Copyright Essentials for Writers

Stealing another’s work and calling it your own is plagiarism. That’s an ugly word, but so are words like cheating, stealing, and lying. It’s like taking someone else’s car and passing it off as your own. It may be a fairly common make and model, but sooner or later, someone’s going to notice the unique VIN number and turn you in to the authorities. (This is what happens when you rip off an ordinary bit of writing, or paraphrase something – putting essentially the same sentences in your own words, even though it wasn’t your own idea.) If you steal the one-of-a-kind Lamborghini that was parked in your next door neighbor’s driveway and have the nerve to tell everyone on the block what a cool, sexy new driving machine you just bought on a Yugo budget, well, you’re just stupid. (This is what happens when you have a high school education but you rip off something like Michael Crichton’s .)

Misappropriating someone’s work and giving them credit is called copyright violation. It’s still stealing, but now it’s like saying “I’m going to take your car now, park it in my driveway, and let my friends drive it without asking your permission, but I’ll be sure to tell everyone it’s really yours.” To those who think the harm is offset by the “additional exposure” given to the work or the “free publicity” given to the author, that’s like saying “Never mind that it was important to you when you bought the car that you be the first to drive it and decide to whom you wanted to loan it; we thought you’d appreciate us showing it off all around town until the new models came out.”

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