Techdirt Reading List: The Little Book Of Plagiarism

We're back again with another in our weekly reading list posts of books we think our community will find interesting and thought provoking. Once again, buying the book via the Amazon links in this story also helps support Techdirt. Earlier this week, we wrote about an important (and useful) First Amendment ruling by 7th Circuit appeals court judge Richard Posner. Posner is one of the most well known judges around today, in part because of his prolific writing on many different subjects -- not all of which are directly about the law (though many are). One of his books that I quite enjoy is the short book he published back in 2007 called The Little Book of Plagiarism. It's a quick read at only 128 pages, but a worthwhile look into the history of plagiarism, and whether or not it's that big of a deal.

Plagiarism is one of those interesting things where people have wildly different reactions to it -- with some insisting it must be illegal (it's generally not, as there's no law against "plagiarism," though it may violate copyright law in some cases). However, some creative folks have finally begun to recognize that plagiarism can actually be a key element of being creative. Writers Malcolm Gladwell and Jonathan Lethem both wrote long articles more or less defending plagiarism -- with Lethem's article entirely plagiarized from other sources.

That's not to say that all plagiarism is excusable. Passing off another's work as your own is quite reasonably frowned upon in most instances, but what all of these -- including Posner's book -- suggest, is that it's the kind of infraction that doesn't need a legal response, but rather social shaming is actually quite effective at dealing with plagiarists and undermining their own credibility. Posner's book is not a defense of plagiarism by any means. It notes how unethical it can be and the problems associated with plagiarism, but does a nice job putting it into perspective, and noting that the context matters very much. And while there are times when it is clearly not acceptable to plagiarize, there are others where it's clearly a reasonable creative endeavor.

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