry colleagues in the English and History departments. She. Would. Never. Do. It. Again.) I agree with Saturngrl that many students don’t seem to get why plagiarism is wrong. So this year, I’ve actually started linking it to lessons on formal academic writing style. My new spiel goes (more or less): “Don’t use “in my opinion” or “I think” or similar first person expressions in a formal paper because they’re unnecessary words. They’re unnecessary words because OF COURSE it’s your opinion, or you wouldn’t be writing it. And if it’s NOT your opinion or something YOU think, then you should be citing it. Because it’s someone else’s opinion. So you have to SAY it’s their opinion. (Or their fact.)” It’s early days yet, but I’m cautiously optimistic that this is at least a way of framing the debate that the kids understand. Has anyone else in the teaching field tried this tack? Any results?
So, since I don’t follow YA at all, what is the ultimate fate of this plagiarist? Anything concrete yet?
Have any publishing houses come out to speak against her and say that they are not sending her any more ARCs? Has any advertising been pulled?
Again, I ask in all seriousness – if nothing happens to her except her “credibility” is called into question, then how will this deter future plagiarism? Because it doesn’t seem like being known as a thief is really affecting her.
You make an interesting comment, that these people accuse you guys of being bullies by “starting drama”. A group of us have also been called that because we were defending a fellow blogger friend of ours when she was getting harassed, bullied and plagiarized. It’s amazing how delusional people can get when they’re trying so desperately to uphold that online persona and not have their followers become aware of their missteps. Denying it rather than ‘fessing up to it makes it worse. Even worse is when they sling arrows back in the other direction so they can build an army of supporters with the followers who don’t know the whole story.
“To quote Hubby as we were discussing this over lunch: among writers, plagiarism is like treason.”
I couldn’t agree with you and your hubby…yep 100%