Article on Plagiarism (The Guardian)

 This article says a lot of what I have said elsewhere on my blog. Worth a read, I think.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/jan/17/plagiarism-books-intellectual-property-mccrum

Which, I believe, makes the defintition of plagiarism something to do with direct reproduction of another's words or phrasing and passing them off as your own. 

Ideas are often, an honest writer would admit, borrowed and this is so much a part of creativity that it cannot and should not be prevented.

The book Life of Pi: the idea or premise of the book came from a book published by a Brazillian writer. That idea broadly is a teenager adrift in a boat after a shipwreck and in the company of a big cat - for Pi it is a tiger and in the Brazillian book it is a panther. It is not clear that Martel read the Brazillian book but he claims he read a review of it and thought the idea was solid gold. He then wrote his book... it was a sensation and made a lot of money. Then the charge of plagiarism was levelled at the book. I read this has now been investigated and it has been declared that this is not an example of plagiarism.

"He who receives an idea from me," wrote Thomas Jefferson, "receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me."

People who throw around the charge of plagiarism need to educate themselves in what is and is not plagiarism. I am constantly reading on the subject so I that I do not fall foul of the law. All writers should perhaps do this too.