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Plagiarism
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like a prayer
this thing looks like that thing
Good news and bad news. The bad news: The New Yorker has made yet another cartoonist uncomfortable by running a cartoon eerily similar to his work. The good news: This time the culprit is not Harry Bliss! Bliss, you'll recall, is the New Yorker cartoonist who came under fire twice in May, once for an uncredited "homage" to comic book illustrator Jack Kirby, duplicated for the magazine's caption contest, and once for a near-perfect facsimile of a cartoon by John Rau. The cartoon above and to the right is also for the New Yorker's caption contest, drawn by Paul Noth. The Wall Street Journal's health blog noticed it looks just like a Cleveland Plain Dealer cartoon from more than two years ago, above and to the left. Here's what the cartoonist had to say:
More »
New Yorker Near-Copies Another Cartoon
Good news and bad news. The bad news: The New Yorker has made yet another cartoonist uncomfortable by running a cartoon eerily similar to his work. The good news: This time the culprit is not Harry Bliss! Bliss, you'll recall, is the New Yorker cartoonist who came under fire twice in May, once for an uncredited "homage" to comic book illustrator Jack Kirby, duplicated for the magazine's caption contest, and once for a near-perfect facsimile of a cartoon by John Rau. The cartoon above and to the right is also for the New Yorker's caption contest, drawn by Paul Noth. The Wall Street Journal's health blog noticed it looks just like a Cleveland Plain Dealer cartoon from more than two years ago, above and to the left. Here's what the cartoonist had to say:
More »
Exclusive
Wired Ran Rehashed Article In Its Inaugural Issue
Wired magazine is celebrating its 15th anniversary this year, with much reflection and self-congratulation. But one strange thing: in its very first issue in 1993, Wired ran an article that had already run under a different byline in a different magazine. A tipster provides evidence that an article in that issue about Japanese computer hackers by Karl Taro Greenfeld ran almost verbatim a year earlier—under a different byline—in Tokyo Journal. Furthermore, Greenfeld ran another article on the same subject in the LA Times Magazine, in which he describes one computer hacker identically to how he had described a different computer hacker in the Wired piece. Something seriously weird is going on here. [UPDATE: We now have a note from Karl Taro Greenfeld, saying that he is the author of all the pieces in question, and explaining the byline discrepancy, which is posted below. An explanation of what happened here—and key portions of all the stories in question—after the jump]. More »
plagiarism?
New Yorker Accused Of Ripping Off Sleazeball Profile
Now that the rules for stealing news stories have been revealed, people are seeing stolen stories everywhere! At the National Review, they're accusing the New Yorker's Jeff Toobin of ripping off the Weekly Standard's profile last year of Nixon-loving political hit man Roger Stone. We guess that's true, if you consider it plagiarism to quote the well-rehearsed quotes of a veteran quote whore: More »
this thing looks like that thing
A University of Wisconsin professor believes the New Yorker ripped off famed comic book illustrator Jack Kirby with the cartoon on the right, which was used for the magazine's popular back-page caption contest. So the professor dug out the Kirby comic on the left and started complaining. The New Yorker said its cartoon was intended as "an overt reference... not an attempt to plagiarize... a tribute," and added an online credit to Kirby, but that wasn't good enough for the prof. So he rang up the Post and complained that Kirby "never got proper credit then, and isn't getting proper credit now." Well, then. The similarity is so great it's hard to imagine the New Yorker cartoonist, Harry Bliss, actually thought he was going to pull a fast one. And the cover is kind of perfect for a caption contest. But if this particular comic book is super obscure, that makes the "it's an homage" explanation much less plausible. Comic book geeks, your services are at last required! How obscure is this Tales To Astonish? (If you can't find our comments section or email addresses, then you're almost certainly not a comic book nerd.) [Post]
New Yorker Copies Cartoon
A University of Wisconsin professor believes the New Yorker ripped off famed comic book illustrator Jack Kirby with the cartoon on the right, which was used for the magazine's popular back-page caption contest. So the professor dug out the Kirby comic on the left and started complaining. The New Yorker said its cartoon was intended as "an overt reference... not an attempt to plagiarize... a tribute," and added an online credit to Kirby, but that wasn't good enough for the prof. So he rang up the Post and complained that Kirby "never got proper credit then, and isn't getting proper credit now." Well, then. The similarity is so great it's hard to imagine the New Yorker cartoonist, Harry Bliss, actually thought he was going to pull a fast one. And the cover is kind of perfect for a caption contest. But if this particular comic book is super obscure, that makes the "it's an homage" explanation much less plausible. Comic book geeks, your services are at last required! How obscure is this Tales To Astonish? (If you can't find our comments section or email addresses, then you're almost certainly not a comic book nerd.) [Post]
struggling writers
Professor Confesses To Lifetime Of Plagiarism
Kevin Kopelson's insanely complete confessional in the London Review of Books is probably going to destroy his academic career, but at least the University of Iowa English professor will have lent some (im)moral support to fellow plagiarists, from fake Harvard novelist Kaavya Viswanathan to Lonely Planet hack Thomas Kohnstamm to college students everywhere. Kopelson seems to take a certain glee in confessing his many acts of intellectual theft. They've been weighing him down for a while: Kopelson's plagiarism started in the fourth grade and continued through college, graduate school and beyond. More »
plagiarism
Copycat Kiddies Ruin the Washington Post's Poetry Contest, Again
They start early! The Washington Post regrets that one of the kids published in its KidsPost poetry contest actually submitted a poem written by Shel Silverstein. (Last year's winner was also a copycat, reports Regret the Error.) There was more than one indiscretion: agents, click through to see which clever, annoying kids to get in touch with. (They're "branding" themselves as renegades with no respect for the old, bourgeois ideas of art and propriety!) More »
the dark knight
Batman Plagiarizes Own 1989 Trailer
This is creepy: The preview for the latest installment in the Batman movie franchise, the Dark Knight, looks incredibly similar scene-for-scene to the trailer for the original Batman 19 years ago. It's like the Dark Knight preview editor went frame by frame, trying to come as close to possible to duplicating the old trailer with new footage. Maybe as an homage. Or maybe there's a manual somewhere on how to make action movie trailers. Or maybe we've all been watching the same handful of Hollywood blockbusters over and over again, under different titles and with different combinations of stars, for decades now, and this side-by-side comparison video makes it all too hard to stay in denial any longer. Watch it after the jump. UPDATE: College Humor asked why these two previews were so similar — it appears to be because someone remixed the original movie to resemble the new trailer. So really, this is one trailer, plus one psuedo-trailer. More »
this thing looks like that thing
NY 'Times' Pinball Story Shockingly Unoriginal
Today, the New York Times profiles Gary Stern, the owner of the last pinball-machine manufacturing company in the world. "To most," Times profiler Monica Davey says, "the story seems familiar." Well, it seemed familiar to us! Because in March of 2005, BusinessWeek profiled Gary Stern, the owner of the last pinball-machine manufacturing company in the world. Let's see what else these stories have in common! More »
Harry Potter Author Sorry She Made Muggle Cry
"'I never ever once wanted to stop Mr. Vander Ark from doing his own guide — never ever,' she said as she took the stand for the second time in the three-day trial, as the last rebuttal witness. 'Do your book, but please, change it so it does not take as much of my work.'" [Times]
Harry Potter Lexicographer Sobs, Times Pokes Fun
"The librarian, Steven Jan Vander Ark, had the mild-mannered demeanor of Ron Weasley, and the intelligence, charm — and haircut — of Harry Potter. Even his name sounds like that of a character in one of the books, if preceded by 'Lord' or 'Master.'" You should talk, Anemona Hartocollis! [Times]
j.k. rowling
Harry Potter And The Supernatural Courtroom
How does J.K. Rowling do this to people? The beloved author convinced an American court to hear her complaints of factual errors about an imaginary world, in a proposed encyclopedia of her Harry Potter series. Then, testifying in New York yesterday, she somehow got her attorney to apologize for uttering the words "Lord Voldemort" in court, since the Potter character is "he who must not be named," you see. "Forgive me for speaking the name," said the attorney, Dale Cendali. More »
plagiarism
Lying Travel Writer Rewarded With Book Deal
How's this for a reversal: A Lonely Planet writer claims he plagiarized and fabricated big chunks of travel guides, but his editors responded by saying he didn't lie as bad as he claims. Also, instead of being driven into literary infamy like, say, James Frey or Margaret Seltzer, the lying writer was instead rewarded with a contract to write a book about his deception, which has just been published. Writer Thomas Kohnstamm was the victim, you see: Lonely Planet didn't pay him enough, so he had to deal drugs and make things up just to make ends meet: More »
journalismisms
NYU Journalism Kids Plagiarize Don't Plagiarize?
Woof! Our plagiarism dog is on the case, sniffing out copying. Journalism students at NYU are launching NYU Local, a "24-hour" campus news blog, and are plagiarism trouble already. An article from the official campus newspaper, Washington Square News, was on their site as a placeholder before pre-launch. But they put one of their writer's bylines onto the article, which has since been removed but is cached here. We hear that the advisor for this rowdy group is NYU Journalism Chairwoman Brooke Kroeger. We'd suggest a shorter leash! Update: the editors of Washington Square News say, "We were in contact with NYULocal's editors about this issue over the weekend. They promptly reassured us that this was a mistake — a leftover placeholder article from when they were designing their site, which has not yet launched. They apologized, [and] removed the article in question... we see no reason to doubt them on this matter and are satisfied with that response."
Scandal!
Barack Obama's upcoming super-important campaign speech about race begins with plagiarism. The opening line, according to Drudge: "We the people, in order to form a more perfect union." Sharp-minded observers may recognize that from a little document called the Constitution.
Barack Obama's upcoming super-important campaign speech about race begins with plagiarism. The opening line, according to Drudge: "We the people, in order to form a more perfect union." Sharp-minded observers may recognize that from a little document called the Constitution.
exes
Dumping James Frey
James Frey is like my ex-boyfriend of the literary world. Yeah, sure, I enjoyed A Million Little Pieces as a memoir, but after I found out he'd lied to me about the whole dental surgery without Novocaine thing, I wanted him gone. I didn't want him dead, but he was dead to me. He keeps on calling me with new works of fiction, and it's like, enough already. We're over. I was willing to look past the fact that A Million Little Pieces was overwritten and self-aggrandizing when it was a memoir, but as fiction, he could have at least written himself into a likable character. And now he has a blog, which would normally be totally annoying, but just confirms why I dumped him in the first place. More »
hope
Plagiarism Scandal Taints Dem Debate
Did you watch the Clinton/Obama debate last night? We didn't! But apparently it went like this: Hillary was all "Obama is a plagiarist hope you can Xerox lol" and the crowd sorta booed but the media decided it was the best zinger ever and Obama was ok but no zingers at all! And Hillary had a rousing and inspiring closing speech that she totally plagiarized from "Lonesome" John Edwards as the following YouTube clip clearly shows. More »
scandals
