There’s no question the internet makes plagiarism enticing to even the most unintentional observer. With resources right at your fingertips in endless amounts, it’s effortless to view someone else ideas or thoughts –but is this plagiarism? At this point in my life I know the difference between stealing someone words and generating ideas from someone thoughts. Often times I will read literature and have a difficulty time understand the message or idea being conveyed so I reach out for assistance from what DeVoss and Porter call “file-sharing” or “Fair use.” It’s reading the ideas of others who are knowledgeable in their field, which many times generates new ideas with me. In the article “Why Napster matters to writing…..” they explain it this way, “Given this sense of aim an ethic of Fair Use based on reciprocal file sharing promotes these broad goals, not a negative ethic of plagiarism and punishment, but a positive ethic that promotes collaboration, sharing, and Fair Use. Writing is an act of sharing and borrowing as well as of creating.”
I think this statement holds true that taking someone’s words and claiming ownership is stealing another person’s work and is ethically wrong. However, to read someone else’s thoughts and ideas on a similar topic that generates new thinking and “…you weave those pieces into a new cloth and onto new fabric and with new threads and that becomes ‘your’ writing.” I am a true believer that there is something to be gained from the collaboration of good writing.
Cheers,
Lucinda
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