My 7 Most Enjoyable Plagiarism Today Posts

This month represents the twentieth anniversary of Plagiarism Today. In that point, I’ve revealed over 6,000 posts, roughly evenly divided between full articles and three Count columns.

One factor that I’ve (largely) tried to do is maintain myself out of it. Outside of the About Page and my consulting site, I’ve wished to maintain a laser concentrate on the problems I cowl.

With uncommon exceptions, this has meant omitting my private emotions. I’ve made each effort to maintain my particular person preferences, political views, and private life non-public on this website.

But that doesn’t imply that I haven’t written a couple of posts only for enjoyable. Sometimes I wish to cowl one thing foolish just because it’s about one thing that I really like or one thing that I believe is humorous.

When I look again on the previous 20 years, lots of these tales are amongst my private favorites. Though they could not have been essential and even fascinating to anybody aside from me, they make me smile.

So, with that being stated, listed here are seven (plus) Plagiarism Today posts that had been largely only for enjoyable.

1: The Plagiarism in Pop Culture Series

When I clarify to strangers what I do for a residing, which is amazingly troublesome, one of many first questions that I usually get requested is what I take into consideration a specific work that had plagiarism as a plot level.

It made me notice that, for most individuals, probably the most they consider plagiarism is when it seems in popular culture, which impressed this collection.

Currently, there are 43 entries. I’ve lined video video games, movies, TV reveals, songs and even stand-up comedy routines. One version, The Kids Are Alright, even acquired consideration from the present’s creator, Tim Doyle.

I admit that this can be a cheat as a result of it’s a collection, and the portrayal of plagiarism in popular culture is a severe problem. However, I might be mendacity if I stated I didn’t take pleasure in it and am wanting ahead to resuming it shortly. Additionally, it prevents this record from being virtually fully entries from the collection.

2: Repo: The Plagiarism Opera

Repo! The Genetic Opera, other than giving my grammar checker matches, can be my favourite movie. I’ve seen it effectively north of 100 occasions and really personal a number of of the posters and different objects used within the movie.

However, I discovered that the movie had been a part of a plagiarism debate. It shared many themes, most notably organ repossession, with a later movie entitled Repo Men.

To be clear, the plagiarism kerfuffle was nothing. It was a case of impartial creation, one thing simply confirmed by the timeline of the 2 movies. They are additionally two very totally different motion pictures that discover comparable themes.

Still, that didn’t cease me from writing almost 1,500 phrases concerning the story, overlaying the historical past of each movies and discussing why it’s not a case of plagiarism. It additionally didn’t stop me from making a couple of dozen Repo! puns alongside the way in which…

3: Copyright and the Rocky Horror Picture Show

However, it’s not simply Repo! The Genetic Opera that I’m a fan of. I’m predictably additionally a fan of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Rocky Horror, to my information, was by no means the topic of a plagiarism controversy. However, when a pal requested about displaying the movie in his pub, I ended up taking a deep dive into the movie’s historical past and possession, which I was this text.

The copyright standing of the movie is shockingly mundane. However, it was nonetheless enjoyable to go over the main points and slip in at the very least 10 totally different Rocky Horror callouts alongside the way in which.

I used to be additionally amazed by how many individuals had been in a position to spot all 10 references. It seems I’m not the one one in copyright circles who does the Time Warp.

4: Creating a Fake Plagiarism Story

Speaking of Rocky Horror, I acquired an opportunity to revisit it and mash it up with one other certainly one of my fandoms, Star Trek.

While rewatching the unique collection, I got here throughout the episode Catspaw, which shared quite a lot of similarities with the movie. This acquired my associate and me discussing how we might create a faux plagiarism story by evaluating the 2.

I needed to take some liberties with the retelling of the tales, however I used to be in a position to present that it was potential to craft a plagiarism narrative when none existed. To be clear, no plagiarism exists in these works; each are merely taking part in off comparable tropes.

5: Falsifying Attribution for a Bad Pun

Shifting gears, certainly one of my different hobbies is studying about cosmology and quantum physics.

While I’m not at all an skilled, it’s one thing I really like, to the purpose I’ve made a number of journeys to Livingston, Louisiana, to go to LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory), the place the invention of gravitational waves was made, together with the Washington state location.

However, certainly one of my favourite tales dates again to 1948. That was when physicist George Gamow and his PhD scholar Ralph Alpher had been making ready to publish a paper describing how the varied parts had been created within the nascent universe.

At the final second, Gamow, a lot to Alpher’s chagrin, added fellow physicist Hans Bethe to the paper, regardless of Bethe not having contributed. This led to the creation of the “Alpher, Bethe, Gamow” paper, a pun on the Greek alphabet’s alpha, beta, and gamma.

It’s not usually a narrative combines physics, authorship and a nasty pun. Three issues I’ve devoted a lot of my life to.

6: The Greatest Anti-Plagiarism Video I’ve Seen

One of the issues I’m typically tasked with is analyzing plagiarism insurance policies at varied faculties. Normally, that is among the many most boring and tedious elements of my job (which I’m nonetheless very grateful for).

However, the University of Bergen in Norway took a barely totally different method.  Their anti-plagiarism video, entitled A Plagiarism Carol, is a brisk 5 minutes and presents the problem via a parody of the traditional Dickens work, A Christmas Carol.

But that is no atypical parody. In addition to ghosts, it lampoons science fiction, crime reveals, and motion movies, and even concludes with a large musical quantity. Even although a lot of the movie is just not in English, English captions can be found.

It’s definitely worth the watch in all its mildly NSFW glory, even if you happen to aren’t involved in plagiarism points. Then once more, why are you studying this if you happen to aren’t at the very least considerably in plagiarism?

7: How the Seuss Estate Stole Christmas

I first acquired concerned in plagiarism after discovering that my poetry and different work had been being plagiarized. I haven’t written a lot poetry up to now twenty years, however each from time to time, I choose up the pen and write meter.

In 2016, the Dr. Seuss property tried to shutter an off-Broadway play entitled Who’s Holiday, a parody of Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas. The estate eventually lost the case, permitting the play to go forward. However, its preliminary debut had already been cancelled, limiting the play’s attain.

In late 2017, I made a decision to create my very own parody of the e book. It’s a line-by-line parody describing the historical past of the case entitled How the Seuss Estate Stole Christmas. I stay shockingly pleased with this work, and it took way more time than I want to admit.

It might not be a comedy masterpiece (it’s barely even a bit), nevertheless it’s positively among the most enjoyable I’ve had.

Bottom Line

20 years of 8 posts per week might be greater than a little bit of a slog. While copyright and plagiarism might not be probably the most urgent points on the planet, they’re certainly very severe. Unfortunately, they may also be fairly dry.

On the optimistic facet, these matters influence nearly all areas of creativity. This signifies that, it doesn’t matter what you think about your self a fan of, copyright and/or plagiarism have doubtless impacted it indirectly.

This is true for holidays. Both Halloween and Christmas had been deeply formed by copyright points. Many of the traditions and media you take pleasure in round these holidays are attributable to copyright, plagiarism, or associated myths. Copyright even affects how you celebrate your birthday.

While these articles have been enjoyable to jot down, in addition they function an exploration of how these points have affected the issues I really like.

So, I’m realizing that, even after I’m “cutting loose” and having enjoyable, it’s nonetheless a considerably severe exploration.

Even if it’s solely severe to me.