Plagiarism: Lying, Cheating and Stealing

I don't know whether to consider it a creepy coincidence or a disturbing fact that within a span of 1 week I came across two stories about plagiarism. In these tales of intellectual theft I knew the people involved. It is interesting to note that these two people I know were on opposite sides of the spectrum since one was the thief and the other a victim. 

In these tales of intellectual theft I knew the people involved. 

My second cousin who is an artist shared her eye-opening experience of her work being stolen and passed off for another's work. As if that wasn't bad enough these stolen pieces of art were entered in contests and won, not only that but the apparent thief was also earning profit from these designs which were not his. It's a good thing that things have been fixed and have worked out with the case of my cousin. To read out the details as well as to find out what to do when your intellectual property was stolen you can read Feanne's post: 

http://feanne.tumblr.com/post/24404423041/what-to-do-if-your-art-is-stolen 

Feanne's original artwork from 2007. 

Stolen art: You can easily see elements from the original work  which were stolen. This design won at Graniph Design Award in 2012. 

Unfortunately in the other story of plagiarism I encountered the person I know is not the victim but was the one who plagiarized another's work. It is a good thing that I am not related to her or am I friends with her.  This person who I know through College and a common friend copied the blog of well known blogger Patty Laurel and passed the blog of as her own.  As a freelance writer I know what a great offense plagiarism is my clients use different programs such as Copyscale just to ensure that the work that you are submitting is really yours. Even just one sentence that was copied exactly can already constitue to loosing a client. What more if you copied an entire blog entry? ! Unlike my cousin Feanne's experience this one has not taken a peacefull resolution. Apparently the girl who plagiarized the blog post has refused to apologize to Ms. Laurel despite being given the chance to do so. Not only did she refuse to apologize but she also had the audacity to attack Ms. Laurel through email. It has made me come to think of what a twisted and cruel world we live in where in the thief gets to harass the victim. 




I can't help but feel that I have somehow contributed to what this girl has become, when she was a freshman in College and I a senior- since she knew my friend, they had asked me to make answers for her for the Q&A portion of the Miss Nursing Competition. I didn't mind that I was answering these questions for her or that it would be my words and ideas that would be coming out of her pretty mouth and it would be her pretty face that they would see and not mine- I mean would you still look for integrity in a Pageant Competition when they were already giving out the questions prior to the event? 

Maybe if I had said 'no-you think of your own answers' this girl would have had turned out with a pretty attitude to match her pretty face. But alas whether I have helped her become what she is today or if she did that all on her own the ugly reality of plagiarism is staring at us in the face and I believe that the lesson over responsibility over one's action should be made across our internet-savvy youth. 

I remember my Clinical Instructor Sir Sumiran who had us write our drug-studies by hand-knowing that his students would most probably do a very good job of copy + pasting drug information from the internet. Yes it meant getting awful ugly calluses and it also meant getting less sleep but it also meant that we knew and understood the drugs better. 

Intellectual property theft puts you in the same room as robbers and thieves.

Parents, Teachers, Mentors, Ate's and Kuya's let's make it a point to teach about plagiarism and that Intellectual property theft puts you in the same room as robbers and thieves. The Internet and Social Media can be a great pool of information and knowledge but let's make sure that this is protected and that the proper recognition goes to where it should go. Remember that you can build your reputation through the Internet but with a click of a mouse and a few taps on the keyboard your reputation can also be destroyed.