‘The
eyes of honesty can achieve,
How
many millions do we deceive,
Each
day?’
Yes
‘Close to the Edge’ on the album ‘Close to the Edge’ (1972)
With the rich resources of the internet at our fingertips,
it has never been easier to copy other people’s work and pass it off as our own.
However, with the proliferation of plagiarism-checking apps,
we have never been more at risk of being found out!
Plagiarism is not new. Sometimes it is blatant and
unapologetic. Sometimes it is unconscious and unintentional. But the question
is, where do we draw the line and how do we act honestly in our creativity?
It may seem obvious, but I don’t think it is always easy or
straightforward.
Of course, sometimes plagiarism is very blatant and – with something
of a brass-neck – someone can pass off someone else’s work as their own; or
attempt so to do.
I well recall a book by one of my professors at university,
the first chapter of which was almost word for word taken from the book of
another (more famous and renowned) professor from another university. It was so
clearly copied, that all of my fellow students were aware of it and openly
discussed it; and the professor appeared entirely unembarrassed!
I have attended church services where the preacher has
simply read a sermon previously published by another (in one case, read
directly from a well-known book of sermons, and in the other obviously and blatantly
read from a then well-known publication). And in contemporary times, too many
preachers simply copy and paste from online sermons, of varying quality, freely
available on the internet.
My view is that this is not at all acceptable!
However, where do we draw the line?
Way back in the early 1970s, I was a member of a rock band.
I played bass guitar, sang, and wrote some of the songs. One of the songs of
which I was particularly proud (and which was written in good 70s prog rock
style) was called ‘Mists of Time’. I (modestly) thought the main riff was
great, and the melody line pretty good. I did not consciously ‘steal’ from
anyone else… not consciously. But, years later when revisiting an
album by one of my favourite bands of the time, I heard the riff – yes, that
riff… what I had thought was my riff. I had not intentionally or
consciously stolen it; but there it was on this other album. It was a while after that when I listened to yet
another album by another prog rock band (an album I had bought and listened to
when I was 14) and I realised that the melody of the verse of one of the songs was
almost identical to the melody of the song that I had ‘composed’.
I did not consciously or intentionally ‘plagiarise’, but the
similarities were so strong that I doubt that it would have gone unnoticed by
the original artistes had our band every recorded my song (which has never
since seen the light of day). Many bands and songwriters have faced similar
issues from John Lennon to Led Zeppelin to George Harrison and so many others. There
have been court cases and accusations galore.
Even stranger is when one (for example) uses a phrase only
later to discover it has been used elsewhere in a work that one had no
awareness of having previously read or heard. That has happened to me in the
context of song lyrics. Had I perhaps heard that lyric at some time and not recalled
it, but the phrase has stuck in my mind?
Is that plagiarism?
Truth be told, I am a bit paranoid about it all. While I
have never had written works published (other than in a couple of journals..
and – of course – my blog!) nor songs publicly issued, I have recorded some songs
which friends have heard, and printed some works that have had limited distribution
(in a congregation or amongst a specific group). Even so, I have tended to acknowledge
that I may have unconsciously and unintentionally used ideas from others (and
in some cases I have specifically stated so in covering notes, and in one case
I apologised personally and directly to a far better preacher than I, for using
one of his illustrations in a sermon that came to be distributed in print form;
just for the record, he was unconcerned and perfectly at ease with my having so
done!).
But the question remains; what constitutes plagiarism and
what is simply being ‘inspired by’ someone else’s work? On the spectrum from blatant
and intentional copying at one end, and unconscious ‘inspiration’ and influence
at the other, where do we draw the line?
I’m not terribly sure. (But just for the record, this post
is all my own work… I think!).
