Thursday, April 23, 2009

Definitions of Plagiarism and HWA

Here is what Wikipedia has to say about plagiarism. If we apply these standards to HWA what shall be the conclusion? The following come from the introduction. Among other things it shows that it is a serious offense. (All emphases are mine.)

Plagiarism, as defined in the 1995 Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary, is the "use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work."...Within academia, plagiarism by students, professors, or researchers is considered academic dishonesty or academic fraud and offenders are subject to academic censure, up to and including EXPULSION. In journalism, plagiarism is considered a breach of journalistic ethics, and reporters caught plagiarizing typically face disciplinary measures ranging from suspension to TERMINATION.

It is well known that the booklet Has Time Been Lost? was actually a plagiarism of a COG7 booklet of the same name dating back at least to 1925. It appears that the COG7 booklet was in the public domain at the time HWA wrote his book. Observe what Wikipedia also has to say on that sort of matter.

Plagiarism is not copyright infringement. While both terms may apply to a particular act, they are different transgressions. Copyright infringement is a violation of the rights of a copyright holder, when material protected by copyright is used without consent. On the other hand, plagiarism is concerned with the unearned increment to the plagiarizing author's reputation that is achieved through false claims of authorship.

So HWA using the non-copyrighted COG7 booklet is also an act of plagiarism.

How can anyone believe otherwise?

As seen previously those who continue to deny the truth respond by narrowly defining "plagiarism" as "copying". (I am indebted to Mr. William Hofmann for inspiring the highlighted phrase in his review of Mystery of the Ages) It is only on such unrealistic terms that they are able to deny HWA's obvious plagiarism.

That is not good enough.

HWA is a plagiarizer.

No comments:

Post a Comment