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Ferret plagiarism

By Lawrence B. Ebert, Esq.

Heath Urie, in a Daily Camera article titled Polecat plagiarism? Ferrets aid steamy tale , discloses plagiarism of original work by Paul Tolme, a 41-year-old wildlife writer which was later copied into a romance novel "Shadow Bear," a 2007 work authored by romance author Cassie Edwards. The subject matter concerns black-footed ferrets of South Dakota.

The Urie article brings up the point that "custom and practice" in romance novels does not include citations to science works:

The Camera's attempts to contact Edwards and her publishing company, Penguin Group USA, were unsuccessful. Edwards has told the Associated Press, however, that she sometimes takes her material from reference books but didn't know she was supposed to credit her sources. "When you write historical romances, you're not asked to do that," Edwards told the AP.

IPBiz notes that the copying of copyrighted works brings up a distinct issue of copyright infringement.

The Urie article included side-by-side comparisions of original and copied work, a format that had been used by the SIUDE to establish copying by Glenn Poshard in his Ph.D. thesis, an area in which it should be well understood that sources are to be credited.

Interestingly, the Urie article also states:

[Tolme has] also received e-mails from college professors, teachers and librarians who want to use his case as a teaching example, and messages from other writers who said they have also experienced plagiarism.

IPBiz can only wonder what such college professors, teachers, and librarians were doing during the Poshard matter, and why such folks don't want to talk about the Poshard matter as an example.

See also

Page 54 of the Poshard Ph.D. thesis: a real problem as to plagiarism which IPBiz post begins: The August 30, 2007 edition of the SIUDE contained side-by-side comparisons of the Poshard Ph.D. thesis to earlier published texts.

http://ipbiz.blogspot.com/2008/01/poshards-revisions-to-plagiarized.html

Full post as published by IPBiz on February 10, 2008 (boomark / email).