Today’s topic is plagiarism. I’m certain most people have heard the term before, and most likely have an idea of what the term means. So everyone is on the same page, I will now provide a definition.
“Plagiarism is the use or close imitation of the language and ideas of another author and representation of them as one’s own original work.”
–Wikipedia
See how I quoted the definition and then named and linked back to its source? Not plagiarism. Had I instead opted to use that sentence without quoting it and without attribution, leaving it to be perceived as being a sentence of my very own creation, that would have been plagiarism.
Plagiarism is a big deal in the creative and academic worlds. Careers have been destroyed and lives ruined due to acts of plagiarism. It’s a serious charge and offense.
So why is today’s topic plagiarism? Well, recently a thread was posted to Metatalk concerning the fact that a well-known daily web comic –User Friendly– had seemingly lifted a comment, word-for-word, from someone at Metafilter for use as the punchline in one of the strips. Upon deeper (and ongoing) investigation, more examples of plagiarism were (and are being) discovered.
Here are the current examples of said plagiarism found to date … with links to the Metfilter comment used:
June 29, 2007 – Metafilter
July 17, 2007 – Metafilter
January 12, 2009 – Metafilter
January 27, 2009 – Metafilter
February 12, 2009 – Metafilter
February 13, 2009 – Metafilter
February 16, 2009 – Metafilter
February 23, 2009 – Metafilter
There have been some others recently found, as well as some from other sites, but I believe these are enough for now to prove that J.D. Frazer has plagiarized other people’s commentary for use as punchlines in his comic strip, which he claims is 100% his own creation and for which he claims full copyright.
When first presented with the initial proof that he had copied a Metafilter comment verbatim for a punchline, what was his first reaction in the Metatalk thread?
“I plead guilty to the first link mentioned here. I really liked it and succumbed. I unequivocally deserve said tarring.
I plead not entirely guilty to today’s cartoon. That quote I received in e-mail from a reader, and I thought it was his/hers. I get a lot of those, and it’s my fault I don’t check them as religiously as I should.
Either way, I promise to be a lot more careful about it from here on. I sincerely apologize.”
– J.D. “Illiad” Frazer
This is a fairly typical ploy for people who have been caught doing something they shouldn’t have been doing. Take responsibility for one small part of it, and then blame the rest on someone else. I once accepted responsibility for my mom’s favorite music box being out on the coffee table, it was the dog that broke it. Of course, I was eight years old at the time. What sounds like masterful lying at age eight is easily sniffed out when it comes from the mouth of an adult. When it became obvious that his fellow Metafilter members weren’t going to let it drop, he more forcefully attempted to blame others, while still taking a little of the blame himself.
“It dawned on me with some cold chills that this might have happened more than once. I get a flurry of submissions and one-liners every week, and I haven’t checked many of them at all, because I rarely had to in the past. This just makes me look like an ass, either way.
Sorry, MeFi. I confess to one such infraction freely, but if there are others…well. I don’t know if it matters what I say.”
–J.D. “Illiad” Frazer
Because it’s far more plausible that someone emailed him a bunch of Metafilter comments, thinking they were funny, rather than him actually seeing and reading them himself in threads in which he had participated at Metafilter? Please.
Eventually, he begins to apologize and take full responsibility, not by openly admitting he took the words himself but by saying using things people email him without checking them first “amounts to the same thing.” No, it isn’t. One is just stupid, and one is a deliberate action on his part. Eventually, after much badgering, he makes a post to his web site, listing the first three examples of plagiarized content (the cartoons now having been removed, of course), and apologizes for using comments from Metafilter “unthinkingly without attribution.”
That’s the back story on the rant I feel I must have in order to get it out of my system. Yes, that’s a lot of back story … a little over a thousand words. Since it’s after 3 am, and I should either be sleeping or doing something more constructive with my late-night time, I’ll close this out for now and begin ranting anew later. Well, maybe more like “begin ranting” … since I haven’t even begun the rant yet. This should be enough to keep you busy for now.