Writing in the January 29, 2007, issue of Forbes magazine, Judge Richard A. Posner* tackled a critical problem for writers and publishers — plagiarism. He observed that the typical definition of plagiarism is “literary theft,” but went on to say the definition should be restricted to instances in which harm is done to a source, a competitor, or an audience. While theft typically deprives the owner of something desirable, unacknowledged copying alone may not do that. He says it is not like stealing the only copy of someone’s manuscript.

A sensible definition, Posner says, should include the notion of fraud, with its concept of harming someone. Plagiarism by students who palm off the work of someone else as their own is harmful to other students, he says, because it gives the plagiarists “a leg up” on those who have to write their papers the hard way, and it creates nothing of value. However, an unacknowledged passage appearing in a published work can increase the pleasure of the reader.

Posner gives examples of writers who have copied from others writing in the same field and who thus have committed unfair competition. But he also cites other, sometimes famous, writers like William Shakespeare, who drew on others’ writings but with brilliant embellishments. Copying, Posner says, can improve on the original. In fact, he points out, “sheer originality in literature and the arts is greatly exaggerated.” Many great writers and painters were great in large part because of their skill in “creative imitation.” He says that if writers must acknowledge their copying of works that are not in copyright or where they have been given permission to copy without acknowledgment, then “creative work will be cluttered with acknowledgments.”

If the judge’s unofficial opinion is adopted generally, this narrowed definition of plagiarism to include only the element of fraud and the harming of other writers or the reading audience may give writers a feeling of greater liberty in their use of “creative imitation.”

*Richard A. Posner is a Federal Circuit Judge and a senior lecturer at the University of Chicago law school. He authored The Little Book of Plagiarism (Pantheon).

James H. Stirling, Ph.D., is Senior Associated Editor of Adventist Today.

adventist today | vol. 15 issue 3