<p>If it’s justifiable to nurture cretivity by stealing someone’s work, fine, but don’t sell it for money. That’s fraud. </p>
<p>Publishers shouldn’t be beating the high school bushes for the next great author (art galleries are doing this now too, for artists.)</p>
<p>If a young author hasn’t found his/her original voice yet, keep working, but stay out of the marketplace until you do.</p>
<p>Finally, the most egregious offense is this woman’s refusal to take responsibility claiming she was unconciously ‘internalizing’ McCafferty’s work.</p>
<p>McCafferty should sue her for every dime she has, imvho.</p>
<p>“I would lik to hear what parents think about this issue, for I sincerely feel this could happen to anyone…”</p>
<p>Deliberate cheating does not “happen.” There was nothing accidental in the lifting of the words, and there was a clear attempt to hide her tracks through obvious and blatant rewriting. Nothing but despicable and unexcusable cheating! </p>
<p>The entire book is based on “borrowing” material from others and the offer to eliminate plagiarism from future versions is utterly ridiculous. The excuses offered by the “author” are as poor as her integrity and moral fiber.</p>
<p>I don’t think excusing someone for plagarism because they are a “first time writer” is better then excusing a student who cheats on a math exam because they’ve never studied calculus before. Cheating is cheating, and I have known MANY excellent writers who got by without demeaning themselves to such a level.</p>
<p>I realize that intellectual property rights are not considered very strong ‘rights’ in Bangalore, but they are here in the US. Kavya stole, and she lied, and she got caught. But, she still has the $500k advance. If she attended a school with a strong honor code, her peers would kick her out for conduct unbecoming…</p>
<p>Suggest you poll your Enigneering breathren at Cornell and ask if its ok for you, a first time engineer, to steal your colleagues works…</p>
<p>Arjun, here is to the “six” little passages! FWIW, I do not expect her to be quoting much of the Mahabharat and Bhagvad-Gita. Maybe, she’d find inspiration in The Heart Knows the Truth …</p>
<p>"The publisher of the two novels from which Kaavya Viswanathan 08 admitted borrowing language for her own book said yesterday that it is inconceivable that the similarities between the books were unintentional, as Viswanathan has claimed.</p>
<p>Viswanathan said in a statement on Monday that the phrasing similarities were completely unintentional and unconscious.</p>
<p>But Steve Ross, the senior vice president and publisher of Crown Publishers and Three Rivers Presstwo subsidiaries of Random Housecharacterized Viswanathans statement as deeply troubling and disingenuous.</p>
<p>This extensive taking from Ms. McCaffertys books is nothing less than an act of literary identity theft, Ross said yesterday. Based on the scope and character of the similarities, it is inconceivable that this was a display of youthful innocence or an unconscious or unintentional act.</p>
<p>McCaffertys agent, Joanna Pulcini, said that she has found 45 passages in Opal Mehta that are strikingly similar to parts of McCaffertys two books."</p>
<p>I don’t understand how it got by the editors and publishers, and made it into print. There are a lot of technology tools in the market that screen for exactly this type of thing - and I’m pretty sure these tools are in use at many colleges and even some high schools - I don’t understand…</p>
<p>it would be one thing to ‘unintentionally’ use some same plots/story lines. however, to ‘unintentionally’ copy so many passages, pretty much word for word, how plausible is that?</p>
<p>The offer to rewrite the passages in question in future editions strikes me as very, very sad. She’s offering to write a book NOW, after she’s had someone else’s work published under her name? Chances are she’ll be up against Harvard finals again and how is she going to manage to pull this off? In golf it’s called taking a “mulligan”. Can’t imagine that it’s allowed in publishing. But maybe we’re seeing the first “vishwanthan” in publishing. It works like this - if you get caught, you rewrite the thing. It’ll spread to high schools and colleges, with students taking vishwanthans on papers and exams.</p>
<p>Hey, it’s not like she pulled a Doris Kearns Goodwin (and gained a permanent place on cable tv, and maintained a place on the Harvard Board of Overseers. ;))</p>
<p>Am I the only one who sees very little actual copying, and a lot of similar descriptions of similarly hackneyed scenes? I haven’t read either book, but the passages printed in the Crimson just don’t look like plagiarism to me (well, maybe the first one, kind of, but… who cares?)</p>
<p>To draw an analogy - if her lottery number picks were as close to the winning numbers as her writing is to the other author’s, she might not win the jackpot but she’d win something big (maybe 5 out of 6 necessary numbers). And she’d have done it 40 nights in a row. </p>
<p>I think the author who was copied has reason to be upset. And so does anyone who buys her book.</p>
<p>Kluge, if you care about academic integrity, or integrity in general, how can you not care?</p>
<p>Like I said in my earlier post about my students who have been caught plagiarizing, with so much less resources and foundations than she has, I can’t stomach excusing her, with all her advantages. It frankly makes me ill. </p>
<p>And Mini, I feel the same way about Goodwin. But one doesn’t excuse the other.</p>
<p>Kluge, what I said earlier was on a different thread, so I’ll repeat it here:</p>
<p>My students don’t go to Harvard, don’t get 500K book deals, and didn’t have the advantages that this young woman has had. They are first gen college students, low income, and URM, for the most part. They have had lousy HS educations. I have, sadly, had three definite instances of plagiarism this semester. All of these resulted in failing the assignment and a report to the dean. I do feel for these students–they have so much less resources than this young woman, and so much more to possibly lose–not half a million, but the chance to be the first in their families to graduate from college, and to join the middle class, if they continue this way.</p>
<p>They have different pressures from hers, too. No book deals, just 40 hour a week jobs, kids, sick parents, etc. Yet they still have to face the consequences for a bad decision. Many other students with similar pressures sit next to them in class and don’t cheat.</p>
<p>So, like I said, call me hard-hearted, but I’m feeling worse for the young man I reported today, even though I know it’s necessary for the integrity of the class and for his own education. I hope it’s his only transgression, and that he learns from it. But for someone who has the world, and still cheats?–I can’t feel bad at all.</p>
<p>Arjun Shankar: It is not about following your dreams, it is all about your character. How many (unethical) short cuts are you willing to take? Would you consider Lays or Fastows following their dreams? How low would you go to get an A?</p>
<p>When you go to Cornell, remember one thing even if no one catches you cheating, there is at least one person who would know - YOU. Also, if you always tell the truth, you never have to remember. Your story would be same after a day or after a year.</p>