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Routman's copied lines from wikipedia: enough to walk the plank?

By Lawrence B. Ebert, Esq.

An AP story gives the fragments from Wikipedia that led to the allegation of "plagiarism" against Ohio University senior Allison Routman by the University of Virginia:

?when the Germans attacked the Soviet Union during Operation Barbarossa?
?German speaking minority outside of Germany?
?who had been released from a concentration camp?

Whether or not this passes the Frank Zappa/weasel test for theft of creativity is less than obvious. Even if, hypothetically, this passes for plagiarism, putting Routman ashore in Greece, and at risk, is not commensurate with the "crime." The University of Virginia screwed this up. It is hard to reconcile what did happen to Routman with what did NOT happen to Poshard.

See also

UVa expels plagiarizing OhioU student from ship!

Full post as published by IPBiz on August 16, 2008 (boomark / email).