How many words can you lift from another writer’s work before it becomes plagiarism?
I raised the question in a correspondence this week with a columnist who use a lot of identical and similar words from a magazine article. And I raised them with the columnist’s editor, who rejected the magazine writer’s accusation that he had been plagiarized.
The magazine writer, Dan Carlinsky, called the matter to my attention after I had written some posts about plagiarism by Fareed Zakaria. I was reluctant to take up the case. My plate is full with a variety of personal and professional matters, and I’m reluctant to start becoming a plagiarism cop. But I decided to hear him out, and the editor’s dismissive response helped me decide that I needed to blog about this.
I take plagiarism and attribution seriously, and the editor, publisher and corporate executive Carlinsky dealt with in this case didn’t appear to take the matter seriously. (more…)
The Buttry Diary 