Plagiarism

QUESTION:  What is plagiarism?  If I borrow an author’s style, is that plagiarism?  

Plagiarism is a very complex issue.  The most obvious example is a writer who has cobbled together many paragraphs of someone else's work with their own words as cement.  

A less obvious example is someone who uses someone else's work as a template to their own.  Each scene is a rewrite of a scene in someone else's novel.  

Another very common form of plagiarism is cutting and pasting text from a nonfiction source into a novel.

Famous writers certainly aren't exempt from being guilty of plagiarism.  Janet Dailey's flagrant plagiarism of Nora Roberts' novels is a perfect example.  (JD was proven guilty and had to pay restitution.)

  

Not so famous writers are also found guilty of the same thing.  Some years back, a teenaged novelist had her first novel pulled off shelves when readers found that she'd patched together several other books to create her own.

Copying someone’s style isn’t plagiarism as long as you aren’t copying content.  Many new writers try to emulate a favorite author’s style because they haven’t found their own yet.  After a few years, gained confidence, and the sheer difficulty of maintaining someone else’s voice, most develop their own style.  

As a reader, if you feel that the two books are so similar that it might be plagiarism, you should contact the publisher or the author, express your concerns, and let them decide whether this is plagiarism or not.  

Quoting a Book on your Blog

QUESTION:  I am interesting in posting a few paragraphs from a book I just read on my blog...as a synopsis of the book. I want to post about a paragraph from each chapter.  Is that legal? Of course, I would cite the book and author, etc. and make it clear that these are not my words, but the author's.

First, let me clearly state that I am not a lawyer of any sort so my advice won't protect your rear in a court of law.

Using quotes like you want to do is done all the time.  It’s considered fair use of copyrighted material.

Whether the publisher or author contact their lawyers depends on how easily p*ssed off the author and publisher are and how high profile you or the content/author are.  

In other words, if the NEW YORK TIMES quotes to summarize an important new book about a major political figure before or soon after the book is published so that the reader need not buy it, all legal hell will break lose.  

If you want to quote a few paragraphs in a book about writing that's been around a bit, I doubt anyone will call their lawyer although you may receive an email from the author requesting you remove the material.  As a courtesy, you should.

Methods of citation vary from the footnote style you learned in high school to the more casual method where the information about the book is included within the body of the work --

As John Exum Smith said in A BUNCH OF NONSENSE ABOUT WRITING, "Writers are the silliest creatures in the universe because they believe others will want to pay them for their imaginings."

If you are using the summary in a positive manner such as you are recommending the book, you are far less likely to run afoul of legal problems.  If you are pulling all the "meat" out of the book stew so others won't have to buy the book, you are much more likely to have a seriously angry author after your head.

All this advice really comes down to the Golden Rule.  If this were your book, would you want someone else to summarize it as you intend to?

For more information on fair use, I suggest this article:

http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright_and_Fair_Use_Overview/chapter9/index.html

Used Kindle eBooks?

Amazon has patented a means to sell used ebooks within the Kindle system.  A book will be branded within the system when it is bought, then when the buyer puts it up for resale at the Kindle store, it will be removed from his account and transferred to the buyer’s account.  Amazon will receive a small fee for each sale.  A limited number of sales of each book may or may not be included in the system.

According to copyright law, specifically “The Doctrine of First Sale,” this is illegal because digital goods aren’t physical things so they can’t be resold.  (See my article on “The First Sale Doctrine and eBooks” for more details.  http://mbyerly.blogspot.com/2009/04/first-sale-doctrine-and-ebooks.html  )

But a legal battle is currently being fought between ReDigi, a used digital music store, and the various groups in the music industry over a similar system.  If ReDigi is able to win this, Amazon will probably move forward with their own system of resale.  

At first glance, it appears Amazon would be cutting into its own Kindle profits with this system, but Amazon isn’t known for its poor business practices.    Here’s what it will gain from the system.  

Buyers go for the cheapest prices.  If a used Kindle ebook is cheaper than any other version of the book, buyers will start using the Kindle system and its hardware.  iTunes, Nook, and other sites won’t be able to match these lower prices unless they start selling new ebooks for next to nothing or they put into place their own reselling system.  Such a complex system would take some time, perhaps years, so Amazon would gain the advantage in the market for many years to come.  

Some in the industry believe that Amazon is intent on killing off publishers so authors will have to go the self-publishing route, and authors as individuals have no real bargaining power when it comes to the terms Amazon will set.  (See “Used eBooks: The Ridiculous Idea that Could Also Destroy Publishing”  http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/used-ebooks-is-a-ridiculous-idea-that-could-ruin-authors-publishers  )

What will all this mean if Amazon’s used ebook system becomes available?  Readers may be happy with this system, but authors and publishers will not.  Publishing has a very low profit margin, as is, and anything that will cut into that profit will hurt, sometimes to the point of putting authors and publishers out of business.  

Authors like me have been busy educating readers on “The First Sale Doctrine” so they will know that ebooks can’t be resold, loaned, or put online for free, but a system like this will make readers believe that, if Amazon can do this, so can they. Piracy will spread.

If Amazon gains total supremacy in the distribution market, then they will be able to dictate the terms in contracts with authors and publishers, and those terms will shift even more of the profit into Amazon’s pockets.

If the other distribution markets fail and Amazon is the only source of ebooks, it can close down the used market place, and readers will have to pay much more for the surviving content.  After all, Amazon is in it for Amazon as they have proven over and over again.  

This system may not be the eBook Zombie Apocalypse as a universal removal of “First Sale Doctrine” on digital goods would be, but it may very well be the beginning of the end of publishing as a profitable venture.  

UPDATE: On March 30, 2013, a federal court ruled in the Capitol Records versus ReDigi case that it is illegal to sell "used" digital files.  No word yet if ReDigi will continue to fight this battle.  

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/04/can-i-resell-my-mp3s-redux-federal-judge-says-no/

A Reader's Guide to Copyright

REWRITE NOTE: (Monday, April 13, 2009) I have added a few clarifications to the information in this blog.

Several blogs have taken me to task for not giving enough technical information about copyright, but since this is supposed to be a very general overview for readers, not an exhaustive legal discussion on the subject, I stand by my content.

If you want an exhaustive overview complete with all the legalese and laws, I suggest the sites I have links to at the bottom.

For those concerned that I did not cover more of the reader’s rights as far as what you can and can’t do with copyrighted content, I suggest the site on “fair use” I have listed below. “Fair use” deals with people writing articles and reviews and has little to do with those of us who are just reading the books so I did not cover it in detail.


A READER’S GUIDE TO COPYRIGHT

With the introduction of the scanner, the Internet, and ebooks, copyright legal issues that readers face have become much more complex.

A savvy reader should understand the simple basics of copyright to avoid running afoul of legal troubles and to avoid hurting the authors they enjoy.

Here is a brief layman’s overview of the subject. First, a general definition.

COPYRIGHT: The legal protection of the ownership of intellectual property including writing. From the reader’s perspective the copyright is the contents of the book.

The leasing of those copyrights to publishers then to the reader is how an author makes money.

WHY SHOULD I CARE ABOUT COPYRIGHT?

Protecting and respecting the author’s copyright is the right thing to do.

If an author doesn’t make money by selling books, she will probably stop writing, and you will have lost some great reads.

If the author doesn’t sell enough books because of illegal books, the publisher won’t buy the next book.

A vast majority of writers make very little money. If they don’t have a second job or a mate who supports the family, they can’t afford to write. Don’t take what little money they make away from them.

Stealing or misusing copyright is not a way to thank an author for giving you pleasure.

Pitbulls disguised as copyright lawyers will attack you and your family if you use someone else’s copyrighted material illegally. “I didn’t understand the law” won’t save your rear in cases like this.

PAPER BOOKS

When you buy a paper book, you own the paper, but you don't own the contents which still belongs to the copyright owner. You can sell the paper, you can burn the paper, or you can stick that paper into your bookshelf, and that's okay because you own it.

EBOOKS

You buy the right to read the content of an ebook. You do not own the contents. That means that you can't sell an ebook to someone else. You also can’t post the ebook online for others to read, nor can you print out a copy to share with friends or to sell.

Most authors and publishers don’t care if you print out a copy for yourself. Others prevent you from doing this with security software (DRM). If they don’t want you to copy it, don’t copy it.

Most authors and publishers don’t mind if you have another copy of the book stored on a disk or extra computer drive as a back up as long as it will be for your use in case of a computer crash.

For more information on ebook copyright, "used" ebooks, and your rights and lack of them, read my article, "Ebooks and The First Sale Doctrine."

DRM and SECURITY SOFTWARE

Publishers use digital rights management (DRM) software to prevent the reader from doing certain things with an ebook including copying, printing, and text-to-speech features.

Don’t use other software or another method to do what the DRM is supposed to prevent. It’s illegal, and the possibility of legal trouble just isn’t worth it.

If the DRM screws up your enjoyment of the book, be sure to tell the publisher. Complaints have changed some publishers’ attitudes to DRM.

If they don’t remove DRM from their books, buy from other publishers.

DIGITAL AND SCANNER COPIES OF ENTIRE PAPER BOOKS

Making digital pictures of a book’s pages or a digital copy of the book’s words is illegal, but few publishers care if you do this for your own use if you already own a copy of the book. Most don’t care if you copy pages of a book or article for use in your research. It is illegal to post the contents online except for short excerpts.

QUOTING PARTS OF THE BOOK: “FAIR USE”

You can quote small portions of a book in a review or critical article. This is called “fair use.” For more detail, go here:
http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright_and_Fair_Use_Overview/chapter9/index.html

PLAGIARISM

A few small changes in a book’s contents does not make it your book. For example, you can’t change the characters’ names and post the book online because the book still belongs to the author.

PUBLIC DOMAIN

Books no longer in copyright are in the public domain. You may do anything you please with these ebooks. The Gutenberg site is an excellent place to check to see if a book is in the public domain because they rigorously vet their books.

http://www.gutenberg.org

If the book is not in public domain yet appears online without the author or publisher’s permission, it is a stolen book. Report it to the author or the publisher.

READING ALOUD

Reading aloud to your children or privately to someone else will never be illegal. What is illegal is reading someone else's work for profit without permission.

In other words, you can read A CAT IN THE HAT to your kids or a group of kids, but if you do that and charge admission without the permission of the Dr. Seuss' estate or publisher, it is illegal. It is also illegal to sell a copy of your reading if you do so without permission.

TEXT-TO-SPEECH (TTS)

The legality of using a computer voice to read an ebook-- text to speech-- is currently in question. However, most authors and publishers don’t care if you use TTS on their books as long as it for personal use only. Some authors and publishers use security software (DRM) to prevent TTS from working.

FAN FICTION:

Here’s an article on the legalities of writing fan fiction -- fiction written for fun, not profit, using other writers’ characters and universes.

http://marilynnbyerly.com/fanficandcopyrig.html


COPYRIGHT, A MORE COMPLEX VIEW:

For a more complex discussion of copyright, particularly publishing and copyright, check out this site by from Stanford University, http://fairuse.stanford.edu and this one from publishing lawyer, Ivan Hoffman, http://www.ivanhoffman.com .

Other excellent sites are

Copylaw.com http://www.copylaw.com/

The Publishing Law Center http://www.publaw.com

Scrivener’s Error Blog that covers some copyright subjects as well as having some excellent sites http://scrivenerserror.blogspot.com/


For even more detail, do an online search on copyright or find a good book on the subject at your local library.


{NOTE: A blog entry is copyrighted material, but for this blog entry, I give you my permission to copy it, pass it around, post it on your blog, or whatever. I’d appreciate a link back, but that isn’t necessary.

You are also free to remove my name. If you change any of the content, you must remove my name. }