The Little Book of Plagiarism - Hardcover

Richard A. Posner is a judge on the United States Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals and a senior lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School. Judge Posner has written many works on jurisprudence and legal philosophy, as well as books and articles on issues of moment, including An Affair of State: The Investigation, Impeachment, and Trial of President Clinton; Breaking the Deadlock: The 2000 Election, the Constitution, and the Courts; Public Intellectuals: A Study of Decline; Preventing Surprise Attacks: Intelligence Reform in the Wake of 9/11; and Catastrophe: Risk and Response. He lives in Chicago.

Not all plagiarized authors will agree with Posner's conclusion that plagiarism is an "embarrassingly second-rate" offense, "its practitioners... pathetic," and that plagiarism should remain an ethical rather than a legal offense, punished by public shaming. But in a fascinating historical tour of the subject, he dismisses the idea that good art must be totally original. Shakespeare stole the plot of Romeo and Juliet, and Manet's Olympia is a reworking of Titian's Venus d'Urbino—both examples of what Posner calls "creative imitation." But focusing on Kaavya Viswanathan novel, How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life, Posner (Uncertain Shield), a judge on the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals and expert on intellectual property, says this was a particularly modern, market-driven form of plagiarism: Viswanathan was attempting to compete against Megan McCafferty in the chick lit market by appropriating her competitor's own words. Posner focuses a lot on student plagiarism and seems to think all students should be considered suspect; schools that don't subscribe to detection software like Turnitin, he says, are "naïve." Indeed, he believes publishers should, and will, begin to use such programs, concluding, optimistically, "We may be entering the twilight of plagiarism." It's unfortunate that Posner briefly brings politics into this important and timely discussion, superciliously accusing the so-called academic left of being "soft on plagiarism." (Jan. 16)
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