Last summer, I was lucky enough to be a speaker at the national convention of Romance Writer's of America. Before my own session, I sat in on a workshop moderated by mega-New York Times bestseller Nora Roberts on the topic of plagiarism.
Roberts was notoriously the victim of plagiarism several years ago by another New York Times bestseller, Janet Dailey -- who admitted to copying huge chunks of Roberts' work and panning it off as her own.
Since then, Roberts has been a loud advocate in support of copyright protections for other writers. In her words, being the victim of plagiarism is like being "mind raped."
So I can't help but wonder how she would feel after reading this New York Times article about a 17-year-old German author who's bestselling debut novel has been shown to be full of stolen material.
Even worse than the plagiarism itself is the author's excuse. According to the Times, Helene Heggemann has defended herself by saying that she's part of a new generation who samples other artists' works freely to create something new.
"There's no such thing as originality, anyway," the Times' article quotes her as saying. "Just authenticity."
Maybe I'm just an old-schooler at the ripe age of 35, but let me state this very clearly for Hegemann and others of her "generation." What you call "sampling," I call "theft." And if you "sample" my work without permission, I will sue you.
How's that for authenticity?
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1 comment:
Wow! How could that awards committee justify cheating and stealing?
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