A Romance Novelist Gets Caught Copying

[fuzzis]

A Romance Novelist Is Accused of Copying (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/12/books/12roma.html)

... “Our original comments were based on Signet’s review of a limited selection of passages,” Mr. Burke’s statement said. “We believe the situation deserves further review. Therefore we will be examining all of Ms. Edwards’s books that we publish, and based on the outcome of that review we will take action to handle the matter accordingly. We want to make it known that Signet takes any and all allegations of plagiarism very seriously.”

Earlier this week, when the allegation became public, Signet had maintained that “copyright fair-use doctrine permits reasonable borrowing and paraphrasing of another author’s words, especially for the purpose of creating something new and original.”

Nora Roberts, a novelist who is one of the biggest stars in the genre, said Friday that the controversy should force renewed attention to the issue of intellectual theft with ramifications well beyond the world of romance writers. Ms. Roberts had said earlier this week that what Ms. Edwards did was “not fair” and that copying someone’s work and passing it off as your own is plagiarism.

“I believe the impact should be bringing the issue of plagiarism into the public perception,” Ms. Robert said in an e-mail message on Friday. “It should make people — and most especially writers — understand it’s a line that can’t be crossed. Intellectual theft is still intellectual theft.”

Ms. Edwards told an Associated Press reporter earlier this week that she did not know she was supposed to credit her sources. “When you write historical romances, you’re not asked to do that,” she said....

Yeah, I'm not buying the "I didn't know!" line of bull, but at the same time, when these novelists are pumping out 2-3 books per year, what really do folks expect?

[Honey]

I been working on my books for years and years. How you finish two and three in a year? Sometimes when mine come back from the editor they look like a crime scene with all the red marks.

[Honey]

But I can always say they are originals. No one else can have my brain cells.

[58ford]

Intellectual theft is rampant. Especially now that everything is electronic. I think that people believe that if it's just something that you thought up out of thin air, a story or an image, or a concept, that it has no material value. There's a company here in town that uses as their logo a design I drew on a cocktail napkin back in the 1980's. They refused to pay for it because it was just a doodle I did & not a formal layout.
Words are the same way. Even if you just told someone a story & they wrote it down & published it's still your story. Just cause it isn't cash or a wrist watch doesn't mean it's not stealing.

[Honey]

Should I put a little note on my ice cream truck story in case I want to put it in one of my books?

[fuzzis]

I been working on my books for years and years. How you finish two and three in a year? Sometimes when mine come back from the editor they look like a crime scene with all the red marks.

I don't know how they do it, Honey. Even if they write for 8 hours a day. Perhaps it's because basically the story is the same. I used to read romance novels as "escape" because I could sit down with one and be done with it in about two hours...just fly through it. Because I knew where to read and where to skim. They all follow the same formula: boy and girl meet with some sparks, boy and girl fight attraction but give in, boy and girl have the beginnings of a great relationship, something separates them (could be the boy being an ass, could be the girl being wary, could be some huge misunderstanding, could be some threat to the one of them), boy and girl get back together realizing how foolish they were being, boy and girl live happily ever after.

My favorite "romance" author...if you want to call her that...puts out a book every 2-3 years. Thoroughly researched and fascinating. And documented.

[onlyme]

All those romance novels are the same. Beautiful, poor heroine is suddenly orphaned/widowed, faces hard times, along comes prince on white horse and rescues her. Happily ever after. The end. I am sure there is a template out there somewhere where one just has to fill in the blanks for different names and locations :-D

[58ford]

A friend of mine told me about the poorman's copyright. Print the graphic or story etc. place it in an ;envelope with the postage and address on the flap side, and mail it to yourself. That way the postmark & stamp go across the seal, and you have the dated postmark as proof of the date you wrote the story. File it away & then if someone plagiarizes you, you may not have a copyright, but you have proof of the date of generation.

[fuzzis]

A friend of mine told me about the poorman's copyright. Print the graphic or story etc. place it in an ;envelope with the postage and address on the flap side, and mail it to yourself. That way the postmark & stamp go across the seal, and you have the dated postmark as proof of the date you wrote the story. File it away & then if someone plagiarizes you, you may not have a copyright, but you have proof of the date of generation.

Yeah, that doesn't hold up (http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-general.html).

[58ford]

Yeah, that doesn't hold up (http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-general.html).
I know it doesn't have any legal basis, but I've used it in a few instances where a client wouldn't pay up, and it only costs a few cents. It's handy when someone owes me a couple hundred bucks & doesn't wanna get a lawyer.
People are so slimey, I've had people white-out over the proof mark on a layout & print their stuff at Kinko's, when they could have paid me $50 & had a good image.

[Hermione]

I had three students in a literature class this fall who plagarized term papers. THREE. And none of them acted like they understood what the big deal was about. One girl was still mad at me because she got a D. Should have gone on and given her the F.

[58ford]

I had three students in a literature class this fall who plagarized term papers. THREE. And none of them acted like they understood what the big deal was about. One girl was still mad at me because she got a D. Should have gone on and given her the F.
When I went to grade school you could get suspended for plagiarizing.
A teacher of mine gave me a helpful hint back then. She said to read several sources of information & write what you LEARNED, not what you read.

[fuzzis]

Newsweek has one of Edwards' source (http://www.newsweek.com/id/94543/page/5)s writing about the fact that he's been a victim of plagiarism. Kinda funny.

...As a victim of plagiarism, I am left wondering how many other works of mine have been purloined? And what does Edwards owe me? Does she owe me anything, aside from an apology and maybe a free, autographed copy of her book with an "attaboy" on the passage in question? My words did not enhance her novel. They were filler. I can imagine frustrated and horny readers cursing the ferrets and skipping ahead in search of the next nipple.

I'm no longer angry with Edwards. In fact, I feel sorry for her. The blogosphere is buzzing with irate calls to boycott Edwards's books and appearances. According to an interview she did with the Associated Press, she did not know she was supposed to quote source materials. Ignorance of law and ethics is no excuse, however. Plagiarism victimizes writers. It betrays the trust of readers. It tarnishes the craft of writing.

But there is another victim here that has been lost in the discussion: the ferrets.

About 1,000 black-footed ferrets exist in the wild. They were thought extinct until a small population was discovered in 1981. Eighteen survivors were taken into a captive breeding program that has yielded all the black-footed ferrets alive today. About 300 of these live in the Conata Basin, one of the largest and healthiest wild populations. Even here, however, these endangered species have no sanctuary. ...