Since I put up a plagiarism site for other reasons, I just want to put my two or three cents in here to make my feelings clear. I think the only prime victim of the act of plagiarism is the creator of the work. In instances of songwriting, for example, the writer can go back and sue for copyright infringement and reclaim a portion of the profits...but in the eyes of the public that song will always be associated with the thief who released it. There's no going back. Opportunities to establish careers can and have been lost that way. And I find a site like the one that advocates the theft of work by students especially repugnant. Because sites like Napster, for instance, who make money by dealing in artists work they don't pay for, at least retain the name of the true artist on the work (and this doesn't excuse their thievery). And people who patronize these sites rationalize and pacifiy their own crime (and that's what it is) by saying they're only hurting the rich music corps...that's a lie, and they know it. But a site like plagiarist.com makes money by advocating the complete thievery of a literary work as one's own, thus obliterating even the name credit for the authentic artist. This is especially vile. And especially, I might add, for poets who make nothing, if a pittance, for their work anyway. All they have is their good name to market into speaking engagements, workshops, etc. Steal that and you steal everything. No shades of gray here, folks. Stealing is stealing. Pure and simple. If you want to qualify it, as in the point tsuwm I believe was trying to make, you could compare it to the stealing of a patented invention and marketing it as your own. If someone stole Edison's lightbulb...well, we'd still have the lightbulb, we'd still all be the better for it. But if the thieves had lawyers savvy enough to discredit Edison's patent, then Edison would have zilch...not even the credit for it. Do not patronize people who make money by stealing other peoples' work! Someone said, here, the students are just being lazy...aw, well let me get out my damned violin! When they're too lazy to make money I guess it's all right to go out and rob a back then, too...or to float a bad check, huh? Intentional plagiarism, is stealing, period. It's not only unethical, it's downright uncivil. And what's more, it's now teaching a whole web generation to have no respect for the law, for ethics, or for the rights of others. So what's the argument here, gentlemen?
