List of plagiarism controversies
Encyclopedia
The list of plagiarism controversies is a summary of publicized affairs wherein plagiarism
was center of scrutiny.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is defined in dictionaries as the "wrongful appropriation," "close imitation," or "purloining and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions," and the representation of them as one's own original work, but the notion remains problematic with nebulous...
was center of scrutiny.
Academia
- The 11th-century Muslim scholar Al-Khatib al-BaghdadiAl-Khatib al-BaghdadiAbu Bakr Ahmad ibn `Ali ibn Thabit ibn Ahmad ibn Mahdi al-Shafi`i, commonly known as al-Khatib al-Baghdadi or the lecturer from Baghdad , was a Sunni Muslim scholar and historian.-Early life:...
considered the Book of Animals of Al-JahizAl-JahizAl-Jāḥiẓ was an Arabic prose writer and author of works of literature, Mu'tazili theology, and politico-religious polemics.In biology, Al-Jahiz introduced the concept of food chains and also proposed a scheme of animal evolution that entailed...
(d. 869) to be "little more than a plagiarismPlagiarismPlagiarism is defined in dictionaries as the "wrongful appropriation," "close imitation," or "purloining and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions," and the representation of them as one's own original work, but the notion remains problematic with nebulous...
" of Aristotle's Kitāb al-HayawānKitab al-Hayawan (Aristotle)The Kitāb al-hayawān is an Arabic translation in 19 treatises of the following zoological texts by Aristotle:Historia Animalium : treatises 1-10De Partibus Animalium : treatises 11-14...
, a charge that was once levelled against Aristotle himself with regard to a certain "Asclepiades of Pergamum". Later scholars have noted that there was only a limited AristotelianAristotelianismAristotelianism is a tradition of philosophy that takes its defining inspiration from the work of Aristotle. The works of Aristotle were initially defended by the members of the Peripatetic school, and, later on, by the Neoplatonists, who produced many commentaries on Aristotle's writings...
influence in al-Jahiz's work, and that al-Baghdadi may have been unacquainted with Aristotle's work. - James A. MackayJames A. MackayJames Alexander Mackay was a prolific Scottish writer and philatelist whose reputation was damaged by a criminal conviction for theft and repeated accusations of plagiarism. In an obituary by John Holman, Editor of the British Philatelic Bulletin, Mackay was described as a "philatelic writer...
, a ScottishScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
historian, was forced to withdraw all copies of his biography of Alexander Graham BellAlexander Graham BellAlexander Graham Bell was an eminent scientist, inventor, engineer and innovator who is credited with inventing the first practical telephone....
from circulation in 1998 because he plagiarized the last major work on the subject, a 1973 work. Also accused of plagiarizing material on biographies of Mary, Queen of Scots, Andrew CarnegieAndrew CarnegieAndrew Carnegie was a Scottish-American industrialist, businessman, and entrepreneur who led the enormous expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century...
, and Sir William Wallace, he was forced to withdraw his next work, on John Paul JonesJohn Paul JonesJohn Paul Jones was a Scottish sailor and the United States' first well-known naval fighter in the American Revolutionary War. Although he made enemies among America's political elites, his actions in British waters during the Revolution earned him an international reputation which persists to...
, in 1999 for an identical reason. - Marks Chabedi, a professor at the University of the WitwatersrandUniversity of the WitwatersrandThe University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg is a South African university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. It is more commonly known as Wits University...
in South Africa, plagiarized his doctoral thesis. He used a work written by Kimberly Lanegran at the University of FloridaUniversity of FloridaThe University of Florida is an American public land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant research university located on a campus in Gainesville, Florida. The university traces its historical origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its present Gainesville campus since September 1906...
and copied it nearly verbatim before submitting it to The New SchoolThe New SchoolThe New School is a university in New York City, located mostly in Greenwich Village. From its founding in 1919 by progressive New York academics, and for most of its history, the university was known as the New School for Social Research. Between 1997 and 2005 it was known as New School University...
. When Lanegran discovered this, she launched an investigation into Chabedi. He was fired from his professorship, and The New School revoked his Ph.D. - Historian Stephen AmbroseStephen AmbroseStephen Edward Ambrose was an American historian and biographer of U.S. Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and Richard Nixon. He was a long time professor of history at the University of New Orleans and the author of many best selling volumes of American popular history...
has been criticized for incorporating passages from the works of other authors into many of his books. He was first accused in 2002 by two writers for copying portions about World War IIWorld War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
bomber pilots from Thomas Childers's The Wings of Morning in his book The Wild Blue. After Ambrose admitted to the errors, the New York Times found further unattributed passages, and "Mr. Ambrose again acknowledged his errors and promised to correct them in later editions." - Norman Finkelstein has charged Alan DershowitzAlan DershowitzAlan Morton Dershowitz is an American lawyer, jurist, and political commentator. He has spent most of his career at Harvard Law School where in 1967, at the age of 28, he became the youngest full professor of law in its history...
with committing plagiarism by using material from Joan PetersJoan PetersJoan Peters is a former CBS news producer of otherwise unnamed documentaries, and the author best known for a number of theses on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, put forward in her book From Time Immemorial, published in 1984 in which she claims that the Palestinians are largely not indigenous...
's 1984 book From Time ImmemorialFrom Time ImmemorialFrom Time Immemorial: The Origins of the Arab-Jewish Conflict over Palestine is a 1984 book by Joan Peters about the demographics of the Arab population of Palestine and of the Jewish population of the Arab world before and after the formation of the State of Israel.According to the book a large...
in his book The Case for IsraelThe Case for IsraelThe Case for Israel is a New York Times bestseller by Alan Dershowitz, a law professor at Harvard University. The book responds to common criticisms of Israel....
, without giving proper credit. See "Dershowitz–Finkelstein affair". - Author Doris Kearns GoodwinDoris Kearns GoodwinDoris Kearns Goodwin is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American biographer and historian, and an oft-seen political commentator. She is the author of biographies of several U.S...
interviewed author Lynne McTaggart in her 1987 book The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys, and she used passages from McTaggart's book about Kathleen Kennedy. In 2002, when the similarities between Goodwin's and McTaggart's books became public, Goodwin stated that she had an understanding that citations would not be required for all references, and that extensive footnotes already existed. Many doubted her claims, and she was forced to resign from the Pulitzer Prize board. - Mathematician and computer scientist Dănuţ MarcuDanut MarcuDănuţ Marcu is a Romanian mathematician and computer scientist, who received his Ph.D. from the University of Bucharest in 1981. He claims to have authored more than 398 scientific papers....
claims to have published over 383 original papers in various scientific publications. A number of his recent papers have been shown to be exact copies of papers published earlier by other authors. - A University of Colorado investigating committee found Ethnic Studies professor and activist Ward ChurchillWard ChurchillWard LeRoy Churchill is an author and political activist. He was a professor of ethnic studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder from 1990 to 2007. The primary focus of his work is on the historical treatment of political dissenters and Native Americans by the United States government...
guilty of multiple counts of plagiarism, fabrication, and falsification. After the Chancellor recommended Churchill's dismissal to the Board of Regents, Churchill was fired on 24 July 2007. - Physicist and Vice Chancellor of Kumaon University, India, Prof. B.S. Rajput resigned in 2003 after he and a student were found guilty of plagiarism of a paper (which formed part of the student's thesis).
- In 2007 researchers of Anna University ChennaiAnna University ChennaiAnna University, Chennai is a technological university based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. It was established on 1 February 2007 from the splitting of Anna University into six universities, namely, Anna University, Chennai, Anna University of Technology, Chennai, Anna University of Technology,...
in Madras published a paper in the Journal of Materials ScienceJournal of Materials ScienceJournal of Materials Science is a peer-reviewed, scientific journal dedicated to materials science. Founded in 1966 by Robert W. Cahn, the journal is published bi-monthly by Springer...
, an exact copy of an article from the University of Linköping published in PNAS - In April 2008, James Twitchell, a professor of literature at the University of Florida, admitted having plagiarized and falsified the works of multiple authors.
- In June 2008, Columbia UniversityColumbia UniversityColumbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
announced that Madonna ConstantineMadonna ConstantineMadonna G. Constantine is a former psychology and education professor at Columbia University's Teachers College. She was fired in 2008 on grounds of plagiarism.- Education and early career :...
, a professor of psychology and education at Columbia University's Teachers CollegeTeachers College, Columbia UniversityTeachers College, Columbia University is a graduate school of education located in New York City, New York...
, was to be fired (with immediate suspension) on grounds of plagiarism. - In March 2010, Manuel V. PangilinanManuel V. PangilinanManuel V Pangilinan , also known as Manny Pangilinan and MVP, is a Filipino businessman. He is the Chairman of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company, from 1998 up to the present....
, a prominent Filipino businessman and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Ateneo de Manila UniversityAteneo de Manila UniversityThe Ateneo de Manila University is a private teaching and research university run by the Society of Jesus in the Philippines. It began in 1859 when the City of Manila handed control of the Escuela Municipal de Manila in Intramuros, Manila, to the Jesuits...
, was found to have given a commencement speech that contained numerous lines lifted from speeches of other prominent public figures. Pangilinan offered to resign from his post at the university, which was rejected by the Board of Trustees, a move which garnered controversy. - In March 2010, Prof. Wang HuiWang Hui (intellectual)Wang Hui is a professor in the Department of Chinese Language and Literature, Tsinghua University, Beijing. His researches focus on contemporary Chinese literature and intellectual history. He was the executive editor of the influential magazine Dushu from May 1996 to July 2007...
of Department of Chinese Language and Literature, Tsinghua UniversityTsinghua UniversityTsinghua University , colloquially known in Chinese as Qinghua, is a university in Beijing, China. The school is one of the nine universities of the C9 League. It was established in 1911 under the name "Tsinghua Xuetang" or "Tsinghua College" and was renamed the "Tsinghua School" one year later...
, was charged by Wang Binbin, a professor of literature from Nanjing UniversityNanjing UniversityNanjing University , or Nanking University, is one of the oldest and most prestigious institutions of higher learning in China...
, of plagiarism found in his doctoral dissertation on Lu XunLu XunLu Xun or Lu Hsün , was the pen name of Zhou Shuren , one of the major Chinese writers of the 20th century. Considered by many to be the leading figure of modern Chinese literature, he wrote in baihua as well as classical Chinese...
. Wang Binbin also sampled one chapter in Wang Hui's four-volume magnum opus The Rise of Modern Chinese Thought, and accused Wang Hui of abuse of the sources.
Business
- David Greer, the deputy chief executive of Sakhalin EnergySakhalin EnergySakhalin Energy Investment Company Ltd. is a consortium for developing the Sakhalin-II oil and gas project with corporate head office in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. The Chief Executive Officer is Andrei Galaev...
circulated to Sakhalin-2 staff a motivational memo in the form of an email. Inspirational passages were appropriated from a famous speech given by U.S. General George S. PattonGeorge S. PattonGeorge Smith Patton, Jr. was a United States Army officer best known for his leadership while commanding corps and armies as a general during World War II. He was also well known for his eccentricity and controversial outspokenness.Patton was commissioned in the U.S. Army after his graduation from...
, on 5 June 1944, the eve of D-DayD-DayD-Day is a term often used in military parlance to denote the day on which a combat attack or operation is to be initiated. "D-Day" often represents a variable, designating the day upon which some significant event will occur or has occurred; see Military designation of days and hours for similar...
.
Computer games
- Atari's video game PongPongPong is one of the earliest arcade video games, and is a tennis sports game featuring simple two-dimensional graphics. While other arcade video games such as Computer Space came before it, Pong was one of the first video games to reach mainstream popularity...
was accused by MagnavoxMagnavoxMagnavox is a US electronics company founded by Edwin Pridham and Peter L. Jensen, who invented the moving-coil loudspeaker in 1915 at their lab in Napa, California. They formed Magnavox in 1917 in order to market their inventions....
of being a copy of the Odyssey's tennis game. Nolan BushnellNolan BushnellNolan K. Bushnell is an American engineer and entrepreneur who founded both Atari, Inc and the Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza-Time Theaters chain...
saw Ralph Baer's version at a 1972 electronics show in Burlingame, CaliforniaBurlingame, CaliforniaBurlingame is a city in San Mateo County, California. It is located on the San Francisco Peninsula and has a significant shoreline on San Francisco Bay. The city is named after diplomat Anson Burlingame. It is renowned for its many surviving examples of Victorian architecture, its affluence, and...
. Bushnell then founded Atari and established Pong as its featured game. "Baer and Magnavox filed suit against Bushnell and Atari in 1973 and finally reached an out-of-court settlement in 1976. It marked the end for Odyssey and the beginning of the Atari age." - Several instances of plagiarism have occurred at computer game competitions such as the World Computer Chess ChampionshipWorld Computer Chess ChampionshipWorld Computer Chess Championship is an annual event where computer chess engines compete against each other. The event is organized by the International Computer Games Association...
. In 1998, the Go program KCC Igo was found to have plagiarized the previous champion Handtalk. Although not disqualified at the time, KCC Igo was barred from participating in the Computer OlympiadComputer OlympiadThe Computer Olympiads are a multi-games event taking place every year in which computer programs compete against each other. The majority of the games are board games but other games such as Bridge take place as well...
a decade later. In 2011, early versions of the four-time chessChessChess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
champion RybkaRybkaRybka is a computer chess engine designed by International Master Vasik Rajlich. , Rybka is one of the top-rated engines on chess engine rating lists and has won many computer chess tournaments...
was found to have plagiarized CraftyCraftyCrafty is a chess program written by UAB professor Dr. Robert Hyatt. It is directly derived from Cray Blitz, winner of the 1983 and 1986 World Computer Chess Championships....
and Fruit. Rybka was stripped of its four titles and banned from future participation in the WCCC. - The adventure game Limbo of the LostLimbo of the LostLimbo of the Lost is a traditional point-and-click adventure game that follows the adventures of Benjamin Briggs, captain of the Mary Celeste, as he explores the depths of Limbo in the Keep of Lost Souls. It was the only game developed by Majestic Studios, a studio founded in 1993 and consisting of...
has been found to contain large amounts of graphics and sound files identical to those from other computer games. It was immediately recalled by the publisher.
Journalism
- In 1999, writer and television commentator Monica CrowleyMonica CrowleyMonica Crowley is an American conservative radio and television commentator, and author based in New York City. She has her own radio show and is a regular commentator on The McLaughlin Group, a Fox News contributor, and Washington Times columnist.-Education:Crowley holds a B.A. in Political...
allegedly plagiarized part of an article she wrote for the Wall Street Journal (August 9, 1999), called "The Day Nixon Said Goodbye." The Journal ran an apology the same week. Timothy NoahTimothy NoahTimothy Robert Noah is an American journalist. He is a senior editor of The New Republic, where he writes the TRB column and a political blog...
of Slate Magazine later wrote of the striking similarities in her article to phrases Paul Johnson used in his 1988 article for CommentaryCommentary (magazine)Commentary is a monthly American magazine on politics, Judaism, social and cultural issues. It was founded by the American Jewish Committee in 1945. By 1960 its editor was Norman Podhoretz, a liberal at the time who moved sharply to the right in the 1970s and 1980s becoming a strong voice for the...
called "In Praise of Richard Nixon". - New York Times reporter Jayson BlairJayson BlairJayson Blair is an American reporter formerly with The New York Times. He resigned from the newspaper in May 2003 in the wake of the discovery of plagiarism and fabrication in his stories. Since 2007 he has worked as a life coach in the field of mental health.-Background:Blair was born in...
plagiarized articles and manufactured quotations in stories, including stories regarding Jessica LynchJessica LynchJessica Dawn Lynch is a former Private First Class in the United States Army Quartermaster Corps. Lynch served in Iraq during the 2003 invasion by U.S. and allied forces. On March 23, 2003 she was injured and captured by Iraqi forces but was recovered on April 1 by U.S...
and the Beltway sniper attacksBeltway sniper attacksThe Washington sniper attacks took place during three weeks in October 2002 in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. Ten people were killed and three others critically injured in various locations throughout the Washington Metropolitan Area and along Interstate 95 in Virginia...
. He and several editors from the Times resigned in June 2003. - Moorestown Township, New JerseyMoorestown Township, New Jersey-Demographics:At the 2000 census, there were 19,017 people, 6,971 households, and 5,270 families residing in the township. The population density was 1,287.3 per square mile . There were 7,211 housing units at an average density of 488.1 per square mile...
, high-school student Blair HornstineBlair HornstineHornstine v. Moorestown was a 2003 case in U.S. Federal District Court that considered whether grades received by a student with a disability for classes where accommodations had been made under an Individualized Education Program could be discounted in awarding valedictorian honors...
had her admission to Harvard UniversityHarvard UniversityHarvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
revoked in July 2003 after she was found to have passed off speeches and writings by famous figures, including Bill ClintonBill ClintonWilliam Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
, as hers in articles she wrote as a student journalist for a local newspaper. - Long-time Baltimore Sun columnist Michael OleskerMichael OleskerMichael Olesker was a columnist for the Baltimore Sun newspaper in Baltimore, Maryland. He resigned on January 4, 2006, after it was alleged that his columns contained passages plagiarized from articles at other newspapers. Olesker is known for his liberal viewpoints and for his criticism of the...
resigned on January 4, 2006, after being accused of plagiarizing other journalists' articles in his columns. - Conservative blogBlogA blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
ger Ben DomenechBen DomenechBen Domenech is an American conservative writer and blogger who co-founded the RedState group blog. In March 2006, he was hired to write a conservative blog for washingtonpost.com but resigned after three days amid allegations of plagiarism during his college years...
, soon after he was hired to write a blog for the Washington Post in 2006, was found to have plagiarized a number of columns and articles he'd written for his college newspaper and National ReviewNational ReviewNational Review is a biweekly magazine founded by the late author William F. Buckley, Jr., in 1955 and based in New York City. It describes itself as "America's most widely read and influential magazine and web site for conservative news, commentary, and opinion."Although the print version of the...
Online, lifting passages from a variety of sources ranging from well-known pundits to amateur film critics. Domenech ultimately apologized and resigned. - Boston Globe columnist Mike BarnicleMike BarnicleMichael "Mike" Barnicle is an award-winning American print and broadcast journalist as well as a social and political commentator. He is a frequent contributor and occasional guest host on MSNBC's Morning Joe and Hardball with Chris Matthews and is frequently seen on NBC's Today Show with...
was forced to resign when it was revealed that amid other allegations, his Globe column dated August 2, 1998 contained 10 lifted passages from George CarlinGeorge CarlinGeorge Denis Patrick Carlin was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, actor and author, who won five Grammy Awards for his comedy albums....
's 1997 book Brain DroppingsBrain DroppingsBrain Droppings is a 1997 book by comedian George Carlin. This was Carlin's "first real book" and contains much of Carlin's stand-up comedy material...
. - A Pakistani ezine, Wecite, was found to have plagiarised as many as 11 articles in its May 2007 issue, many of them verbatim, from various sources on the web, including Hindustan TimesHindustan TimesHindustan Times is an Indian English-language daily newspaper founded in 1924 with roots in the Indian independence movement of the period ....
, RediffRediff.comRediff.com India is a news, information, entertainment, and shopping portal. It was founded in 1996 as "Rediff On The NeT" and is headquartered in Mumbai, India with offices in New Delhi and New York City, USA....
, BlogcriticsBlogcriticsBlogcritics is a blog network and online magazine of news and opinion. The site—a self-proclaimed "sinister cabal of superior writers"—was founded in 2002 by Eric Olsen and Phillip Winn...
, Vis-a-Vis magazine and Slate magazines. The ezine management pulled the website and apologised, terming the plagiarism a product of the "mis-use" of authority by writers and editors of the magazines, and promising to deal with the plagiarists accordingly but "by no means" letting the "genuine efforts of its [other] writers, administration, and management suffer for it". - In an October 2007 column for The Sun-HeraldThe Sun-HeraldThe Sun-Herald is an Australian tabloid newspaper published on Sundays in Sydney by Fairfax Media. It is the Sunday counterpart of The Sydney Morning Herald. In the 6 months to September 2005, The Sun-Herald had a circulation of 515,000...
, Australian television presenter David Koch plagiarised verbatim three lines from a column in The Sunday TelegraphThe Daily Telegraph (Australia)The Daily Telegraph is an Australian tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, by Nationwide News, part of News Corporation.The Tele, as it is also known, was founded in 1879. From 1936 to 1972, it was owned by Frank Packer's Australian Consolidated Press. That year it was sold to...
. Koch stated to Media Watch: "... it has since been pointed out to me that these 3 sentences look as though they came from a similar story in another newspaper. While that was not obvious in the research brief it isn't an excuse and I take full responsibility for the mistake." - In August 2008, Slate Magazine's music critic Jody Rosen accused The Bulletin, an alternative weekly published in Texas, of numerous instances of plagiarism.
- In May 2009, Maureen DowdMaureen DowdMaureen Bridgid Dowd is a Washington D.C.-based columnist for The New York Times and best-selling author. During the 1970s and the early 1980s, she worked for Time magazine and the Washington Star, where she covered news as well as sports and wrote feature articles...
was accused of copying an entire sentence from a Talking Points MemoTalking Points MemoTalking Points Memo is a web-based political journalism organization created and run by Josh Marshall, journalist and historian covering issues from a "politically left perspective,". It debuted on November 12, 2000...
blog. While she denied reading the blog, Dowd did not deny the plagiarism charges and the New York Times issued a correction.
Literature
- In the first half of 1800, StendhalStendhalMarie-Henri Beyle , better known by his pen name Stendhal, was a 19th-century French writer. Known for his acute analysis of his characters' psychology, he is considered one of the earliest and foremost practitioners of realism in his two novels Le Rouge et le Noir and La Chartreuse de Parme...
"plagiarized", repriseRepriseReprise is a fundamental device in the history of art. In literature, a reprise consists of the rewriting of another work; in music, a reprise is the repetition or reiteration of the opening material later in a composition as occurs in the recapitulation of sonata form, though—originally in the...
d, appropriatedAppropriation (art)Appropriation is a fundamental aspect in the history of the arts . Appropriation can be understood as "the use of borrowed elements in the creation of a new work."...
, excerpts from Giuseppe CarpaniGiuseppe CarpaniGiuseppe Carpani was an Italian poet and writer born at Vill'albese, in Brianza .His father wanted him to study law, which he did in Milan and Padua, but after practicing briefly in Milan, he instead followed artistic pursuits...
, Théophile Frédéric Winckler, Sismondi and others.
- A young Helen KellerHelen KellerHelen Adams Keller was an American author, political activist, and lecturer. She was the first deafblind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree....
was accused in 1892 of plagiarizing Margaret T. Canby's story The Frost Fairies in her short story The Frost King. She was brought before a tribunal of the Perkins Institute for the Blind, where she was acquitted by a single vote. She said she was worried she may have read The Frost Fairies and forgotten it, "remained paranoid about plagiarism ever after" and said that this led her to write an autobiography: the one thing she knew must be original.
- Alex HaleyAlex HaleyAlexander Murray Palmer Haley was an African-American writer. He is best known as the author of Roots: The Saga of an American Family and the coauthor of The Autobiography of Malcolm X.-Early life:...
settled a 1977 lawsuit with Harold CourlanderHarold CourlanderHarold Courlander was an American novelist, folklorist, and anthropologist, an expert in the study of Haitian life. The author of 35 books and plays and numerous scholarly articles, Courlander specialized in the study of African, Caribbean, Afro-American , and American Indian cultures...
that cited approximately 80 passages in Haley's novel RootsRoots: The Saga of an American FamilyRoots: The Saga of an American Family is a novel written by Alex Haley and first published in 1976. It tells the story of Kunta Kinte, an 18th-century African, captured as an adolescent and sold into slavery in the United States, and follows his life and the lives of his descendants in the U.S....
(1976) as having been plagiarized from Courlander's novel The African (1967). "Accusations that portions of 'Roots' (Doubleday hard cover, Dell paperback) consisted of plagiarized material or were concocted plagued Mr. Haley from soon after the book's publication up until his death in February 1992. In 1978, Mr. Haley was sued for plagiarism by Harold Courlander, author of the novel The African, and Haley paid him $650,000 in an out-of-court settlement." Haley insisted that "the passages 'were in something somebody had given me, and I don't know who gave it to me . . . . Somehow or another, it ended up in the book." In 1988 In 1978, Courlander went to the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York, charging Haley with plagiarism of The African. Courlander's pre-trial memorandum in the copyright infringement lawsuit stated: "Defendant Haley had access to and substantially copied from The African. Without The African, Roots would have been a very different and less successful novel, and indeed it is doubtful that Mr. Haley could have written Roots without The African. . . . Mr. Haley copied language, thoughts, attitudes, incidents, situations, plot and character."
- In his report submitted to the court in this lawsuit, Professor of English and expert witness on plagiarism, Michael Wood of Columbia University, stated: "The evidence of copying from The African in both the novel and the television dramatization of Roots is clear and irrefutable. The copying is significant and extensive....Roots...plainly uses The African as a model: as something to be copied at some times, and at other times to be modified; but always, it seems, to be consulted. . . . Roots takes from The African phrases, situations, ideas, aspects of style and of plot. . . . Roots finds in The African essential elements for its depiction of such things as a slave's thoughts of escape, the psychology of an old slave, the habits of mind of the hero, and the whole sense of life on an infamous slave ship. Such things are the life of a novel; and when they appear in Roots, they are the life of someone else's novel."
- After a five-week trial in federal district court, Courlander and Haley settled the case[1], with Haley making a financial settlement and a statement that "Alex Haley acknowledges and regrets that various materials from The African by Harold Courlander found their way into his book Roots."
- During the trial, presiding U.S. District Court Judge Robert J. Ward stated, "Copying there is, period." In a later interview with BBC Television, Judge Ward stated, "Alex Haley perpetrated a hoax on the public."
- During the trial, Alex Haley had maintained that he had not read The African before writing Roots. Shortly after the trial, however, Joseph Bruchac, an instructor of black literature at Skidmore College, came forward to swear in an affidavit that in 1970 or 1971 (five or six years before the publication of Roots) he had discussed The African with Haley and had, in fact, given his "own personal copy of The African to Mr. Haley."
- Dan BrownDan BrownDan Brown is an American author of thriller fiction, best known for the 2003 bestselling novel, The Da Vinci Code. Brown's novels, which are treasure hunts set in a 24-hour time period, feature the recurring themes of cryptography, keys, symbols, codes, and conspiracy theories...
, author of The Da Vinci CodeThe Da Vinci CodeThe Da Vinci Code is a 2003 mystery-detective novel written by Dan Brown. It follows symbologist Robert Langdon and Sophie Neveu as they investigate a murder in Paris's Louvre Museum and discover a battle between the Priory of Sion and Opus Dei over the possibility of Jesus having been married to...
, has been twice accused of plagiarismCriticisms of The Da Vinci CodeThe Da Vinci Code, a popular suspense novel by Dan Brown, generated a great deal of criticism and controversy after its publication in 2003. Many of the complaints centered on the book's speculations and alleged misrepresentations of core aspects of Christianity and the history of the Roman...
resulting in lawsuits, but both suits were ultimately dismissed.- Brown was accused of "appropriating the architecture" of the book The Holy Blood and the Holy GrailThe Holy Blood and the Holy GrailThe Holy Blood and the Holy Grail is a book by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln....
(1982) by Michael BaigentMichael BaigentMichael Baigent is an author and speculative theorist who co-wrote a number of books that question mainstream perceptions of history and the life of Jesus. He is best known as co-writer of the book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail....
and Richard LeighRichard LeighRichard Leigh is the name of:*Richard Leigh , Catholic martyr*Richard Leigh *Richard Leigh , co-author of The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail...
. A British judge dismissed the copyright infringement claim in April 2006, on the grounds that the earlier book claims to be non-fictional. - Additionally, Brown was accused by novelist Lewis PerdueLewis PerdueLewis Perdue is the author of 20 published books including Daughter of God, and The Da Vinci Legacy. Perdue was sued by Random House in 2003 when he charged that Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code plagiarized those two books. Random House won the lawsuit but lost their demand to have Perdue pay their...
for plagiarizing his novels The Da Vinci Legacy (1983) and Daughter of God (2000). A U.S. judge dismissed the case in August 2005.
- Brown was accused of "appropriating the architecture" of the book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail
- Kaavya ViswanathanKaavya ViswanathanHow Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life is a young adult novel by Kaavya Viswanathan, an Indian-American woman who wrote it just after she graduated from high school. Its 2006 debut was highly publicized, but the book was withdrawn after allegations that portions had been plagiarized...
's first novel How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life is reported to contain plagiarized passages from at least five other novels. All editions of the book were subsequently withdrawn, her publishing deal with Little, Brown and Co. was rescinded, and a film deal with Dreamworks SKG was cancelled.
- In 1999, J.K. Rowling (author of the Harry PotterHarry PotterHarry Potter is a series of seven fantasy novels written by the British author J. K. Rowling. The books chronicle the adventures of the adolescent wizard Harry Potter and his best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, all of whom are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry...
series of books) was sued by Nancy Stouffer who claimed the former plagiarised material from the latter's short-lived writing career. Stouffer lost the suit after a judge ruled that she had fabricated evidence.
- Paul CrouchPaul CrouchPaul Franklin Crouch is a religious broadcaster and, along with his wife Jan, co-founder of the Trinity Broadcasting Network .-Biography:...
, the televangelist founder of the Trinity Broadcasting NetworkTrinity Broadcasting NetworkThe Trinity Broadcasting Network is a major American Christian television network. TBN is based in Costa Mesa, California, with auxiliary studio facilities in Irving, Texas; Hendersonville, Tennessee; Gadsden, Alabama; Decatur, Georgia; Miami, Florida; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Orlando, Florida; and New...
, was sued in 2000 by novelist Sylvia Fleener, who claimed that Crouch's novel The Omega CodeThe Omega CodeThe Omega Code is a 1999 thriller film directed by Robert Marcarelli, starring Casper Van Dien as the protagonist, Dr. Gillen Lane, and Michael York as the antagonist. Its main plot presents an Evangelical Christian view about the millennium, and a plot by the Antichrist to take over the world...
was plagiarized from her unpublished manuscript, The Omega Syndrome. Crouch and Fleener's attorneys reached an out-of-court settlement for an undisclosed sum.
- In 2007 at the age of 12, Marie-Pier Côté, a Canadian, published a novel titled Laura l'immortelleLaura l'immortelleLaura l'immortelle is a novel by Marie-Pier Côté, a Québécois Canadian author. The book was published by Les Éditions des Intouchables on January 17, 2007....
. The author later admitted that she plagiarized a Highlander fan fictionFan fictionFan fiction is a broadly-defined term for fan labor regarding stories about characters or settings written by fans of the original work, rather than by the original creator...
, rewrote it, and presented it as an original work.
- In 2011, Quentin Rowan - the owner of a bookstore in Brooklyn writing under the penname "Q.R. Markham" - was found to have extensively plagiarised from several authors in his debut novel, Assassin of Secrets, one week after it was released in the United States. Rowan's novel included passages taken from John le CarreJohn le CarréDavid John Moore Cornwell , who writes under the name John le Carré, is an author of espionage novels. During the 1950s and the 1960s, Cornwell worked for MI5 and MI6, and began writing novels under the pseudonym "John le Carré"...
, Robert LudlumRobert LudlumRobert Ludlum was an American author of 23 thriller novels. The number of his books in print is estimated between 290–500 million copies. They have been published in 33 languages and 40 countries. Ludlum also published books under the pseudonyms Jonathan Ryder and Michael Shepherd.-Life and...
, Christopher McCrary, Charles McCarryCharles McCarryCharles McCarry is an American writer primarily of spy fiction.-Life:McCarry served in the United States Army, where he was a correspondent for Stars and Stripes, has been a small-town newspaperman, and was a speechwriter in the Eisenhower administration. From 1958 to 1967 he worked for the CIA,...
and James BondJames BondJames Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
continuation writers Raymond BensonRaymond BensonRaymond Benson is an American author best known for being the official author of the adult James Bond novels from 1997 to 2003. Benson was born in Midland, Texas and graduated from Permian High School in Odessa in 1973...
and John GardnerJohn GardnerJohn Champlin Gardner, Jr. was an American novelist, essayist, literary critic and university professor. He is perhaps most noted for his novel Grendel, a retelling of the Beowulf myth from the monster's point of view....
As many as thirteen different authors were identified as having been plagiarised by Rowan. Author Jeremy DunsJeremy DunsJeremy Duns is a British author currently residing in Stockholm, Sweden.He grew up mainly in Africa and Asia and attended St Catherine's College, Oxford, after which he worked as a journalist...
, who had supported Markham as a writer, recounted how the episode had come about. Duns was first alerted to the plagiarism after a post on a James Bond-themed fan forum pointed out that large sections of the text had been taken directly from Gardener's Licence RenewedLicence RenewedLicence Renewed , first published in 1981, is the first novel by John Gardner featuring Ian Fleming's secret agent, James Bond. It was the first proper James Bond novel since Kingsley Amis's Colonel Sun in 1968...
, and in a blog posting on his website, described how he found that most of the novel was plagiarised with only minor alterations to the text. While researching the depth of Rowan's plagiarism, Edward Champion of the online blog "Reluctant Habits" discovered that Rowan had also plagiarised in several poems, short stories and essays that he had had published in The Paris Review and BOMB. Rowan, who had signed a two-book contract with Mulholland Books (an imprintImprintIn the publishing industry, an imprint can mean several different things:* As a piece of bibliographic information about a book, it refers to the name and address of the book's publisher and its date of publication as given at the foot or on the verso of its title page.* It can mean a trade name...
of Little, Brown and CompanyLittle, Brown and CompanyLittle, Brown and Company is a publishing house established by Charles Coffin Little and his partner, James Brown. Since 2006 it has been a constituent unit of Hachette Book Group USA.-19th century:...
) at the time of publication, had his contract cancelled and the publisher recalled Assassin of Secrets from bookstores.
Music
- George HarrisonGeorge HarrisonGeorge Harrison, MBE was an English musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism, and introduced it to the other...
was successfully sued in a prolonged suit that began in 1971 for plagiarizing the Chiffons' "He's So FineHe's So Fine"He's So Fine" is a recording by The Chiffons which topped the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks in the spring of 1963. One of the most instantly recognizable Golden Oldies with its doo-lang doo-lang doo-lang background vocal, "He's So Fine" is also renowned as the plaintiff song in the now-infamous...
" for the melody of his own "My Sweet LordMy Sweet Lord"My Sweet Lord" is a song by former Beatles lead guitarist George Harrison from his UK number one hit triple album All Things Must Pass. The song was written in praise of the Hindu god Krishna...
." In the ruling, the judge stated that he believed Harrison had not intentionally copied the song, but more than likely experienced an episode of cryptomnesiaCryptomnesiaCryptomnesia occurs when a forgotten memory returns without it being recognised as such by the subject, who believes it is something new and original...
. - In early 2007, TimbalandTimbalandTimothy Zachery Mosley , better known by his stage name Timbaland, is an American record producer, songwriter and rapper....
was alleged to have plagiarized several elements (both motifs and samples) in the song "Do It" on the 2006 album Loose by Nelly FurtadoNelly FurtadoNelly Kim Furtado is a Canadian singer-songwriter, record producer and actress. Furtado grew up in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.Furtado first gained fame with her debut album, Whoa, Nelly!, and its single "I'm Like a Bird", which won a 2001 Juno Award for Single of the Year and a 2002 Grammy...
without giving credit or compensation. See 2007 Timbaland plagiarism controversy2007 Timbaland plagiarism controversyTimbaland's plagiarism controversy occurred in January 2007, when several news sources reported that Timbaland was alleged to have plagiarized several elements in the song "Do It" on the 2006 album Loose by Nelly Furtado without giving credit or compensation...
. - In early 2006, The writers of Lee HyoriLee HyoriLee Hyori is a South Korean singer. She debuted as a member of the successful pop girl group Fin.K.L, but has since become a solo artist. In 2003 she released her debut solo album Stylish which won many "Daesangs"...
's song "Get Ya" were accused of plagiarizing Britney SpearsBritney SpearsBritney Jean Spears is an American recording artist and entertainer. Born in McComb, Mississippi, and raised in Kentwood, Louisiana, Spears began performing as a child, landing acting roles in stage productions and television shows. She signed with Jive Records in 1997 and released her debut album...
' 2005 song "Do Somethin'Do Somethin'"Do Somethin" is a song by American recording artist Britney Spears from her first greatest hits compilation, Greatest Hits: My Prerogative. It was released on February 14, 2005 by Jive Records as the second single from the album worldwide except North America...
". This eventually led Lee Hyori to stop promoting the song and contributed to the failure of the song and its album, Dark Angel. - In 1994 John FogertyJohn FogertyJohn Cameron Fogerty is an American rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist, best known for his time with the swamp rock/roots rock band Creedence Clearwater Revival and as a #1 solo recording artist. Fogerty has a rare distinction of being named on Rolling Stone magazine's list of 100 Greatest...
was sued for self plagiarism after leaving Fantasy Records and pursuing a solo career with Warner Brothers. Fantasy still owned the rights to the Creedence Clearwater RevivalCreedence Clearwater RevivalCreedence Clearwater Revival was an American rock band that gained popularity in the late 1960s and early 1970s with a number of successful singles drawn from various albums....
library and sound. Saul Zaentz, the owner of Fantasy, claimed Fogerty's song "Old Man Down the Road" was a musical copy of the Creedence song "Run Through the Jungle." The court made a landmark decision when it ruled that an artist cannot plagiarize himself. - In 1973 The BeatlesThe BeatlesThe Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
were sued for plagiarizing Chuck BerryChuck BerryCharles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter, and one of the pioneers of rock and roll music. With songs such as "Maybellene" , "Roll Over Beethoven" , "Rock and Roll Music" and "Johnny B...
's "You Can't Catch MeYou Can't Catch Me"You Can't Catch Me" is a song written and performed by Chuck Berry, released as a single in 1956. The song's lyrics mention racing a souped-up "air-mobile" down the New Jersey Turnpike...
" in their hit "Come TogetherCome Together"Come Together" is a song by The Beatles written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney. The song is the opening track on The Beatles' September 1969 album Abbey Road....
" composed by Lennon and signed by Lennon–McCartney. John Lennon and producer Morris LevyMorris LevyMorris Levy was an American music industry executive, best known as the founder and owner of Roulette Records...
signed an agreement before trial.
Visual arts
- Andy WarholAndy WarholAndrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
faced a series of law-suits from photographers whose work he appropriated and silk-screenedScreen-printingScreen printing is a printing technique that uses a woven mesh to support an ink-blocking stencil. The attached stencil forms open areas of mesh that transfer ink or other printable materials which can be pressed through the mesh as a sharp-edged image onto a substrate...
. Patricia Caulfield, one such photographer, had taken a picture of flowers for a photography demonstration for a photography magazine. Warhol had covered the walls of Leo CastelliLeo CastelliLeo Castelli was an American art dealer. He was best known to the public as an art dealer whose gallery showcased cutting edge Contemporary art for five decades...
's New York gallery in 1964 with the silk-screened reproductions of Caulfield's photograph. After seeing a poster of their work in a bookstore, Caulfield claimed ownership of the image and while Warhol was the author of the successful silk screens, he settled out of court, giving Caulfield a royalty for future use of the image as well as two of the paintings.
- Warhol's famous Campbell's Soup CansCampbell's Soup CansCampbell's Soup Cans, which is sometimes referred to as 32 Campbell's Soup Cans, is a work of art produced in 1962 by Andy Warhol. It consists of thirty-two canvases, each measuring in height × in width and each consisting of a painting of a Campbell's Soup can—one of each of the canned soup...
are generally held to be non-infringing, despite being clearly appropriated, because "the public was unlikely to see the painting as sponsored by the soup company or representing a competing product. Paintings and soup cans are not in themselves competing products", according to expert trademark lawyer Jerome GilsonJerome GilsonJerome Gilson is an American trademark lawyer and author of a multivolume treatise on trademark law.- Life:Jerome Gilson was born in Chicago, Illinois on January 12, 1931....
.
- Jeff KoonsJeff KoonsJeffrey "Jeff" Koons is an American artist known for his reproductions of banal objects—such as balloon animals produced in stainless steel with mirror finish surfaces....
confronted issues of copyright due to his appropriation work (see Rogers v. KoonsRogers v. KoonsRogers v. Koons, , is a leading U.S. court case on copyright, dealing with the fair use defense for parody. The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit found that an artist copying a photograph could be liable for infringement when there was no clear need to imitate the photograph...
). Photographer Art Rogers brought suit against Koons for copyright infringement in 1989. Koons' work, String of Puppies sculpturally reproduced Rogers' black and white photograph that had appeared on an airport greeting card that Koons had bought. Though he claimed fair useFair useFair use is a limitation and exception to the exclusive right granted by copyright law to the author of a creative work. In United States copyright law, fair use is a doctrine that permits limited use of copyrighted material without acquiring permission from the rights holders...
and parodyParodyA parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
in his defense, Koons lost the case. The parody argument also failed, as the appeals court drew a distinction between creating a parody of modern society in general and a parody directed at a specific work, finding parody of a specific work, especially of a very obscure one, too weak to justify the fair use of the original.
- In October 2006, Koons won a copyright case claiming "fair useFair useFair use is a limitation and exception to the exclusive right granted by copyright law to the author of a creative work. In United States copyright law, fair use is a doctrine that permits limited use of copyrighted material without acquiring permission from the rights holders...
." For a seven-painting commission for the Deutsche GuggenheimDeutsche GuggenheimThe Deutsche Guggenheim is an art museum, located in the ground floor of the Deutsche Bank building, a sandstone building constructed in 1920 on the Unter den Linden boulevard in Berlin, Germany....
, Koons drew on part of a photograph taken by Andrea BlanchAndrea BlanchAndrea Blanch , born in 1946, is a prominent portrait, commercial, and fine art photographer. Blanch was one of the first women to enter the male-dominated industry of fashion photography, shattering stereotypes by sensuously portraying her fellow females....
titled Silk Sandals by Gucci, from AllureAllure (magazine)Allure is the leading U.S. women’s beauty magazine, published monthly by Condé Nast in New York City. It was founded in 1991 by editor in chief Linda Wells, who has been at the helm of the magazine ever since. From its inception, the magazine has been widely recognized for its intelligent,...
, August 2000. Koons took the image of the legs and diamond sandals from that photo (omitting other background details) and used it in his painting Niagara, which also includes three other pairs of women's legs dangling over a landscape of pies and cakes. In his court filing, Koons' lawyer, John Koegel, said that Niagara is "an entirely new artistic work... that comments on and celebrates society's appetites and indulgences, as reflected in and encouraged by a ubiquitous barrage of advertising and promotional images of food, entertainment, fashion and beauty." In his decision, Judge Louis L. StantonLouis L. StantonLouis Lee Stanton is a federal judge for the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.Stanton received a B.A. from Yale University in 1950, a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1955, and an LL.B from University of Virginia School of Law in 1955...
of U.S. District CourtUnited States district courtThe United States district courts are the general trial courts of the United States federal court system. Both civil and criminal cases are filed in the district court, which is a court of law, equity, and admiralty. There is a United States bankruptcy court associated with each United States...
found that Niagara was indeed a "transformative use [of Blanch's photograph]. The painting's use does not 'supersede' or duplicate the objective of the original, but uses it as raw material in a novel way to create new information, new aesthetics and new insights. Such use, whether successful or not artistically, is transformative." The detail the photograph used is only marginally copyrightable. Blanch has no rights to the Gucci sandals, "perhaps the most striking element of the photograph", the judge wrote. And without the sandals, only a representation of a women's legs remains—and this was seen as "not sufficiently original to deserve much copyright protection."
- In 2000, Damien HirstDamien HirstDamien Steven Hirst is an English artist, entrepreneur and art collector. He is the most prominent member of the group known as the Young British Artists , who dominated the art scene in Britain during the 1990s. He is internationally renowned, and is reportedly Britain's richest living artist,...
's sculpture Hymn (which Charles SaatchiCharles SaatchiCharles Saatchi is the co-founder with his brother Maurice of the global advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi, and led that business - the world's largest advertising agency in the 1980s - until they were forced out in 1995. In the same year the Saatchi brothers formed a new agency called M&C...
had bought for a reported £1m) was exhibited in Ant Noises in the Saatchi Gallery. Hirst was sued for breach of copyright over this sculpture despite the fact that he transformed the subject. The subject was a 'Young Scientist Anatomy Set' belonging to his son Connor, 10,000 of which are sold a year by Hull (Emms) Toy Manufacturer. Hirst created a 20 foot, six ton enlargement of the Science Set figure, radically changing the perception of the object. Hirst paid an undisclosed sum to two charities, Children Nationwide and the Toy Trust in an out-of-court settlement. The charitable donation was less than Emms had hoped for. Hirst sold three more copies of his sculpture for similar amounts to the first.
- In 2010, in The Jackdaw, Charles ThomsonCharles Thomson (artist)Charles Thomson is an English artist, painter, poet and photographer. In the early 1980s he was a member of The Medway Poets. In 1999 he named and co-founded the Stuckists art movement with Billy Childish. He has curated Stuckist shows, organised demonstrations against the Turner Prize, run an art...
said there were 15 cases where Hirst had plagiarised other work. Examples cited were Joseph CornellJoseph CornellJoseph Cornell was an American artist and sculptor, one of the pioneers and most celebrated exponents of assemblage...
who had created a similar piece to Hirst's Pharmacy in 1943; Lori Precious who had made stained-glass window effects from butterfly wings from 1994, a number of years before Hirst; and John LeKay who did a crucified sheep in 1987. Thomson said that Hirst's spin paintings and installation of a ball on a jet of air were not original, since similar pieces had been made in the 1960s. A spokesperson for Hirst said the article was "poor journalism" and that Hirst would be making a "comprehensive" rebuttal of the claims.
Cicero
- Roman SenateRoman SenateThe Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic, however, it was not an elected body, but one whose members were appointed by the consuls, and later by the censors. After a magistrate served his term in office, it usually was followed with automatic...
spokesman CiceroCiceroMarcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...
, wrote his speeches against Mark AntonyPhilippicaeThe Philippicae or Philippics are a series of 14 speeches Cicero gave condemning Mark Antony in 44 BC and 43 BC. The corpus of speeches were named and modeled after Demosthenes' Philippic, which he had delivered against Philip of Macedon, and were styled in a similar manner.-The political...
(1st century BCE), modelling them after DemosthenesDemosthenesDemosthenes was a prominent Greek statesman and orator of ancient Athens. His orations constitute a significant expression of contemporary Athenian intellectual prowess and provide an insight into the politics and culture of ancient Greece during the 4th century BC. Demosthenes learned rhetoric by...
' philippicPhilippicA philippic is a fiery, damning speech, or tirade, delivered to condemn a particular political actor. The term originates with Demosthenes, who delivered several attacks on Philip II of Macedon in the 4th century BC....
against Philip II of MacedonPhilip II of MacedonPhilip II of Macedon "friend" + ἵππος "horse" — transliterated ; 382 – 336 BC), was a king of Macedon from 359 BC until his assassination in 336 BC. He was the father of Alexander the Great and Philip III.-Biography:...
(4th century BCE).
Senator Joseph Biden
- Biden was forced to withdraw from the 1988 Democratic US Presidential nominations when it was alleged that he had failed a 1965 introductory law school course on legal methodology due to plagiarism. "Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., fighting to salvage his Presidential campaign . . . acknowledged 'a mistake' in his youth, when he plagiarized a law review article for a paper he wrote in his first year at law school. Mr. Biden insisted, however, that he had done nothing 'malevolent,' that he had simply misunderstood the need to cite sources carefully." Biden withdrew from the race September 23, 1987, and reported the law school incident to the Delaware Supreme Court. The court's Board of Professional Responsibility cleared him of any allegations.
- Biden was also accused of plagiarizing portions of his speeches, notably those of British Labour leader Neil KinnockNeil KinnockNeil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock is a Welsh politician belonging to the Labour Party. He served as a Member of Parliament from 1970 until 1995 and as Labour Leader and Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition from 1983 until 1992 - his leadership of the party during nearly nine years making him...
and US Senator Robert F. KennedyRobert F. KennedyRobert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy , also referred to by his initials RFK, was an American politician, a Democratic senator from New York, and a noted civil rights activist. An icon of modern American liberalism and member of the Kennedy family, he was a younger brother of President John F...
. Biden was forced out of the Presidential race after the Michael DukakisMichael DukakisMichael Stanley Dukakis served as the 65th and 67th Governor of Massachusetts from 1975–1979 and from 1983–1991, and was the Democratic presidential nominee in 1988. He was born to Greek immigrants in Brookline, Massachusetts, also the birthplace of John F. Kennedy, and was the longest serving...
campaign released a video showing Biden using one of Kinnock's speeches without properly attributing it. Biden called the charges "much ado about nothing;" it was also revealed that Biden had used and properly cited the Kinnock speech on several other occasions, although he failed to do so on the one instance recorded by the Dukakis campaign.
Iraq War
- In a New York Times editorial prior to the Iraq War, United StatesUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
PresidentPresident of the United StatesThe President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
George W. BushGeorge W. BushGeorge Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
's National Security AdvisorNational Security Advisor (United States)The Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, commonly referred to as the National Security Advisor , serves as the chief advisor to the President of the United States on national security issues...
Condoleezza RiceCondoleezza RiceCondoleezza Rice is an American political scientist and diplomat. She served as the 66th United States Secretary of State, and was the second person to hold that office in the administration of President George W. Bush...
explained that Saddam HusseinSaddam HusseinSaddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
could not be trusted for various reasons, including the fact that Hussein had committed plagiarism. "Iraq's declaration [to the United NationsUnited NationsThe United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
regarding the state of its nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons programs] even resorted to unabashed plagiarism, with lengthy passages of United Nations reports copied word-for-word (or edited to remove any criticism of Iraq) and presented as original text." - On February 3, 2003, Alastair CampbellAlastair CampbellAlastair John Campbell is a British journalist, broadcaster, political aide and author, best known for his work as Director of Communications and Strategy for Prime Minister Tony Blair between 1997 and 2003, having first started working for Blair in 1994...
, BritishGreat BritainGreat Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
Prime MinisterPrime Minister of the United KingdomThe Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
Tony BlairTony BlairAnthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
's Director of Communications and Strategy, released a briefing document to journalists entitled "Iraq: Its Infrastructure of Concealment, Deception and Intimidation." It described Iraq and its weapons of mass destruction programs. Journalists discovered that many sources, particularly an article by Ibrahim al-MarashiIbrahim al-MarashiDr. Ibrahim al-Marashi is a historian researching the Middle East and political communications. He holds a DPhil in History from Oxford University , where his thesis was on the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait...
, had been copied word-for-word, including typographical errors. Journalists dubbed the document the "Dodgy DossierDodgy DossierIraq: Its Infrastructure of Concealment, Deception and Intimidation was a 2003 briefing document for the Blair Labour government...
." After the revelation, Blair's office issued a statement admitting that a mistake was made in not crediting its sources, but it did not concede that the quality of the document's content was affected.
Vladimir Putin
- Former Russian President Vladimir PutinVladimir PutinVladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...
has been accused of plagiarism by fellows at the Brookings InstitutionBrookings InstitutionThe Brookings Institution is a nonprofit public policy organization based in Washington, D.C., in the United States. One of Washington's oldest think tanks, Brookings conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in economics, metropolitan policy, governance, foreign policy, and...
who allege that "[l]arge chunks of Putin's economics dissertation on planning in the natural resources sector were lifted from a management text published by two University of Pittsburgh academics nearly 20 years earlier."
Stephen Harper
- On September 30, 2008 in CanadaCanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, a top campaign official of Prime MinisterPrime Minister of CanadaThe Prime Minister of Canada is the primary minister of the Crown, chairman of the Cabinet, and thus head of government for Canada, charged with advising the Canadian monarch or viceroy on the exercise of the executive powers vested in them by the constitution...
Stephen HarperStephen HarperStephen Joseph Harper is the 22nd and current Prime Minister of Canada and leader of the Conservative Party. Harper became prime minister when his party formed a minority government after the 2006 federal election...
's Conservative PartyConservative Party of CanadaThe Conservative Party of Canada , is a political party in Canada which was formed by the merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in 2003. It is positioned on the right of the Canadian political spectrum...
, Owen Lippert, admitted that he plagiarized a speech written on March 20, 2003 for then opposition leader Harper regarding the Party's support for the Iraq War; the speech was copied almost verbatim from a similar speech made by then AustraliaAustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n Prime MinisterPrime Minister of AustraliaThe Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia is the highest minister of the Crown, leader of the Cabinet and Head of Her Majesty's Australian Government, holding office on commission from the Governor-General of Australia. The office of Prime Minister is, in practice, the most powerful...
John HowardJohn HowardJohn Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
two days earlier. This was after LiberalLiberal Party of CanadaThe Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...
MPCanadian House of CommonsThe House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...
Bob RaeBob RaeRobert Keith "Bob" Rae, PC, OC, OOnt, QC, MP is a Canadian politician. He is the Member of Parliament for Toronto Centre and interim leader of the Liberal Party of Canada....
noticed the similarities between the two speeches several weeks before Harper called the electionCanadian federal election, 2008The 2008 Canadian federal election was held on Tuesday, October 14, 2008 to elect members to the Canadian House of Commons of the 40th Canadian Parliament after the previous parliament had been dissolved by the Governor General on September 7, 2008...
, but the Liberals had to wait for the video of Howard's speech to be sent. Additionally, the Liberals also accused Harper of the same plagiarism charges for failing to acknowledge that they had been copied. As a result, Lippert resigned. - Three days later, the Liberals accused Harper for plagiarizing another speech, but this time from fellow ConservativeProgressive Conservative Party of OntarioThe Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario , is a right-of-centre political party in Ontario, Canada. The party was known for many years as "Ontario's natural governing party." It has ruled the province for 80 of the years since Confederation, including an uninterrupted run from 1943 to 1985...
and then Ontario PremierPremier of OntarioThe Premier of Ontario is the first Minister of the Crown for the Canadian province of Ontario. The Premier is appointed as the province's head of government by the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, and presides over the Executive council, or Cabinet. The Executive Council Act The Premier of Ontario...
Mike HarrisMike HarrisMichael Deane "Mike" Harris was the 22nd Premier of Ontario from June 26, 1995 to April 15, 2002. He is most noted for the "Common Sense Revolution", his Progressive Conservative government's program of deficit reduction in combination with lower taxes and cuts to government...
. Out of 4956 words, 44 of the words in Harper's speech, which was written on February 19, 2003 for the House of CommonsCanadian House of CommonsThe House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...
, is identical to Harris's speech, which was written on December 4, 2002 for the Montreal Economic InstituteMontreal Economic InstituteThe Montreal Economic Institute is a non-profit research organization based in Montreal. It aims at promoting economic education of the general public and efficient public policies in Quebec and Canada through studies and conferences. Its research areas include different topics such as health...
. However, it is not known who wrote Harper's speech, unlike the speech that Harper had plagiarized from Howard.
Wikipedia
- In November 2006, the Associated Press reported activist Daniel Brandt's claim to have uncovered 142 articles with plagiarized content among the 12,000 Wikipedia articles he chose to search. Wikipedia administrators responded that this list misidentified some articles where it was the allegedly original text that had plagiarized Wikipedia, and reported that they took action on the cases that involved copyright violations. He "called on Wikipedia to conduct a thorough review of all its articles."
- George Orwel has been accused of plagiarizing Wikipedia in the book Black Gold: The New Frontier in Oil for Investors. The publisher, John Wiley & SonsJohn Wiley & SonsJohn Wiley & Sons, Inc., also referred to as Wiley, is a global publishing company that specializes in academic publishing and markets its products to professionals and consumers, students and instructors in higher education, and researchers and practitioners in scientific, technical, medical, and...
, has confirmed that the book used "about five paragraphs" from a 2005 Wikipedia article on the Khobar Towers Bombing in Saudi ArabiaSaudi ArabiaThe Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
. One of the Wikipedia user pages contains related discussion. Additional comments (including some original material) and opinions are found in web-media.
- When Michel HouellebecqMichel HouellebecqMichel Houellebecq , born Michel Thomas, 26 February 1958—or 1956 —on the French island of Réunion, is a controversial and award-winning French author, filmmaker and poet. To admirers he is a writer in the tradition of literary provocation that reaches back to the Marquis de Sade and Baudelaire;...
was accused of plagiarising French WikipediaFrench WikipediaThe French Wikipedia is the French language edition of Wikipedia, spelt Wikipédia. This edition was started in March 2001, and has about articles as of , making it the third-largest Wikipedia overall, after the English-language and German-language editions...
for his book The Map and the Territory, his publisher, Groupe FlammarionGroupe FlammarionGroupe Flammarion is the fourth largest publishing group in France, comprising many units, including its namesake, founded in 1876 by Ernest Flammarion, as well as units in distribution, sales, printing and bookshops . Flammarion became part of the Italian media conglomerate RCS MediaGroup in 2000...
, clarified the issue, noting that he often uses existing texts from available documentation and web sites as raw literary material for his novels.
William H. Swanson
- William H. SwansonWilliam H. SwansonWilliam H. Swanson is the chairman and chief executive officer of Raytheon Company.- Education :A native of California, Swanson graduated magna cum laude from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo with a bachelors degree in industrial engineering. He attended Cal Poly with the...
, CEO, of RaytheonRaytheonRaytheon Company is a major American defense contractor and industrial corporation with core manufacturing concentrations in weapons and military and commercial electronics. It was previously involved in corporate and special-mission aircraft until early 2007...
, admitted to plagiarism in claiming authorship for his booklet, "Swanson's Unwritten Rules of Management," after being exposed by The New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
. On May 2, 2006, Raytheon withdrew distribution of the book.