Parsing the Plagiary Scandals in History and Law

[Excerpt] “In 2002 the history of History was scandal. The narrative started when a Pulitzer Prize winning professor was caught foisting bogus Vietnam War exploits as background for classroom discussion. His fantasy lapse prefaced a more serious irregularity—the author of the Bancroft Prize book award was accused of falsifying key research documents. The award was rescinded. The year reached a crescendo with two plagiarism cases “that shook the history profession to its core.” Stephen Ambrose and Doris Kearns Goodwin were “crossover” celebrities: esteemed academics—Pulitzer winners—with careers embellished by a public intellectual reputation. The media nurtured a Greek Tragedy —two superstars entangled in the labyrinth of the worst case academic curse—accusations that they copied without attribution. Their careers dangled on the idiosyncratic slope of paraphrasing with its reefs of echoes, mirroring, recycling, borrowing, etc. As the Ambrose-Kearns Goodwin imbroglio ignited critique from the History community, a sequel engulfed Harvard Law School. Alan Dershowitz, Charles Ogletree, and Laurence Tribe were implicated in plagiarism allegations; the latter two ensnared on the paraphrase slope. The New York Times headline anticipated a new media frenzy: When Plagiarism’s Shadow Falls on Admired Scholars. Questioned after the first two incidents, the President of Harvard said: “If you had a third one then I would have said, ‘Okay, you get to say this is a special thing, a focused problem at the Law School.’” There was no follow up comment after the Tribe accusation. The occurrence of similar plagiarism packages in two disciplines within an overlapping time frame justifies an inquiry. The following case studies of six accusation narratives identify a congeries of shared issues, subsuming a crossfire of contention over definition, culpability, and sanction. While the survey connects core History-Law commonalities, each case is defined by its own distinctive cluster of signifiers. The primary source for the explication of each signifier cluster is the media of newspaper, trade journal, television, and internet. The media presence is the Article’s motif—each case study summarizes a media construct of a slice of the plagiarism debate. By author’s decree the debate is restricted to “pure” plagiarism: the appropriation of another’s text without attribution. The survey is conducted according to chronological order, beginning with History. Ward Churchill’s sui generis smutch from plagiarism continues to agitate media coverage. His argument that a dismissal by the University of Colorado for academic misconduct would constitute a cover for a First Amendment protected essay on 9/11 adds more challenge to the plagiary abyss. This Article concludes with up-to-date coverage of the Churchill narrative.

Plagiarism in Academia and Beyond: What Is the Role of the Courts?

THOMAS MALLON, AUTHOR of the modern classic on plagiarism, Stolen Words, wrote, In 2001 the professoriate remains more inclined to pieties than to policing its own.... 2 If cases involving plagiarism are any guide as to the veracity of this statement, Mallon is mistaken. Careers are ruined because plagiarism is fiercely policed in universities as if it is one of the seven deadly sins. Reacting to the dishonest nature of plagiarism, university administrators drum both student and teacher plagiarizers out of the academy. Practitioners of law and medicine are similarly intolerant of plagiarism

Isaac Newton vs. Robert Hooke on the law of universal gravitation

One of the most disputed controversy over the priority of scientific discoveries is that of the law of universal gravitation, between Isaac Newton and Robert Hooke. Hooke accused Newton of plagiarism, of taking over his ideas expressed in previous works. In this paper I try to show, on the basis of previous analysis, that both scientists were wrong: Robert Hooke because his theory was basically only ideas that would never have materialized without Isaac Newton's mathematical support; and the latter was wrong by not recognizing Hooke's ideas in drawing up the theory of gravity. Moreover, after Hooke's death and taking over the Royal Society presidency, Newton removed from the institution any trace of the former president Robert Hooke. For this, I detail the accusations and arguments of each of the parts, and how this dispute was perceived by the contemporaries of the two scientists. I finish the paper with the conclusions drawn from the contents. Keywords: Isaac Newton, Robert Hooke, law of gravity, priority, plagiarism CONTENTS Abstract Introduction Robert Hooke's contribution to the law of universal gravitation Isaac Newton's contribution to the law of universal gravitation Robert Hooke's claim of his priority on the law of universal gravitation Newton's defense The controversy in the opinion of other contemporary scientists What the supporters of Isaac Newton say What the supporters of Robert Hooke say Conclusions Bibliography DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.19370.2656

Plagiarism in the Perspective of Ethics and Law

Plagiarism is the practice of taking someone else`s work or ideas such as papers or articles or essays without the permission of the authors and then passing them off as his or her own. Plagiarism constitutes the type of copyright crime, and it violates The Copyright Law if the object or victim is the original creative expression. From the moral and ethical view, plagiarism clearly violates the norms of society and even breaks The Law of Copyright since the plagiarists take the ideas of others without the legal permission of the owners and usually do not mention explicitly and clearly the sources of the original works. The academic environment is very susceptible with the practice of plagiarism. So it is very difficult now to overcome plagiarism or piracy which is getting more prevalent. Ethic awareness that commonly seems to be ignored in quoting the ideas or works encourages the habit of taking copyrighted material without permission. The students` awareness publishing and prioritizing their original compositions have not been any better up to now that triggers the prevalence of plagiarism among students. The students committing plagiarism usually dissemble their pirated ideas by arguing that just get inspiration from the works of others, not pirating. The globalization and modernization of the cyberspace that is getting advanced generate the prevalence of the practice of plagiarism and piracy especially in the academic environment. The highly developed cyberspace technology is commonly abused by plagiarists or anyone to ruin the originality of the academicians` works and internet users are generally facilitated to commit plagiarism and piracy upon the academicians` scientific works

Plagiarism as the Moral Problem of the Information Society

Keywords: plagiarism, moral, traditional creation, contemporary creativity, informa- tion society.The problem of plagiarism in the information society is specified by the opened nature of social communication, by changing author’s status in contemporary culture, by the distribution of contemporary creativity – not traditional creation. From a moral point of view a plagiarism is an insult to the moral dignity of man, capable of creative activity. Copyright is the juridical problem, and plagiarism is an ethical one. The best controller of the plagiarism problem wouldn’t be the law but the unprejudiced academic public opinion

Tindak Pidana Plagiarisme Terhadap Desain Produk Ditinjau Dari Aspek Hak Asasi Manusia

Abstract This research is a normative legal research that aims to analyze the relationship between the criminal act of plagiarism and product design in terms of human rights aspects. The results of this study are that the crime of plagiarism against product design is an act that is contrary to Law number 39 of 1999 concerning human rights. The act of appropriating a design by another person without the owner's permission is an act of usurping the right to human welfare. Therefore, this research was carried out so that product designers realize that plagiarism on the designs they produce is a deprivation of the right to welfare that they must have.Keywords: Plagiarism, product design, human right

PLAGIARISM ON ART WORKS COPYRIGHT IN BALI

Abstract This thesis focuses comprehensively on plagiarism of copy rights of fine arts in Bali as based on the laws of Republic of Indonesia No 28 Year 2014 on Copy Rights. In this thesis, it is discussed 2 matters, i.e, first, the implementation and protection of copy rights of fine arts in Bali and second, the law enforcement of the breach of copy right of fine arts in Bali. Four legal theories are used : (1) Theory of Legal Certainty, (2) Theory of Legal Protection, (3) Theory of Legal Fairness (4) Theory of Legal System. The relevance of the four theories are used as the analysis tools. The findings of this thesis consist of: in the copy right, there are 2 inherent rights which are economical rights and moral rights. Plagiarism cases or plagiarism towards copy right of fine arts in Bali leads more towards breach of moral rights of the creators. The law enforcements and legal protection of copy rights emphasizes on the offenders of the breach of copy rights of fine arts in Bali who produce and distribute rather than individual users. Plagiarism of creation of fine arts in Bali is not only limited to scientific works and other copy right objects but also towards patent and Brand rights. Keywords: Plagiarism, Copy Rights, Fine Arts