Goldberg on Plagiarism

That's what every college Freshman is taught whether they become journalists, scientists, lawyers or construction workers. Construction workers are more likely to steal power drills than they are to steal words. Journaists are more likely to steal words. Wouldn't it be odd to argue that it isn't theft for a journalist to steal power drills?

Construction sites create special procedurs to protect the theft of power tools, because the temptation is so much greater. Similarly, journalism (like science) creates special rules for plagiarism because the temptation and risk is so much greater, not because it's a sin unique to journalists.

I'm not a huge stickler about plagiarism. I've never done it intentionally mind you, but I've made a mistake once or twice and I can see how it happens, which is why I've usually not made a big deal when people have plagiarized me. One Canadian writer lost her job because she ripped me off, for example. I never made a stink about it. But one can be easygoing about enforcement of a principle whithout arguing the principle doesn't exist.

And there's a special irony here. I think all reasonable people can agree that plagiarism is a theft of intellectual property. Well, I did a very quick Nexis search and it seems Sherrod Brown's been out front in opposing trade deals because they don't provide enough protections for intellectual property.

Brown has said this sort of thing more than a few times:

I'm still waiting to see this administration take or even propose actions to pry open the Chinese market for U.S. goods, combat import surges from China, and protect the intellectual property of America's knowledge-based industries from Chinese theft.

There seem to be a lot of similar citations.