Accidental Plagiarism

Hello, everybody!

While searching the site for works to read and review, I've come across a few that have been plagiarized. When I've brought them to the attention of their authors, they've been absolutely horrified and have removed the works. I just wanted to post this to help the accidental plagiarists know that it's okay.

Stuff happens! Maybe you listened to a song that made an imprint on you, and it mistakenly found its way into a poem. Maybe you were working with a friend and the friend 'came up with' a few lines. Whatever the cause, if you're genuinely sorry, it's okay. Just delete the work and post an apologetic blog entry so everybody knows you didn't mean to. We all make mistakes. Don't feel too bad.

However, if you intentionally plagiarized something... well, that's a different story.

Happy writing, everybody!

-Rose

I've always been a bit terrified of accidentally implementing someone else's work into mine that way. Mainly with music rather than writing, but alas.

creativityrules wrote:Just delete the work and post an apologetic blog entry so everybody knows you didn't mean to.

You don't have to delete the work, sillies.

If you find that you've taken a little something (i.e.: a few words or a line) from someone else, or someone points this out to you, site your inspiration. Just don't pass it off as your own, because that would be obviously unfair to the original person who was behind the work. There's nothing wrong with incorporating another's work into your own intentionally if you give it the credit that is deserved and do it in controlled, reasonable portions.

If it was accidental, and a little more of your work appears to mimic that of another's, feel free to tweak your piece so that the parts which are extracted from someone else hold a mirrored meaning or similar message, but are in your own unique words, and not in those of another. I'm always in favor of this option! It's nice to be inspired by others, but only if it allows you to branch off from it and create something entirely new and special in its own way.

SmylinG wrote:
You don't have to delete the work, sillies.

If you find that you've taken a little something (i.e.: a few words or a line) from someone else, or someone points this out to you, site your inspiration. Just don't pass it off as your own, because that would be obviously unfair to the original person who was behind the work. There's nothing wrong with incorporating another's work into your own intentionally if you give it the credit that is deserved and do it in controlled, reasonable portions.

If it was accidental, and a little more of your work appears to mimic that of another's, feel free to tweak your piece so that the parts which are extracted from someone else hold a mirrored meaning or similar message, but are in your own unique words, and not in those of another. I'm always in favor of this option! It's nice to be inspired by others, but only if it allows you to branch off from it and create something entirely new and special in its own way.

Exactly. I've submitted a weird poem before that derived every word from a speech and a book. It was intentional and explained before the poem. In other instances I can imagine people accidentally borrowing something.

Ultimately though, the poems on this site are art, so in my opinion the rules should be lax. Parodies, covers, references, etc. are fine lines in art.

Oddly enough, Picasso or T.S. Eliot are thought to have said, "Good artists borrow, great artists steal."

Hey, Inkwell and SmilinG! Thanks for your comments. I'm afraid that I didn't make myself clear.

What I was referring to is the piracy of entire works, not just tidbits incorporated into pieces that YWSers have written. I've literally discovered pieces that were copies of other artists' work, word for word, that have been posted without reference to the inspiration or a nod to the artist they were copied from. I completely agree with you guys that it's okay to incorporate inspirations from other artists, as long as due credit is given.

Thanks, guys!

If that's the case, then you should report those pieces to a mod next time you find one. While we love admiration of other artists, plagiarism isn't tolerated. When it's reported, we'll handle it from there.

So. Just for the record, plagiarism is totally against the rules.

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Aaaand here we go deleting lots of posts that have rules in them.