We’ve all heard about it. We know what it means. Most of us try hard to avoid copying and stealing what’s not ours. But how many of us have felt the pain inflicted when we discover someone else has stolen our work? Our creativity published under the name of another author?

I have. Years ago, I sent a query letter to a big name publisher for a story I was proposing to write. The letter went into some detail, including a possible opening paragraph. The proposal was rejected. Imagine my shock six months later to find my idea had found another author, the story published complete with my opening paragraph, word for word. No credit was given. I could have, should have fought the infringement on my rights, but I was younger and less aggressive about my rights. I let it slide, but the pain never left.

Another infringement happened a few years later. I had been writing recipe stories/articles for a big name cooking magazine. The magazine created a cookbook with a selection of published recipes, all giving the proper credits to the contributing authors. Then a big name flour company put out a recipe freebie, re-publishing some of the recipes from the cookbook. Including one of mine. This time I did fight it. I received a letter of apology and a cheque to cover the going rate at the time for recipes. No credit in the publication. It was already published and distributed anyway.

With everything going digital and available online, one would think it more difficult to get away with stealing someone else’s work. Apparently not. I recently heard from an author friend who regaled a tale of woe that hurt him terribly. A friend of his was a juror on a small, local library senior’s writing competition. One of the stories submitted, he claimed, sounded familiar. When he connected the dots, he realized it was a story my friend had published a few years ago. Written word for word and submitted into a competition. The story didn’t win but the hurt was sincere. My author friend in his late eighties, a retired English teacher, is well versed in the woes of plagiarism. But to have it happen to him? Painful, to say the least.

If you bother to read the opening clips on any DVD, you’ve probably noticed the line, “piracy is not a victimless crime”. This goes for plagiarism as well. When you steal from someone else, you’re not only possibly stealing their livelihood, you’re also hurting them – emotionally and psychologically. You can’t possibly understand the pain unless you’ve had it happen to you.

So, what is plagiarism? Plagiarism is, quite simply, stealing. It’s common in the field of academia. Students are notorious for quoting someone else’s writing and claiming it as their own in written projects, essays, etc. But it’s prevalent in all forms of writing. Technically speaking, plagiarism is taking someone else’s written work, thoughts, ideas, and claiming it as your own.

How can we protect ourselves? There’s no definitive way to answer that question, other than to ensure that you have done all you can to protect the copyright of your work. But, if you or someone else doesn’t catch the copied work, the act of plagiarism, it will go unnoticed indefinitely. There are online plagiarism detection tools, but, as effective as these are, they have their limits as well.

How do we avoid ‘accidentally’ plagiarising someone else? When you consider that we as authors are also readers (at least we should be), anything is possible. So many brilliants ideas and words flood our brains daily. Whether or not we intend to, even the most diligent author might ‘accidentally’ plagiarise someone else’s work. If you do, once discovered, own up to it. Apologize and hope there are no financial ramifications (like a lawsuit).

With hundreds of thousands of words currently in use in the English language, at some point, one person’s organization of these words might ‘accidentally’ fall under another author’s name. Not as likely, but possible.

The best you can do is be careful in your own writing and be mindful of the rights of other authors. You may agree with someone else’s written comment, but that doesn’t mean you have the right to steal it as your own.