[governance] Plagiarism and intellectual property

Sat Dec 17 03:44:09 EST 2011

Dear Dierdre,
No one is capable of making a clear distinction between what they have
thought and written and what somebody else has thought and written —
though academics sometimes like to delude themselves into thinking
otherwise.  That is not to say that I don't think 'plagiarism' is a
problem: just that isn't the kind of problem that you've painted it out
to be.

There's a beautiful essay by Jonathan Lethem looking at 'plagiarism' in
art and culture: <http://goo.gl/2Yfoa> ("The ecstasy of influence: A
plagiarism", Harper's Magazine, February 2007).  I'm not sure how much
of it are his ideas, and how much those of Harper's editors.

And a better-known rhyme (for the film-watchers, that is):

You must remember this,
A kiss is just a kiss,
A sigh is just a sigh,
The fundamental things apply,
As time goes by.

– Herman Hupfeld (though he might have stolen the idea from the
gorse-kissing-fashion rhyme)

Regards,
Pranesh

Deirdre Williams [2011-12-14 20:42]:
> Jovan and Norbert,
> Norbert first - of course I agree with you. How can you add to 'the total
> of human knowledge' if you are apparently incapable of making a distinction
> between what you have thought and written and what somebody else has
> thought and written?
> Jovan - I read the 2007 discussion with interest. I wonder whether in fact
> it's 85% of students or 85% of work submitted - but then I never was much
> good at statistics.
> I thought perhaps that I was forcing an irrelevant digression from what
> this list is about, but no, although I have changed the subject line to
> make the point clearer.
> Our world, virtual and physical, places great store on property and on
> ownership. Our societies disapprove of and punish those who don't respect
> what is implied by 'ownership' - the thieves. The production of
> intellectual property is really HARD work; surely our sympathies lie with
> the creator rather than with the person who stole and claimed ownership.
> Ownership is not about money. It admits sharing. In fact the person whose
> work was plagiarised was expressing 'willingness to share' by the act of
> publication. He or she displayed trust and asked for honesty.
> Jovan sent me off on a nostalgia trip to a rhyme I had learned as a child:
> "When gorse is out of blossom,"
> (Its prickles bare of gold)
> "Then kissing's out of fashion,"
> Said country-folk of old.
> Thank you CM Barker, and Google for knowing about it as well. What does our
> discussion have to do with gorse (or kissing)? Well the point is that gorse
> always has blossoms, and kissing's always in fashion. So is honesty.
> Honesty is the social Higgs boson that holds everything together. Without
> at least some honesty I believe that societies would crumble and fail.
> Plagiarism is a fancy name for lack of honesty, as it is also a fancy name
> for theft. If we change the rules to allow plagiarism it seems to me that
> we condone theft and encourage dishonesty and end up having to redesign our
> society completely. And the way I see it we have very little, if anything,
> to gain from the change.
> Deirdre
> 
> On 14 December 2011 13:02, Jovan Kurbalija <jovank at diplomacy.edu> wrote:
> 
>>  Deirdre,
>>
>> You reminded me of an interesting discussion on plagiarism triggered by
>> the news that 85% of university students in the United States are involved
>> in some sort of plagiarism.  Can 85% of students be wrong? Should we invest
>> in a better anti plagiarism software or start considering a new educational
>> paradigm? Like with many other policy issues, there is a mix of causes and
>> effects. Here is the link to the discussion from 2007 which is still valid
>> today: http://wp.me/p81We-m
>>
>> Regards, Jovan
>>
>> On 12/14/11 4:12 PM, Deirdre Williams wrote:
>>
>> This discussion interests me for a slightly different reason.
>> I have been wondering for some time now whether the norm about plagiarism
>> isn't shifting as the norm about privacy seems to be doing. Privacy is
>> still important but the things considered "private" seem to have changed.
>> With the issue of plagiarism - we are being encouraged to "remix" from the
>> existing. Does this carry with it the idea that, once published,
>> information is "free"? When I asked this question on the Diplo ning I was
>> assured that the "old" rule still obtains - if you borrow someone else's
>> intellectual property you must acknowledge where/who it came from.
>> But now I wonder again - in changing times is plagiarism not as wicked as
>> it used to be?
>> Deirdre
>>
>> On 14 December 2011 10:36, Norbert Bollow <nb at bollow.ch> wrote:
>>
>>>> Given that the general reaction to this appointment could not have come
>>> as a
>>>> surprise to Mme. Kroes or her staff one really has to ask why it was
>>> made.
>>>
>>>  Indeed. And she's legally obligated to give the reasons (when the
>>> question is formally asked) why such a scandalous person was chosen
>>> instead of conducting a more normal kind of search for a well-qualified
>>> and suitable person to fill this role:
>>>
>>> According to Article 41 of the EU's Charter of Fundamental Rights [1],
>>> which has been ratified by all EU member countries as part of the
>>> Lisbon Treaty, there is a right to good administration which includes
>>> in particular "the obligation of the administration to give reasons
>>> for its decisions".
>>>
>>> [1] http://www.europarl.europa.eu/charter/
>>>
>>> Greetings,
>>> Norbert
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>>
>>
>>  --
>> “The fundamental cure for poverty is not money but knowledge" Sir William
>> Arthur Lewis, Nobel Prize Economics, 1979
>>
>>
>>
>>   <http://www.diplomacy.edu/Courses/Humanitarian.asp>****
>>
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> 
> 

-- 
Pranesh Prakash
Programme Manager
Centre for Internet and Society
W: http://cis-india.org | T: +91 80 40926283

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