From the issue dated December 17, 2004
http://chronicle.com/free/v51/i17/17a01701.htm
The Price of Plagiarism
By DAVID GLENN
Plagiarism can arouse deep-seated anger and moral passion. William J.
Cronon, a historian at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, casually
uses the phrase "sixth circle of hell" when describing his feelings
about how one particular species of plagiarist (the faculty mentor who
pilfers ideas from graduate students) should be punished.
In Dante's schema, residents of the sixth circle are confined in
burning tombs -- but universities might run afoul of environmental
laws if they set up such things on their quads. So what are some
more-plausible punishments for convicted plagiarists?
- Colleges and universities can, of course, deny tenure to, or
terminate the employment of, a faculty member for egregious violations
of ethical standards. There are also the lesser penalties of demotion,
salary reduction, and prohibitions on serving as a principal
investigator. (One caution: Each of those potential sanctions should be
clearly spelled out in the faculty handbook, lest the institution find
itself on the wrong side of a breach-of-contract lawsuit.)
- Journals and presses can refuse to consider a plagiarist's future
submissions for a certain period of time, or for a lifetime. When
serious plagiarism is detected in a published work, most scholarly
journals will also remove the offending article from electronic
databases.
- Scholarly associations can publicize an offender's wrongdoing or
kick him or her out of the organization. If the perpetrator is a
lawyer, psychologist, or some other sort of professional, he or she
might also face a loss of licensure. (It appears that state bar
associations have never censured or disbarred a law professor for
purely scholarly plagiarism, but they could, in theory, since
plagiarism violates the lawyer's ethical pledge to avoid even the
appearance of impropriety.)
- Lawsuits might be filed against accused plagiarists on a variety
of grounds. In a 2002 law-review article, Stuart P. Green of Louisiana
State University at Baton Rouge described a number of civil actions
that might successfully be filed against scholarly plagiarists. (Mr.
Green hopes no one will ever actually attempt these arguments; he
strongly prefers that plagiarism be dealt with out of court.)
- In certain situations, perpetrators can be sued for copyright
infringement. It is also plausible, Mr. Green says, that plagiarists
could be sued on grounds of unfair competition, under the legal
doctrine known as "reverse palming off." If a local diner bought a
boxful of McDonald's hamburgers and then resold them as if they were
the diner's own product, it could be sued for reverse palming off. Mr.
Green believes that plagiarists are in similar legal jeopardy.
- Prosecution under criminal laws is a farfetched possibility, but
not impossible. Such a prosecution could take either of two forms: In a
case of verbatim plagiarism, a district attorney could bring a charge
of copyright violation.
And -- more remotely -- it is possible that a court might
permit a plagiarist to be prosecuted for theft. One key question here,
Mr. Green argues, is whether the victim's loss (that is, the loss of
reputation that stems from not receiving proper credit for one's ideas)
constitutes a "thing of value" under the doctrine of theft.
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Section: Special Report
Volume 51, Issue 17, Page A17
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