Week 3 blog assignment

“Should a charge of plagiarism ruin you life?” discusses several occasions where there has been theft, not necessarily of physical property, but a thought or a sound. What are the guidelines between basing your story off someone else’s, and copying? Byrony Lavery did not commit a crime by basing his play off of the true life of Dorothy Lewis. However, after this incident was announced to the public, she was bashed out of the business. Malcom said that he didn’t even wish this upon the thief of his work. Lavery should have approached Gladwell and asked permission in order to make his play right. The reputation of Lavery would still be in tact if he had done so.

The medical journal written by Gladwell based on Lewis’s interactions with serial killers set a perfect basis for the play written by Lavery. Although the play was not literally word for word with the medical journal, there were several instances where in fact the words did match up and the events were too detailed and close to be a coincidence.

The Beastie Boys were also accused of steal a 6 second introduction to their song from James Newton. James Newton tried to sue the Beastie Boys, however his evidence was not strong enough to convince to courts of anything. In order to borrow parts of a song, you must first ask permission from the label, then the musician, then if there is a separate owner to the song, them also. The Black Eyed Peas are another example of a group who are being accused of stealing the instrumentals from Freeland. I listened to it myself and it couldn’t be any more obvious it was stolen.

Although plagiarism is wrong, it is very tough deciphering what plagiarism exactly is. The two basic types of plagiarism are intentional and unintentional. When someone intentionally plagiarizes or steals something, they deserve to be punished or sued. How ever, unless it is blatantly obvious that someone was intentionally copying, the offender should be taught how to properly cite of give credit to the originator.