Visitor Comments, Feedback

Annotated [in boldface] Extracts of Comments and Feedback from Visitors to the FamousPlagiarists.com Website

Address your comments/criticisms/feedback to:

Dr. Lesko reserves the right to publish any comments/criticisms/feedback in this space. Anonymity of correspondents preserved upon request except for legal threats (other kinds of threats too) and institution-affiliated correspondence.

. . . today I came across your extremely useful homepage . . . Thank you for this resource!

Just came across your plagiarism website and am extremely impressed with all the hard work you have put into it, and the way you've managed to strike a balance between academic argument and entertainment . . . Many thanks and keep up the good work.

I have read through your web page regarding plagiarism and find it very
interesting, both in content as well as in format . . .

I have viewed your website a few times and find its design and presentation
entertaining and its content eye-opening and informative . . .

Communications Monitoring in Universities [ !?! ]

Dear Prof. Lesko:

I came across your website http://www.waronplagiarism.org/, and I wished to point to the relation between communications monitoring policy in universities and plagiarism.

Communications monitoring is carried out by the principle investigators/supervisors of a research project under the auspices of monitoring their researchers’ performance. This allows supervisors to have access to the researchers’ e-mail, files on the server, etc…, often without warning the researchers.

This provides the perfect platform for supervisors to plagiarise researchers’ ideas in their infancy; prior to publication and prior to further development by the researcher. When this happens, the researcher is left with little evidence to support his/her case. Even a noticeable change in the supervisor’s research focus or intellectual level -which usually accompanies plagiarism- is often overlooked at the highest levels in academic institutes for the purpose of reapping the rewards that come with the execution of a plagiarised idea.

This is often made worse by the supervisor's transfer of the plagiarised idea to a favoured researcher or a colluding academic.

Sincerely yours,

Z.R.

Response:

Dear [ZR]

Thank you for your note about communications monitoring. While I was generally aware that communications monitoring by employers is widespread (moreso than most people are aware), I was not aware that research supervisors use it (in the UK?) to monitor their students' email and server space. Are you aware of students being alerted to this in advance? Or is this done without letting the students know?

I would have some very serious reservations about such a communications monitoring policy if students do not agree to such in advance.

There are indeed instances of good ideas being stolen by supervisors/advisors, many anecdotes in this regard, and this is unfortunate. It eliminates the trust factor and prompts students to take actions to protect their own discoveries/achievements (unless they haven't yet realized the need to do so).

Have you had a chance to read about the Pyshnov case?

http://www.famousplagiarists.com/scienceandmedicine.htm#larsen

I've corresponded with Pyshnov, and he has devoted his own website to describing what happened when his supervisor stole his work (as he claims).

Again, thanks very much for your email, and best wishes with your own research. In addition to my "Famous Plagiarists" website (with a popular audience emphasis), I'm also the editor of the scholarly journal Plagiary, homepage www.plagiary.org . If so inclined, please feel free to submit a "Perspective" or "Research" article in the future for publications consideration.

With best wishes,

Dr. John P. Lesko

Every other teacher nowadays faces the problem you describe in such a
detailed way. . . . Students have to realize that plagiarism will not be helpful
for their future and will cause a lot of problems after being caught on plagiarizing . . .
Thank you for your essential contribution to the solution of this burning problem

I found your very interesting website as the result of a mention of it
in a very good article about plagiarism in yesterday's Globe and Mail . . .

4/23/2006 5:21 am >>>
Dear Sir;

I just reviewed your list of plagiarists, and found it curious to find that
while Alan Dershowitz is missing you include Ward Churchill. The former has
simply copied Joan Peters' fabrications into his own books -- amply
documented by Norman Finkelstein. As for Ward Churchill, the neocons have
pulled no stops in smearing him -- and it seems to me that you are simply
buying into the smears Horowitz and his assorted slime have produced.
Simply put, your listing of Churchill in your list is dishonest, and given
that you don't even list Dershowitz, I suspect your little project is next
to useless.

Attentively,
Paul de Rooij
London

PS: Jayson Blair is not a case of plagiarism, but fabrication.

Response:

Dear Paul,

Thank you for your note. Please rest assured that Dershowitz is on my "to do" list as are many others. I don't have the leisure to sit around and do nothing but profile famous plagiarists, so between a very heavy teaching load and other responsibilities, I write a few profiles at a time and post these as they are completed.

I agree with you that the Ward Churchill case seems to have drawn much attention to this "quintessential professor run amok" (as John Gravois put it in the Chronicle of Higher Ed.). My research suggests to me there is much more to this case than a mere smear campaign. I'm not sure when the official results of the investigation at the University of Colorado will be forthcoming, but I will update this profile once I am able to read the report. And I am open to correcting any inaccuracies. Rather curiously on your part, you have not listed any specific inaccuracies, choosing instead to generally accuse me of being dishonest (an accusation which I reject).

What is your opinion of "Nasdijj", another author with dubious claims to Native American ancestry? (see http://www.famousplagiarists.com/popfiction.htm#nasdijj ). Are critics also wrong about this case?

As I wrote to another correspondent with an interest in the Churchill case, "Particularly troubling with regard to the Churchill case are the dubious claims to Native American ancestry (c.f. the 'Nasdijj' case) as well as threats against a Canadian professor some years back who alleged that Churchill had plagiarized her work."

Thank you for your interest in the "Famous Plagiarists Research Project" and for this feedback.

Dr. Lesko

P.S. Yes, Jayson Blair was a fabricator as well as a plagiarist. In fact, Blair's plagiaries made possible the detection of the more serious fabrications which Blair was submitting as "news" to the NYTs.

Paul writes back:

Dear Prof. Lesko;

Many thanks for your response. Perhaps my criticism regarding your website
came about when I detected the Churchill entry and the fact that there was
none for Dershowitz. If anyone were to ask me to name one notorious
academic plagiarist, I would name Dershowitz -- hence my criticism. I am
pleased to hear that he is on your to-do list.

I am not acquainted with Nasdijj... I also reject all those silly claims
that this or that person is not "x" ethnic/racial group -- if my memory
still operates: this was one of the uncivil accusations flung at Churchill.
Furthermore, allow me to suggest that one should differentiate between true
plagiarism, and tendentious ideologically motivated smears. I fear that the
accusation against Rashid Khalidi may fall in the latter orbit; I would
suggest that Churchill falls in the same category. NB: after the hoopla
about Churchill his university instituted a commission to look into his
scholarship, and they exonerated him -- his academic work was considered of
high standards. It annoys me to find one or another right-wing pipsqueak at
Horowitz's FrontPage continuing that smear. You may find my article about
this of some interest: www.counterpunch.org/rooij04112005.html

Kind rgds
Paul de Rooij
London

Lesko responds:

Paul,

After writing back today I just came across the latest on the Churchill case in the Chronicle newsblog:

April 24, 2006
Fresh Accusations of Misconduct Against Ward Churchill
The Ward Churchill investigations won’t end. The Daily Camera,
a newspaper in Boulder, Colo., reports that the committee investigating the University of Colorado professor is considering whether to expand its inquiry into new allegations of research misconduct.

The committee is already reviewing seven charges of misconduct against Mr. Churchill, who became notorious in 2005 for calling some victims of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks “little Eichmanns” (The Chronicle, September 23, 2005).

The latest charge involves alleged misrepresentations in his 1997 book, A Little Matter of Genocide. The committee is expected to release its findings in early May, and a university spokesman said that the decision could make the new charges “moot.” For his part, Mr. Churchill said the new allegations are merely an attempt to wear him down, “but I don’t wear down.”

Posted on Apr 24, 09:13 AM | Permalink |
( http://chronicle.com/news/index.php?id=328 ) subscriber only.

You're certainly right about political (and other) motivations behind some allegations. I do attempt to make such clear when writing my profiles. In the Khalidi case, the Dean felt the charges were "malicious" as I've noted in the profile. I assigned this a mid-level 3 on my 5 point scale (parody of the threat level analysis) accordingly. This might just have been a case of Khalidi lending his name to something a lower level assistant dug up--as has happened with other scholars whose research assistants' kleptomania lands them in trouble. Hard to say without more info. So far as I am aware, Khalidi has not publicly responded to these allegations (please alert me if you know otherwise).

With thanks,

John

Love your site. A friend of mine just sent me the link to your site and I perused the hall
of shame of journalist plagiarists. I have been covering a case of
plagiarism here in Canada and would like to contribute my research to your
site . . .

What is a Plagiarist? Cartoon Version. Trolling Cartoonist-Manipulator Lifts Answers to Question,

Cartoon Rage Follows

"I wish I were a Plagiarist!" [note]

Never heard of Nemi before the above was apparently swiped from a "Nemi" cartoon by a trolling cartoonist?? See Lise Myhre's http://www.nemi.tk/ They took my work too!! My answers to "What is a Plagiarist?" and plunked them right into the above cartoon template! See my critique/analysis of this below in footnote below with a lesson on the use of the subjunctive mood. See also my "Cartoon Rage" analysis of what seems to be a bizarre "Aha! gotcha!" attempt--a rather crude attempt in my view.

Fair Use statement for the screen shot above: The above is a screenshot of a copyrighted web page (http://s7.invisionfree.com/n3ta/index.php?showtopic=4282), and the copyright for it is most likely owned by the owner of the website. It may also contain trademarked logos/images, which are likely not affiliated with the website or FamousPlagiarists.com. It is believed that the use of a limited number of such screenshots

• for identification and critical commentary relating to the website in question
• on the English-language, non-commercial, scholarly, informative (reporting), educational "Famous Plagiarists Research Project" homepage (http://www.famousplagiarists.com), hosted on servers in the United States

qualifies as fair use under United States copyright law. Any other uses of this image may be copyright infringement (statement adapted from Wikipedia template for "Fair Use" citations of web-screenshots)

Note: Found this cartoon on an Internet blog/discussion forum. Curiously, the image was titled "Troll002". If I can remember exactly where I found this, I'll link to this blog troll which references "Famous Plagiarists". They must have liked my answers to "What is a Plagiarist?" ! ! ! Found it. This was on a discussion forum at http://s7.invisionfree.com/n3ta/index.php?showtopic=4282 and the actual image URL for "TROLL002.gif" is http://davidguy.brinkster.net/goaste/pictures/nemi/TROLL002.gif

Maybe it's just the old English teacher in me coming out, but that last line should properly read "I wish I were a plagiarist" in the subjunctive mood. Not that folks seem to care much about proper use of the subjunctive mood anymore . . . the English language deteriorates even further. Or is it not possible for a language to "deteriorate" as some linguists would have us believe. Language changes, to be sure. Are such changes always for the better? I don't think so, but that's just another of my "old-fashioned" views coming out I guess, kind of like the "old-fashioned" view that plagiarism is still a wrong thing to do (i.e. "Plagiarism is an old-fashioned concept, and not always as straightforward as it might appear." Julia M. Klein in "Plagiarism and Other Unoriginal Sins." Chronicle of Higher Education. November 11, 2005). For being such an "old-fashioned concept", there's been a tremendous amount of interest in the new scholarly journal Plagiary: Cross-Disciplinary Studies in Plagiarism, Fabrication, and Falsification (press coverage in New York Times, Inside Higher Ed, Chronicle of Higher Education, Sunday-Telegraph, Prospect Magazine [the last 2 published in Great Britain], . . . )

As the cartoon above (swiped from both the original cartoonist and myself) correctly indicates, there are certainly benefits to engaging in plagiarism: more time for extra-curricular activities in the case of students; easy quotes for journalists; "stressless scholarship" for politicians-in-training who want to devote time to things more important than learning; a great idea for movie directors or songwriters. What's so old-fashioned about wanting something that belongs to somebody else? Don't we still do quite a bit of this today? Or have greed and laziness gone out the window?

*Mara's* Bizarre "Aha! Gotcha Cornered!" Attempt

>>> "Mara Woods" <mara.woods@gmail.com> 3/19/2006 2:37 am >>>
Hello!

Thank you for your interesting site, FamousPlagiarists.com. I used it as a
launchpad for my research into theories of authorship and ownership in the
age of "intellectual property".

I'd just like to point out the irony of using an uncredited cartoon on your
site. I recognize the artwork and characters (especially Cyan) of the
popular Norwegian comic strip "Nemi" of authoress and illustrator Lise
Myhre. Considering the fact that this particular comic ran recently in
Dagens Nyheter (www.dn.se) with a completely different subject matter, I'm
guessing someone has simply swiped the artwork and inserted texts for
humorous appeal. Perhaps the irony is intentional, but the copyright
violation is probably serious. Especially, the lack of credit to the artist
speaks against the sincerity of your position.

Sincerely,
Mara Woods

Reply:

Thanks very much for this info! Ironic indeed. I was wondering where this "Troll002" came from and will reference the "Nemi" site, also crediting you for this info on my "Feedback" page.

You wouldn't happen to be party to this "Troll" now, would you?

Best (and sincerely--honestly!),

John

Cartoon Rage: Trolls, Copyright, and "Fair Use"

>>> Håkon Strand <haastra@online.no> 3/20/2006 1:49:52 pm >>>
dear sir,
i am the agent of lise, who is the creator of the nemi comics, and we want an explanation and an apology for your misuse of the nemi strip mara woods brought to our attention.
without knowing too much about your site, it seems to be a clear violation of the artist´s copyrights, and should be removed immediately.
we hope you respect that,
yours sincerely,
håkon strand/iblis ans.

Videresendt melding:
Fra: iblis <iblis@nemi.no>

Reply:

Apologize for what?

Making "Fair Use" of an image which also appropriated my work?

Nice try, but sorry, I'm not the originator of this image.This 'new' troll of a cartoon posted by "thy evile" has borrowed from both my website and your work, apparently. I am simply reporting on, critiquing, researching, educating on such "transformative" uses (of my work included) and happened to come across this image at http://s7.invisionfree.com/n3ta/index.php?showtopic=4282

Are you sure it's not the other way around? You, or someone associated w/ Nemi (never heard of this cartoon before today--is it a well known one?) appropriating my unique answers to the question, "What is a Plagiarist?"? I ask this because I notice a link to "Nemi" and associated works at the bottom of the discussion forum page cited above (for example, linked to http://www.goaste.cx/goaste/nemi001.html )

I would suggest you contact the poster at this website directly about "TROLL002.gif" which appears on this page: http://s7.invisionfree.com/n3ta/index.php?showtopic=4282 The actual image URL is http://davidguy.brinkster.net/goaste/pictures/nemi/TROLL002.gif You might also try contacting the creator of this website to complain (put a word in for me too, will you?!?! Thx).

I'm copying below my initial response to Mara as well.

I have also copied my "Fair Use" statement below.

Good luck in tracking down this troll of an image manipulator,

John P. Lesko

FYI: According to the “Fair Use” clause of International Copyright Law, the author declares that the use of the photos/images/information in this academic/reference/scholarly work ["Famous Plagiarists Research Project"] is for purposes of “criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research” according to Section 107. - Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use, U.S. Copyright Code.

Håkon Strand Acknowledges "original 'violator'" Is the Real Infringer

>>> Håkon Strand <haastra@online.no> 3/21/2006 12:11 pm >>>
thank you both for your answers!
i can see john´s point to make contact with the original "violator" of lise´s comic strip (which actually IS read by more than 1 million readers only in great britain every day through its daily publication in the metro newspaper, distributed in 13 cities in england and scotland, and additonally published in some 100 newspapers and magazines in scandinavia), but to me it seems like a bad excuse for you to publish it on your website without crediting lise and explaining the violation of the strip done by someone else.
anyhow-now you know more about this, and i hope you will remove the strip from your site.
mara, thanks a lot for your efforts, and clarifications- that is very useful for me to know also in the future!
sincerely,
---
Håkon Strand/Strand Comics (Iblis/Strand&Øverli)
office +47 22 71 40 49
mob 47 988 35 553

Cartoon Rage Continues. Payback attempt?

>>> "Mara Woods" < mara.woods@gmail.com > 3/21/2006 3:39 am >>>
John,

I've copied Håkan on to this email, and Dr. . . . I've copied Dr. . . . [SVSU English Dept. Head 2005/06] since my experience with institutions of higher education has led me to
believe that academic integrity is of the greatest importance, especially in
the humanities. Your refusal to acknowledge the misappropriation of Lise
Myhre's artwork on your website weakens your position of anti-plagiarism and
compromises your reputation.

No matter if it was someone else who appropriate your work and integrated it
into Lise's artwork, your use of Lise's artwork is still without permission.
Fair Use covers scholarly use and criticism, and I honestly do not see your
use as either. Allow me to explain.

Since your website does contain useful information about plagiarism, it
could be considered a scholarly site. However, the particular use of Lise's
artwork does not make support, highlight or disprove any scholarly insight
at all. Further, under Fair Use practices, scholarly usage of someone else's
work must be accompanied with the appropriate annotation of who it belongs
to. If you have an advanced degree in the humanities, you are likely already
familiar with MLA standards of referencing material. For example, I am not
permitted to quote from "Catch-22" without giving Joseph Heller the credit,
no matter if I am quoting for scholarly reasons or just for laughs. In fact,
the rules of referencing are much further reaching than those of copyright.
I cannot quote Plato's "Republic" without indicating my source, despite the
fact that it is not protected by copyright.

Further, the Fair Use clause does not allow a general appropriation of
protected works. Instead, it permits use of a work for criticism or satire
of the work itself. This might not be completely obvious at first glance,
but one is not permitted to simply modify passages of "Republic" in order to
satirize "Catch-22" and especially not without indicating the original
author. In the case of this Nemi cartoon, your use does not satirize the
cartoon and it does not indicate the artist. Even if it was used to make
some scholarly point (which it was not), you are still required to document
your references.

Now, I can see from your photographs that you are getting on in your years, [Ageism? How young must one be to understand code? Enlighten us, please!]
so perhaps you are not adequately familiar with how website coding works. No
one has to get permission to provide a hyperlink to another site. The
instance of a hyperlink on website A to website B does not at all imply an
agreement between the authors of these two websites. (The code for a
hyperlink begins: <a href="http:// ) On the other hand, if website A
sources an image from website B, it is actually appropriating the image from
website B. Website A is instructing the user's browser to "resolve" an
image. It does not matter if the image actually sits on Website A's server
space. Website A has the capability of sourcing the image without Website
B's permission, although of course it's not necessarily a legal action. (The
code for imaging is different: <img src="http:// )

So, let me lay it out for you.: [please do, help me to understand!]

1. Someone took your text
2. Someone took a Nemi cartoon
3. Someone put your text in Nemi cartoon
4. You take doctored Nemi cartoon

The problem is that the "someone" stole both the art and the text. By
posting his image, you are stealing the art. Just because you didn't know it
was stolen doesn't remove your responsibility. Especially in your position
as a scholar, you must realize that it is always your actions, your
plagiarism, that you are accountable for. If you wish to hold the position
that plagiarism is inappropriate, you must be prepared to "live" it. Your
failure was in not securing permission and not identifying authorship. You
had a choice about whether to use the comic on your page or not.

Nemi is very famous in the Nordic countries, but I have no expectation that
you could know this. My argument is: How can you expect students to act when
they cannot figure out who the original author was of some interesting quote
they want to use in a paper? Shouldn't they "play it safe" and simply omit
the quote? Or do you really think it's appropriate for a student to simply
state that they didn't know who created it, if they get caught?

Or, could it be that you actually agree with Foucault and Barthes?

Sincerely,
Mara Woods

Lesko Defends Himself Against Cartoon Rage

Transformative, Scholarly, Teacherly, Critical and "Fair" Use of the Nemi Comic Strip

Mara,

So, having now accused me to my Department Head, are you suggesting I am not even able to use the "transformed" comic to defend myself, to illustrate how someone else appropriated my unique linguistic formulations and plunked them into a comic template?

It seems to me your position is not only weak, but also rather curious (that is, from my perspective at this point). What's your true agenda?

Not only have I given credit to the Nemi creator once I was informed where the image actually came from before it was "transformed" (by whoever did so), but I actually have critiqued this new transformation as you will see from a closer look at my "Feedback" and "What is a Plagiarist?" pages (links below--look closely, now). And I have transformed it a bit more myself even, crossing out was and writing "were" for correct use of the subjunctive mood.

See in particular the footnote, the caption directly beneath the picture, as well as the image itself which I have modified to reflect a more correct use of the subjunctive mood (both at http://www.famousplagiarists.com/feedback.htm and also at http://www.famousplagiarists.com/whatisaplagiarist.htm ). Whoever appropriated Lesko's word's and Lise's cartoon didn't get the subjunctive right, so being an English teacher, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to correct this error of the trolling cartoonist-manipulator ( cartoon rage following shortly thereafter as is evident from your correspondence; don't have a vache; d'accord, La morte d'author n'est pas sur, n'est pas? Possible, mais pas sur ).

What could be more pedantic and educational than correction for proper use of the subjunctive mood, let alone commenting on/analyzing the appropriation of my words for use in this cartoon? My site is not a commercial venture; it is an educational research project which speaks for itself and which has been cited as educationally useful by many of my colleagues and other professionals, not to mention my own students who appreciate learning about proper conventions for academic citation, including the difficult and "gray" areas in this age of electronic media.

We have much to learn from these "Famous Plagiarists", and my students make excellent observations in the papers they write on plagiarism and related topics, using this educational resource (my "Famous Plagiarists Research Project") for reference in their papers. And not just my students either! Students have won awards in papers which have referenced "Famous Plagiarists"! Librarians have used it too! It has been referenced by numerous other scholars. So please don't be so condescending in your attempts to lecture me, implying it might not be a scholarly project after all. Sure, I'll admit there are "pop" elements, and you're not the first to offer criticism (or praise, thank you) which I take into account for this ongoing work-in-progress, adding corrections and updates where and when needed. The pop elements actually seem to be what makes this project so appealing and accessible to a wide audience and not to just some obscure, introverted, small-minded band of intellectuals whose ideas will never reach beyond their small circle (s). I'm not necessarily implying you're involved in such a small circle, or that all intellectuals are, just observing that we as scholars, in general, need to try to reach a broader audience to communicate our research results to the public (who after all, funds much of what goes on at our state schools and research institutions).

*You have not yet answered my question as to whether you might be party to this "troll". Specifically, I would like to know

A. Who are you, as in what are your academic affiliations?

B. Were you involved in the production of, or in communication at any point with whoever produced the image "TROLL002.gif"? ( at http://s7.invisionfree.com/n3ta/index.php?showtopic=4282 )

C. Beyond your purported research into authorship and intellectual property issues, what is your agenda? What are your true motives for critiquing my "Fair Use" (yes, I continue to maintain it is Fair Use) of this altered cartoon image?

D. Could you provide references of your work on authorship and intellectual property? Conference presentations? Papers? Name of thesis advisor? Anything to substantiate your work in this area. My work is openly listed on line; I would like to know more about your work before engaging in further correspondence with an unknown individual.

E. Have you been in contact with any of the Famous Plagiarists featured at www.famousplagiarists.com ? (i.e. might this be a payback attempt involving someone taking exception to being featured as a "Famous Plagiarist"? Or are you just a death-of-the-author partisan?)

As for Foucault and Barthes? Although I've never met these esteemed semioticians (they were before my time actually), I suppose it is conceivable we might have found areas of agreement had the deaths of these authors not transpired so unexpectedly, so prematurely. Life is but a vapour . . .

What a stimulating and educational interchange! Thank you!

Best,

John

Courtesy Request to Use Cartoon, 3/21/06 (even though still "Fair Use")

Dear Håkon Strand/Agent for Nemi cartoonist Lise Myhre:

Thank you for your response and further info about this Nemi cartoon--I never heard of this before and didn't realize it was so popular!

After receiving Mara's initial complaint, I did in fact credit Lise with a link below the altered cartoon and an explanation of how someone borrowed my words, and Lise's cartoon template. See updated info at http://www.famousplagiarists.com/feedback.htm and also at http://www.famousplagiarists.com/whatisaplagiarist.htm .

As a courtesy, though I do believe I have made appropriate "Fair Use" of this manipulated cartoon, I wonder if you would permit me to use this image as posted now on my site for educational, non-commercial purposes?

My situation is as follows. Mara has now publicly accused me, including a letter to my Department Head at Saginaw Valley State University. How am I to defend myself against such accusations if I am unable to let people see the altered cartoon and the explanation of it? Again, although I believe this constitutes "Fair Use", as a courtesy, I am requesting that you grant permission for me to use this altered version of the Nemi cartoon which was posted at http://s7.invisionfree.com/n3ta/index.php?showtopic=4282 I have given a reference, a link, and an explanation as you will see from the notes below the image.

With thanks.

John P. Lesko

No reply at all from either Mara or Håkon Strand . . . the silence is deafening!

Note: Consulted w/ a technology law and policy lawyer who states this is an "obvious case of fair use"

BUT, just to be on the safe side, I have removed the cartoon image, replacing it with a screenshot of the web discussion board where the offending image was first posted. And I have added the following "Fair Use" statement:

Fair Use statement for the screen shot above: The above is a screenshot of a copyrighted web page (http://s7.invisionfree.com/n3ta/index.php?showtopic=4282), and the copyright for it is most likely owned by the owner of the website. It may also contain trademarked logos/images, which are likely not affiliated with the website or FamousPlagiarists.com. It is believed that the use of a limited number of such screenshots

• for identification and critical commentary relating to the website in question
• on the English-language, non-commercial, scholarly "Famous Plagiarists Research Project" homepage (http://www.famousplagiarists.com), hosted on servers in the United States

qualifies as fair use under United States copyright law. Any other uses of this image may be copyright infringement (statement adapted from Wikipedia template for "Fair Use" citations of web-screenshots)

good luck with your book!

Dear Prof. Lesko --

As someone who has written about academic plagiarism from time to time -- and, indeed, been plagiarised from, on a couple of occasions -- I was very interested to learn of Plagiary.

I write a weekly column called Intellectual Affairs for the online newsmagazine InsideHigherEd.com and would like very much to devote some attention to what you are doing. Is there a chance we might talk soon?

thanks,
Scott McLemee [of InsideHigherEd.com]

Interview With InsideHigherEd.com 's Scott McLemee conducted on January 23, 2006:

Link to Scott McLemee's "Stolen Words" in which Scott also references FamousPlagiarists.com. [I've heard this title, "Stolen Words", somewhere before . . . Mallon somebody or other . . . seems to ring a bell]

From "Stolen Words":

While the journal Plagiary has a link to Famous Plagiarists, and vice versa [minor correction--there are no links from Plagiary to Famous Plagiarists] , Lesko insists that they are separate entities — the former scholarly and professional, the latter his personal project. And that distinction is a good thing, too. Famous Plagiarists tends to hit a note of stridency such that, when Lesko quotes Camille Paglia denouncing the poststructuralists as “cunning hypocrites whose tortured syntax and encrustations of jargon concealed the moral culpability of their and their parents’ generations in Nazi France,” she seems almost calm and even-tempered by contrast.

“It seems that both Foucault and Barthes’ contempt for the Author was expressed in some rather plagiaristic utterances,” he writes, “a parroting of the Nietschean ‘God is dead’ assertion.” That might strike some people as confusing allusion with theft. But Lesko is vehement about how the theorists have served as enablers for the plagiarists, as well as the receivers of hot cargo.

“After all,” he writes, “a plagiarist — so often with the help of collaborators and sympathizers — steals the very livelihood of a text’s real author, thus relegating that author to obscurity for as long as the plagiarist’s name usurps a text, rather than the author being recognized as the text’s originator. Plagiarism of an author condemns that author to death as a text’s rightfully acknowledged creator...” (The claim that Barthes and Foucault were involved in diminishing the reputation of Nietzsche has not, I believe, ever been made before.)

To a degree, his frustration is understandable. In some quarters, it is common to recite – as though it were an established truth, rather than an extrapolation from one of Foucault’s essays – the idea that plagiarism is a “historically constructed” category of fairly recent vintage: something that came into being around the 18th century, when a capitalistically organized publishing industry found it necessary to foster the concept of literary property.

A very interesting argument to be sure — though not one that holds up under much scrutiny.

The term “plagiarism” in its current sense is about two thousand years old. It was coined by the Roman poet Martial, who complained that a rival was biting his dope rhymes. (I translate freely.) Until he applied the word in that context, plagiarius had meant someone who kidnapped slaves. Clearly some notion of literary property was already implicit in Martial’s figure of speech, which dates to the first century A.D.

[. . . ]

Given Lesko’s evident passion on the topic of plagiarism as a moral transgression – embodied most strikingly, perhaps, in his color-coded War on Plagiarism Threat Level Analysis – I had to wonder if the doors of Plagiary would be open to scholars not sharing his perspective.

Was it worth the while of, say, a Foucauldian to offer him a paper?

“It may be that I’m a bit more conservative than some scholars,” he conceded. But he points out that manuscripts submitted to Plagiary undergo a double-blind review process. They are examined by three reviewers – most of them, but not all, from the journal’s editorial board.

There is no ideological or theoretical litmus test, and he’s actively seeking contributions from people you might not expect. “I’m willing to consider articles from plagiarists,” he said .

That’s certainly throwing the door wide open. You would probably want to vet their work pretty carefully, though.

[Will do, thanks for this advice, Scott. And good luck with the new magazine Inside Higher Ed, the un-Chronicle (of Higher Ed) ! ]

Sam Zan on my references to Foucault & Barthes:

“[Paglia] seems almost calm and even-tempered by contrast.”

Wow, you’re not kidding. I haven’t read Plagiary, but I hope its standards are a little higher than the stuff that appears on Lesko’s site. Given the unhinged glee at Barthes’s and Foucault’s deaths and the manic use of italics, this site reads more like some nut’s ranting than a scholarly or professional resource.

By the way, Prof. Lesko, if you’re serious about integrity in publishing and academia, you might think about citing some sources. For example, where exactly is your evidence for making this statement: “Foucault deliberately exposed himself to AIDS in the gay bath houses of San Francisco.”

And just so I don’t come off as an outraged Theory-partisan here: if you’re actually interested in the “Death of the Author” debate, you might want to check out Walter Benn Michael’s work and H.L. Hix’ book, “La Morte d’Author” in addition to Burke.

Sam Zan, at 8:30 pm EST on January 25, 2006

Lesko: Response to Sam Zan (cross-posted at http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2006/01/25/mclemee):

My "Famous Plagiarists Research Project" is a work-in-progress, and I take issue with your "unhinged glee" portrayal of my references to the unfortunate, early demise of Foucault (unfortunate tragedy for any victim of this disease--fortunately, now at least a glimmer of hope with anti-viral medications).

If I'm wrong about the speculation/controversy which has gone on about Foucault's death from AIDs as a possible suicide, I'll be the first to admit this.

Note that Foucault did attempt suicide earlier in his life. I've tracked this down, and the source which you asked about appears below, both an excerpt, and a link:

"Foucault was a proponent of suicide. He believed suicide to be a great personal victory. The taking of one’s own life was an event, like a great play without an audience. Foucault first attempted suicide in 1948. His death in 1984, from a neurological infection, is believed to be AIDS related. Foucault often frequented bathhouses in the San Francisco area during the early 1980s. It has been suggested Foucault knew about the risks of contracting AIDS and this was possibly his elaborate scheme to intentionally take his own life (Maier-Katkin, 2000)." (http://www.criminology.fsu.edu/crimtheory/foucault.htm)

All sources used in development of this project (possible corrections/updates when needed, as with your inquiry--many thx) are listed on my references page at http://www.famousplagiarists.com/books.htm

And other criticism/feedback related to this work appears at http://www.famousplagiarists.com/feedback.htm (to be updated shortly with your criticisms and my response)

I've seen such speculation/controversy about Foucault's death/possible suicide in a number of sources (common knowledge?) and will update the "Death of a Plagiarist" page as a result of your questioning of this source. Perhaps it wasn't a suicide; but the fact that he did attempt it earlier, and that he did ignore warnings about AIDS, suggests there might be something to this speculation.

In any case, the main thrust of "Famous Plagiarists" is to keep track of some of the more notable instances of plagiarism, both historically, and of recent years (an incredible backlog at the moment--this will be many years in the making).

And in asking "What is a Plagiarist?" or defining the "Death of a Plagiarist", I'm playing off of (i.e. parodying) Foucault's and Barthes' "What is an Author?"/"Death of the Author" titles which have had the sort of "disastrous" influence on American academics decried by Paglia et al. (While I agree w/ some of Paglia's critiques of Foucault, we wouldn't necessarily align much further).

In referring to the irony which others have observed in the unfortunate demise of these semioticians, I attempt to re-open the possibility for resurrection of the Author proclaimed to be dead, and this is actually not an idea of my own, but, rather that of S. Burke in "The Death and Return of the Author: Criticism and Subjectivity in Barthes, Foucault, and Derrida" (Edinburgh University Press), which I would like to recommend to you (w/ thx for your reading recommendations). Being merely an applied linguist myself, I don't claim to be in the same league as Burke in such studies in critical theory, but I do draw on the "return of the Author" theme in referring to the moment of discovery of a plagiarist, which results in the "death" of that plagiarist's claim to authorship (at least for that work), and the return of the Author as the rightfully acknowledged originator.

Scott referred to my "Threat Level Analysis" (http://www.famousplagiarists.com/threatlevel.htm). In case someone doesn't get it, this is also a parody. I nicked this color coded 5-pt. classification scale from the Department of Homeland Security rather than vice versa (but I stick by the CIA monitoring info--stats do show these visits to my site--NSA is watching !?!?).

Whew! Getting longwinded here. Thanks for your criticisms and the opportunity to respond/explain a bit more about my studies related to plagiary.

Minor correction, Scott: There are no links that I am aware of from the Plagiary homepage to FamousPlagiarists.com. Good luck with the new magazine Inside Higher Ed, the un-Chronicle (of Higher Ed) !

Response

Prof. Lesko,After reading over your recent post as well as other facets of your website, I think I owe you an apology for my over-hasty characterization above. What I took to be “glee” is really only harmless riffing on the Death metaphor. In any case, it seems to me that your project — both the website and the journal — is a useful and valuable one.

Sam Zan, at 4:11 pm EST on January 26, 2006

Apology Accepted:

Accepted! W/ thanks for re-considering in light of the info above.

Best,

J.P. Lesko

Thanks John...keep up the good work.
Let no thief go unexposed....

CNBC is doing a story today about plagiarism involving novelist Chris
Elliott, and and we want to interview you. Are you available?
-----------------------------
Jeff Daniels
Coordinating Producer, CNBC Business News
-----------------------------
CNBC BURBANK BUREAU
3000 West Alameda Avenue #C296 * Burbank, California 91523
<http://www.cnbc.com/>
-----------------------------

[a short splice of this Interview appeared on CNBC TV, Tuesday, November 1st, 2005--see my take on this "news" story at the profile on Chris Elliott and "The Case of the Kidnapped Robot that Never Was" ]

(Professor J.P. Lesko discussing "The Case of the Kidnapped Robot that Never Was" on CNBC TV. November 1, 2005)

Hello Dr. Lesko--I admire your important work, helping
to expose plagiarists and upholding standards in
academic and commercial publishing. I have uncovered
further plagiarism in the work of Brad Vice and have
published the following feature story in New York
Press:

http://nypress.com/18/48/news&columns/RobertClarkYoung.cfm

It's the lead story in this week's issue:

http://nypress.com/

Brad Vice has been or is being investigated now by
three universities: U of Cincinnati, where he
plagiarized in his dissertation; U of Georgia, whose
press has ruled he is a plagiarist; and Mississippi
State University, where he teaches.

I'm sure that all of this information will be of
interest to your readers. Thank you again for your
excellent work.

all best,

Robert Clark Young

Thank you for your website and your efforts to stop plagiarism.

Dear Dr. Lesko

Thank you for your work and website. As a scientist who often relies on collective knowledge and inspiration from the work of others to do my own, I appreciate the complexity of the subject; you do it justice. Creation has a life of it's own and knowledge wants to be free, but we owe a debt to the work of others and should never neglect this.

. . . . .

By the way, I would like to comment of the case of Pan, Tie, Chen, et al (SCMD-1994-AP/MY/FT/LL/ZC/BR), the problem of Chinese 'Plug-in' research papers and ask your opinion on something.

You make astute observations on the problems created by the conflict of Western and Eastern cultural traditions, and the Eastern emphasis on 'correctness', which dictates copy and imitation as a form of learning. This has three roots:

1) Ideographic Asian writing consists of thousands of characters, and attaining literacy requires years of rote memorization and copying. This has both positive (good study habits, memory development) and negative (over stress on 'correctness' at expense of creative reasoning, degradation of eyesight) effects.
2) Traditional ethics of respect for authority and honoring one fs superiors (again with positives/negatives), and the result;
3) an educational system with long and codified traditions reliant on a 'Master/Pupil' relationship. Teacher ('lao-shi 'or 'jiao-shi ') and Master ( 'shi 'or 'fu') express essentially the same concept, "shi'(master/teacher/expert/craftsman).

In fact, the limitations these impose in information based society are well recognized and Asian (at least Chinese/Korean/Japanese) academic systems are being gradually reformed. However, I must point out that all primary learning depends on imitation to some degree, something Western educators (and laws) conveniently overlook! Are good students to be punished? Where/how do we draw the line? Can we have different rules in fiferent places with consideration of social norms?

The noted case history underlines a problem faced by Asians in an English dominated world, how to communicate their original work and creations without being left behind. The problem is all too common and affects not just those who create, but also potential collaborators and beneficiaries. The numerous contributions of Chinese to the sciences (and the bottom lines of Western companies that employ them) are testament to the fact that our minds, hands and educational systems work, but how do we avoid the stigmas and overcome the problems the situation creates?

A friend and ex-colleague of mine, an American professor, is doing something about it. Faced with the problems of his Chinese students and researchers, he is organizing an editorial and peer-review service for Asian graduate students and researchers to help them publish original work, and in doing so, provide part-time employment to students with writing skills (better than working at MacDonald's, as he put it). The underlying principle is the creators must draft the work and provide access to research (in confidence), and the student or research supervisor must approve of the process and review the work. Translation, editing and manuscript preparation would be provided by the service.

What do you think about this? Do you see any ethical problems? And how would you resolve them? I assure you his intention is to promote education and science, but not at the expense of ethical principles. If you care to comment I will forward your remarks to him.

Again, thanks for your website, it's quite interesting.

Should you cae to publish this, please hold my contact information confidential but you may use my name.

Sincerely,

C.B. Ko

Shanghai, China

My Response:

I think this is really an excellent idea! Certainly more of an ethical motivation than many of today's euphemistically labeled "research services". I see no ethical problems whatsoever with the editorial and peer-review service which you describe with a very solid principle requiring creators to draft up their work followed by translation/editing/manuscript preparation assistance. Sounds much like the sort of assistance rendered in most college and university writing centers here in the US except for the translation component.

As for the Pan Aihua (et al) case, it was a similar case of "plagiarism" using a "plug-in" template by a Chinese (Taiwanese?) student back in the early 1990s that first caught my interest, inspiring me to conduct a brief questionaire and attitudinal survey among English language learners. English language dominance is an uncomfortable fact of life, particularly for those whose first language is not English. And I've studied for a number of years now the particular difficulties faced by second language writers in general, and on occasion, native language Chinese students writing in English.

What is the name of this new service? Online, I presume? Please convey my best wishes to your colleague for the success of this ethically motivated, as opposed to unethically motivated, research services startup.

Best,

Dr. John P. Lesko

Dear Dr. Plesko,

I enjoyed your site. I found it while searching for
information to include in a letter-to-the-editor of my
local Canadian paper.
Here is the article I refer to, enlcosed in full in
the event it becomes unavailable (attached).

I would like to see the name of Haravrd law professor
Alan Dershowitz. See
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20050711/wiener

He is a famous plagiarist.

Regards,

David Morgan

Response:

Thanks for your email! I'm glad you found this information to be of use and read your letter with interest. You're exactly right about Dershowitz--he's on my "to do" list as are many others. This looks to be a lifelong project at the rate new plagiaries are being discovered!

Best,

Dr. Lesko

We just discovered your amazing website on Famous Plagiarists. When did you start it? Where and when can we buy the book? [realistically, not for a few years yet]

I think that you are a brave soul to embark on this effort and I will be checking back on your site as you progress. I am most interested in all that is exposed . . . As an English teacher, I try to impress upon my students the importance of academic integrity. I have been reprimanded by my principal, because I stated in my classroom that parts of Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Had A Dream" speech were taken from the earlier Republican Convention speech of 1952, by one Achibald Carey. You would have thought that I sullied a saint. It seems that once a person comes under the caveat of "American Icon" it is impossible to speak the truth . . . The idea that everything comes from something is not new, but to blatantly steal with only a few re-arranged words . . . . ugh! Politically correct or not, this needs to be exposed.

Thanks . . . . I certainly do have some interest in the topic [of plagiarism] . . . The Internet has certainly brought about big changes; I see more plagiarism now than I used to, but the Internet also makes it much easier to track down the sources. Students often don't seem to realize that if they can find material using a search engine like Google, I can find that very same material.

I am an undergraduate student majoring in English at [ . . . ] University. My most recent project is a research paper on Academic Cheating: Why some Instructors choose to ignore it.
I would like to know if you have any insight on this topic? [ . . . ]

I came upon your site and found it to be very interesting and would love to hear what you have to say on the subject.

Hello, my name is [librarian] and I am the Librarian at Rosedale Middle
School. The students at our school do a lot of research in the Library
and we are always talking about Plagiarism. Their favorite thing to do
is cut and paste, then add it to their report (without reference to who
wrote it, I personally don't let them cut and paste, but some of the
teachers do). I keep telling them that they may get away with it in
middle school but high school and especially college is a whole
different "ball of wax". If they learn not to do it now it will be
much easier later. So I am doing my monthly Library Theme, on "Famous
Plagiarist" for the month of November. I am using your site as a
reference. It was very interesting and informative.

Thanks,

Librarian
RMS Library

Dear Dr. Lesko,

I have found your web site where my case is described.
You write among other things: "..researcher becomes no longer able to
make quality contributions to scientific advancement."
Quite recently, a work has appeared on the Internet that might put your
above words in some doubt (if, of course, this work can be described as
a quality contribution): http://www.cell-division-program.com
I, myself, dare to think that this web site will become better known
than my old site.

I recommend you to download and enjoy this program. This is first
animated computer simulation of the process of cell proliferation in
organism. You can use it free for 30 days. Then, perhaps, you can make
an appropriate correction to your site.

Sincerely yours,
Michael Pyshnov [former University of Toronto student who claims his work was stolen by his supervisor, Ellen Larsen].

My Response:

Thank you for this further information. I'm glad to hear of this contradiction as I had assumed the worst--i.e. that your career had come to a halt after the University of Toronto incident based on the information at http://ca.geocities.com/uoftfraud . I will update this profile with a link.

All the best,

Dr. Lesko

Pyshnov Writes Back:

Dear Dr. Lesko,

Yes, you correctly assumed the worst, i.e. that my career had come to a
halt. I only noted that my contributions to science did not end there;
there is a difference here. Please, if you will, make the correction in
that sense. I will be grateful for a link.

Yours sincerely,
Michael Pyshnov.

While doing a survey into plagiarism among advertising agencies (37.5%) and
television producers (72%) - tv concepts/formats - we came across your site.
Although we have a mention of plagiarism by Dutch author and television
personality Adriaan van Dis (although not on your list), we would like to
quote the article you have on Madonna as an extra example, with a reference
to your site.

Please let us know if we have your permission to do this.

Kind regards,

Brian C. Hoolahan

File-Reg International

Note: Permission was granted.

Below is a current news story from the Chronicle about the dean of my college, who has been accused of plagiarism in his commencement address. I hope you'll consider adding him to your list of famous plagiarists [with pleasure!].

So you nailed Nina Totenberg.

Why did you let Mike Barnicle off the hook?

My Response:

He's on my list, actually! You wouldn't believe the backlog--I can barely keep up with the new cases popping up every week. He will definitely be profiled in the near future. Classes have started up for academic year 2005-06, and I'm also busy with a new journal on Plagiary ( www.plagiary.org ), but I do hope to forge ahead with many new profiles in the coming year.

Thanks for the reminder!

Hi Dr. Lesko,

I'm doing a story on a local dispute over plagiarism - or
"under-attribution" if one prefers - and came across your site. In fact your
site contains info on the very dispute I'm writing about, at Penn.

I wondered if you would be willing to be interviewed on the general topic of
plagiarism, what's fair, what's not - and why so many people seem to do it.

Thanks much. (Love your site, by the way).

Jeff

Jeff Gammage
Staff Writer
(215) 854-2810

The Philadelphia Inquirer
400 N. Broad St.
Philadelphia PA 19101

[interview conducted Oct 21st, 2005--article in Philadelphia Inquirer forthcoming]

I saw your website and would like to report a plagiarism incident

[thanks a million!]

I showed another colleague your website and he was most impressed. He later called his mentor to show it to him. We are very impressed and appreciative of the time and effort you are putting into such an important project.

Hello Dr. Lesko,

My name is . . . I'm a journalism student at Carleton University.

I'm doing an investigative piece regarding plagiarism, focusing on essay databases and cheat sites on the Internet.

I was hoping to ask you a few questions as you have been doing extensive research in this field. The number I called (984-2067) seems to be down. Is there another way I could contact you?

Thank you for your time,

Features Editor
The Charlatan
Carleton University's Independent Weekly

[An interesting discussion/interview on November 4, 2005--good luck with this article!]

I'll be watching the site for the story.

Fascinating stuff.

Of interest is the fact that LeBeau hosts the Organization of American Historians's Talking History radio show. How interesting for someone is accused of oral plagiarism. http://www.oah.org/activities/talkinghistory/

Thank you, and I hope you can hear the gratitude in my voice. I sincerely appreciate your project and your support regarding my concerns.

I wish you all the best!

I remain concerned about your reading of Barthes and Foucault . . .

[Don't worry, I think I've come to understand their point of view. Wait a minute! Don't Barthes and Foucault celebrate the birth of the Reader? That's me, right? Assigning meaning to what a text says regardless of what an Author might have intended? I believe you have expressed an invalid concern according to the Foucault-Barthes philosophical posture. What's that whiff of Authorialism I'm getting reading your email ? ! ? ! ]

. . . That said, I continue to wish you the best with your open access journal [www.plagiary.org], in the hope that it will develop into something more than an extension of the War on Plagiarism site [that's my hope too! Thanks!] .

May I direct your attention to Molly Ivins? Google will turn up a number of
her borrowings but I encountered two of them . . . just this year, where
she copied from sources she did not acknowledge and had the misfortune to
borrow from people who were WRONG as to matters of fact so it was kinda
obvious she could have gotten her information nowhere else.

We had a somewhat contentious dispute on the listserv for editorial writers
about this (I am not an Ivins fan, to put it mildly, but most of the list
members love her ... curious how plagiarism seems a minor thing when the
plagiarist is an ideological soulmate).

Commenting on a politico-plagiarist feeding frenzy which erupted on the Canadian political scene in 2004, Canadian Liberal Party leader Kevin Taft remarked, "The last couple of months here have been like living in a Doonesbury cartoon strip".

FYI Kevin Taft is the leader of the Alberta provincial Liberal Party not the Canadian Liberal Party.They are two distinct entities.
Sincerly
Scott Snaden [Many thanks for this correction--Ralph Klein profile has been updated]

I really enjoy your website, www.famousplagiarists.com
I've spent quite a bit of time reading through it. I
have stumbled upon a "famous" plagiarist myself
recently, and thought I would bring this to your
attention. Now this person is not very famous, but has
some degree of fame, and therefore I thought it might
be interesting. I was surfing . . . I think this
might make an interesting and funny addition to your
website.

Can you recommend a forensic linguist . . . qualified to review my materials to determine if plagiarism occurred?

I am coming off a sabbatical ready to make war on plagiarists and your site is perfect! But none of the links worked . Was it just my computer? In any case, bravo--it looks terrific.

[Note: comment from early 2004 before links were activated--it has taken about a year to get this site up to 100 profiles and counting]

John, your website is terrific--I am forwarding that on to friends and colleagues concerned about plagiarism. Russ, Christina, and Warren, if you'd like to see a great site on plagiarism, check out John's Famous Plagiarist Research Project: http://www.famousplagiarists.com

I was recently informed by a friend of mine that when he googled my
name, your plagiarism website showed up . . . I want to make sure that you understand the full
circumstances of the incident so that if you decide to write anything
on the subject, you present an informed and fair review of the events.
The incident was clearly one of the most horrible events on my life-
there have been times that I have made mistakes, and I am quick to
accept my punishment. However, as you can read from the . . .
newspaper article, in this case, my major fault was apathy and a poor choice of friends-
not plagiarism. I regret that my name may forever be tainted by this
incident, but I will continue to do whatever I can to make sure that,
if the event cannot dissappear from public record, it is presented
fairly and with enough information such that viewers can make the
right conclusion about my involvement [anonymity preserved at students' request for a notable instance of plagiarism at a well known US institution of higher education].

Please find enclosed picture of . . . [one of the Famous Plagiarists at this site]

Good luck with your project!

Great work on the website . . .

. . . the accusation in your website that the [anonymous Research Center] "rewards plagiarism both monetarily and professionally" is patently unfair and wholly unjustified . . . we want to highlight the Center's serious objections and concerns . . . The Center reserves the right to pursue any and all options, including possible legal action to protect its image and claim suitable compensation for irreparable damage to its publishing reputation and potential loss of sales [ My analysis tells me that this accusation was both correct and justified. Why--against the recommendations of its own publications staff--would a prestigious research institution continue to publish the work of a known plagiarist ? Because the allegations in this case have not yet been published in the professional literature or public media, I have decided to preserve the anonymity of the research center and the plagiarist in question).

I am writing in regards to your website, http://www.famousplagiarists.com,
in which a profile is written about me regarding past errors in judgment
while as a college student . . .

Your website is highly visible on the internet, and I think it is extremely
unfair that I continue to be punished for mistakes that I made so young in
my life. I took immediate, full responsibility for my actions by resigning.
I did this because I felt guilty and remorseful over my actions . . . The student newspaper already ran several
embarrassing and humiliating articles about me long afterwards, and I feel I
have paid the price of my mistakes many times over. To give you an idea of
how this event has affected my life, in addition to extensive public
embarrassment, I spent the following year in counseling, therapy, and
medication over the guilt and embarrassment I suffered from my actions.

I am a very young person who is just starting a career and a life for
myself. I am trying my best to get over mistakes which I really regret, and
I think that your website profile of me will continue to haunt me wherever I
go, and affect my mental health as well as quality of life. I am a good
person, and I feel that my status in life as well as the severity of my
actions does not compare to the other individuals who are profiled on your
website. Plagiarism is never okay, but your website is about famous
individuals who have made an impact in the world, while this was a mistake
in college over student government. . . . Your website includes profiles of famous
academics and historians who actually benefited from their actions, while I
have only suffered and did not stand to benefit by spending time outside of
class to help improve my college community.

I ask/beg that you consider removing my profile from your website. I have
not yet explored my legal options or alternative responses regarding your
website, but I ask in the spirit of decency as well as forgiveness, that you
allow me to move on from this mistake and go on to live my life. My profile
does not benefit your project in any way as I am not a famous individual,
and you can still prove your point and accomplish your goals without hurting
my entire life in the process.

My Response:

I'm very sympathetic to the plight of a student such as yourself. As you
> will note in other profiles within this site, there are people who have been
> in similar situations such as yourself who have moved on successfully after
> a plagiarism incident (i.e. see Totenberg, Kadzis and others).
>
> As I did with [another college student], I'm willing to [preserve anonymity]
> so as not to name you directly considering that this happened at the student
> level. That way the site will not turn up when someone googles your name.
>
> Best wishes with your future plans--and remember, other people have gotten
> past incidents of plagiarism to go on with very successful careers. I wish
> you all the best!
>
>Dr. Lesko

Student's Reaction

I would really, really appreciate [the anonymity] so that my name will not
continue to show up very visibly on a google search. Thank you for this
gesture. I have learned many tough lessons from my mistake, and I hope to
put it behind me as I start the rest of my life. Also, thank you for your
kind note and understanding. It is hard for me to move on when I am
continually reminded of what I regret from the past. Best of luck on your
current and future projects.

Dear Dr. Lesko,

I was 'googling' myself and came across your
website where you put Neil Winn in the
Plagiarism Hall of Fame. I was very pleased
to see that you are still putting pressure on
him indirectly and I think you have a very nice
website. And, thanks for chalking one up to
me!

Best,
Todd Fine
[Todd was a university student when he discovered plagiarism by Neil Winn while doing research]

Have you run into any flack for the "alleged plagiarist" website? [Yes, but not much. See Leeds University legal threat below] Just curious. I have not met you nor did I know about the site, but some friends around the country emailed me to ask. Why they didn't just contact you I don't know ha. Best wishes.

The University of Leeds Complains About the Neil Winn Profile:

Dear Dr Lesko

There are a number of inaccuracies regarding your account of Dr Winn on
your website.

1. Dr Winn is not a director of teaching and learning at the
University.

2. The allegation of plagiarism was not 'alleged' or, indeed, denied'.
When it was put to him, Dr Winn immediately accepted responsibility.

[ Think about it! I use the word alleged in my website disclaimer because it is others who have made such allegations. I am simply reporting what others have "alleged". I do not make any first allegations and cannot vouch for the absolute reliability of those reported at FamousPlagiarists.com, but rather, through secondary research, I report on the allegations which others have made. This term is an important legal protection as well. I'll accept your statement at face-value. The Leeds University Head of Communications alleges that Mr. Winn does not deny that he is a (contrite and reformed) plagiarist. OK. That's great! ]

3. With reference to the following:
This case is a classic example of the difficulties faced by individuals
in confronting plagiarism. Todd Fine and others found that other
academics and even professional organizations were very hesitant to take
any kind of actions involving the confrontation of a plagiarist.

The University of Leeds was not hesitant in taking action; as soon as
the plagiarism allegation was made, we immediately set in train an
investigation in accordance with our protocol for investigating and
resolving allegations of misconduct in academic research. (The protocol
is publicly available here
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/rsu/respol/Protocol.doc - and clearly
demonstrates that we have a robust procedure for dealing with this
issue.)

The allegation of plagiarism - involving some five pages of text in a
book published in 1996 - was formally upheld - indeed was not denied by
Dr Winn. The conclusion of the investigation was put to two
Pro-Vice-Chancellors (in accordance with the provisions of the protocol)
to determine what disciplinary action was appropriate. The
Pro-Vice-Chancellors took the view, having regard to all the
circumstances - including in particular Dr Winn's evident contrition and
his personal circumstances at the time of the offence - that dismissal
was not appropriate. The University is satisfied that that was a
reasonable decision, properly taken. We are further satisfied that this
was a 'one-off' incident; no other issues of this kind have arisen in
respect of Dr Winn during his time at Leeds.

The University did of course write to the author whose work had been
plagiarised confirming that it had upheld the allegation against Dr
Winn, and confirming that disciplinary action had been taken. We also
wrote to the publisher of Dr Winn's monograph, who subsequently
destroyed all unsold copies of the work.

4. The book is not listed on his current staff page on the University
website here http://www.leeds.ac.uk/polis/staff/academic/winn.shtml

I would be grateful if you would correct your account in light of this
information, and, in particular, the clear implication that Dr Winn's
has failed to act, failed to investigate fully, or failed to make an
appropriate response.

We will reserve our position.

**********************************************
Vanessa Bridge
Head of Communications
University of Leeds
LS2 9JT
0113 343 4030
0113 343 4125 (fax)
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/media/index.htm
***********************************************

My Response to Ms. Bridge and the University of Leeds: The Neil Winn Profile Was Accurate and Based on a Chronicle of Higher Education article by T. Bartlett and S. Smallwood:

As you will note, it is the very first item listed under
"Books".

And I've just checked again today, and it remains on this
website, so I remain hesitant to "correct" this part of the profile. If
and when any changes are made to the web address above, I will be more
than happy to detail this in the Winn "Famous Plagiarists" profile.

I have every interest in maintaining and accurate and truthful
database on Famous Plagiarists, and I once again thank you for prompting
me to revisit this profile. I will do this in the very near future, but
I reserve my right as an academic researcher to "call a spade a spade"!

It seems to me there are more in-accuracies in your email
request than there are in my profile of Dr. Winn, and while I'm quite
willing to correct any inaccuracies in my own research, I would also ask
that you consider the information above, particularly the article in the
Chronicle as well as the info listed in Dr. Winn's website. The book
European Crisis Management in the 1980s is still listed today on Winn's
website, so where is the innaccuracy in noting this in my Famous
Plagiarist's profile? Mr. Winn claims at this same site to be a Senior
Lecturer in European Studies, POLIS, Director of Learning and Teaching,
POLIS, so, once again, where is the inaccuracy? Is Mr. Winn being
dishonest about this as well?


Attentively,

Dr. John P. Lesko



John P. Lesko, PhD
Assistant Professor of English
Saginaw Valley State University
7400 Bay Road
University Center, MI 48710

The University of Leeds Then Updated Their Webpages After My Initial Response:

**********************************************
Vanessa Bridge
Head of Communications
University of Leeds
LS2 9JT
0113 343 4030
0113 343 4125 (fax)
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/media/index.htm
***********************************************

Elsewhere on his site:

A Plagiarist sucks the lifeblood right out of a text for his own selfish nourishment. He cares not that the life of the Author is forfeited through his bloodthirsty textual savagery-ravagery and asserts blasphemously that a text has somehow attained “the right to kill, to become the murderer of its author” (Foucault, M. "What is an Author?" 1986: 140). The Plagiarist siphons off the life giving crimson fluid as ink for his own pen, without a thought for either the Author, or for the Reader. And he splashes this stolen red ink freely on the pages of his own textual plagiarations. To the Plagiarist, the words are there for the taking. After all, whose words are they really anyway? Who can rightfully claim ownership of the discourse that characterizes human communication? The Plagiarist justifies his plagiarisms through pseudo-philosophizations and self-justifications as he happily helps himself to your blood, my blood—anybody’s blood, as long as that red ink remains life-givingly fluid, un-encrusted, as yet un-congealed. A Plagiarist is a textual vampire . . .

He goes on in this vein, and if you're interested in cultural metaphors for plagiarism, you'll want to scroll down to his catalogue [view these metaphors here ].

One more, and then I'll stop. This is from his bio . . .

My Response (posted at Schenectady Synecdoche ):

Please, I cannot take complete credit for "single-handedly adjudicat[ing] plagiarism cases".

What I am trying to do is to popularize some of the more famous allegations of plagiarism which have been made over the years. My "Famous Plagiarist Research Project" is a database in progress of such cases, but I do not "adjudicate" or make any first claims/allegations--I evaluate and assess the allegations based on existing sources (see references at http://www.famousplagiarists.com/books.htm ).

It became apparent to me in the early stages of this project that a system was needed to better classify and categorize the various cases, and this inspired me to come up with the main categories (religion/journalism/pop-fiction . . .) as well as the 5-point scale to indicate how serious the allegations were . . .

. . . while having a bit of fun in the process :) . www.FamousPlagiarists.com is my "rant space", a way to calm what used to be rather frequent fits of "plagiarism paranoia" . . . not really . . . more like a sense of disgust with the many cases of blatant plagiarism across discourse communities.

The new scholarly journal Plagiary (www.plagiary.org), a separate project from the "Famous Plagiarists" work, is more of a professionally targeted as opposed to popular audience targeted work (to get a sense of who else is involved in the Plagiary project see the list of Editorial Advisory Board members at http://www.plagiary.org/board.htm ). The journal follows the "open access" model of publishing and will be published through the University of Michigan's Scholarly Publishing Office with journal contents also being made available on the journal homepage at plagiary.org.

The first papers are coming in, and looks like we're good to go with a launch date in January 2006. As the recent conference on plagiarism at the University of Michigan illustrates, there are many scholars and concerned members of various discourse communities who have been thinking and writing about these issues . . .

Thanks for the mention. I'd be happy to corrospond with other scholars and professionals interested in contributing/critiquing/reviewing papers.

John P. Lesko, Editor
Plagiary: Cross-Disciplinary Studies in Plagiarism, Fabrication, and Falsification
http://www.plagiary.org

Dear Plagiarist watchdog:

Your web-site was very illuminating. I am wondering if you have any
advice as to the best way to go about reporting a case of a plagiarized
journal article. The author is a professor who is very prominent and well-liked
at his university, so I am not sure whether or not I should report this
academic fraud directly to his university newspaper. I don't want to risk one of
his students at the newspaper getting wind of this revelation and trying to
bury the story or forewarn the professor of his imminent "outing" as a
plagiarist. I don't want this professor to get ahead of the story and manufacture
some dubious excuse.
Is there a protocol for going about reporting acts of plagiarism by
university faculty members?
Any help you could provide on this matter would be most appreciated.

These procedures vary from school to school, and your concerns seem to be well-founded with regard to a plagiarist attempting to manufacture some "dubious excuse" (c.f. case of Prof. Roberts at SUNY, Albany).

I would advise caution whatever you decide to do. Look into whether the university does have a policy, and who is responsible for appointing an investigative committee. Once this proecess begins, the media often pick up on a story, but it could take a year or more for the results to be known. If the professor is near the end of his/her career, he/she may just resign rather than face such an investigation (c.f. the case of former Oklahoma prof. Carney).

Above all, be certain of your allegations since you don't want to open yourself to the possibility of a lawsuit for defamation/slander and the like of someone's reputation (such an allegation could spell the end of someone's career--but not always: see the cases of Harvard profs Ogletree and Tribe as well as Leeds University's Prof. Winn. Sometimes lesser penalties are applied and the repentant plagiarist is allowed to continue with his career).

Perhaps you could present the allegations without even mentioning the "P-word": "I'm not sure if this constitutes misconduct, but from all appearances, there is no acknowledgement of verbatim copying" [in a memo to whoever investigates these things at the university].

How extensive is the derivation? Large components of the article? Or just bits and pieces?

These are just a few things for your consideration as you decide the best way to go about prompting a closer investigation of scholarly misconduct.

Best,

Dr. Lesko

Mr Lesko,

I was going to use this site as a resource for some of our students,
but noted that you listed individuals who actually were exonerated from
claims of plagiarism (quick examples, S. King, J.K. Rowling, and,
oddly, M. Jackson).

I was wondering why you would list those on your site since it seems
(according to the court system) they were NOT guilty as accused. I'm
sure that nearly every well known author could find instances where
they were accused of this. And, that you define "Low Risk" as "Low
risk of further plagiarism activities/discoveries/related incidents"
almost sounds as though there IS a risk, but it is low, this seems
misleading.

The site and the ratings seem somewhat subjective.

Would you be interested in addressing this a bit for me?

Thanks,

Bob Coller
------------------------------
Robert Coller
Executive Director
C.O.P.E.
http://www.cope1.org

"Low risk of further plagiarism activities/discoveries/related incidents. Denotes a low-level, minor occurrence of plagiarism and/or un-substantiated charges with discovery of further incidents un-likely."

Sometimes charges are indeed found to be without basis, and I will be addressing this further in my current-book-in-progress.

Please note also the wording of the Rowling profile where I state clearly, "J.K. Rowling has evidently been vindicated of the plagiarism allegations concocted by Nancy Stouffer."

It is not always the case though that vindication in court absolved a plagiarist. See the H.G. Wells case as an example. He prevailed in court, but modern scholarship (A.B. McKillop) has provided some pretty solid evidence that he did plagiarize the work of Florence Deeks.

Thanks for your query. I will give some further thought as to how I might better indicate exoneration when needed in cases such as these, allegations having been made, but found later to be unsubstantiated. Sometimes a plagiarist with fancy lawyers and a lot of money is able to prevail from a legal standpoint, so I'm not always convinced by court decisions (especially since appeals often follow).

I use this site with my students as well at the first year university level. My students write one of their papers on "Lessons Learned From Famous Plagiarists."

Best,

J.P. Lesko

It is a pity, because, while attempting (poorly) to discredit a theory, the
page only serves to discredit the site itself -- the site that would
otherwise be a great, informative resource.

I am not familiar with your academic work or teaching, and I do not pretend to
have a knowledge of what your official (or corrected) stance on this is. I am
just commenting on the site as someone like me would perceive it. I do not
imply here that I dismiss the site itself (again, yes, the site's ultimate
goal -- I think -- I want to think! -- is to be an educational resource).

I can see how a lot of last century critical theory ruts against the grain of
the arguments one would bring forward in a case against plagiarism. But
instead of working the arguments, or at least postponing working them until
you figure out how to work them, you chose to make a gratuitous,
dirty-laundry, high-school style hack-job-of-a-page that will potentially
only further confuse educators and contribute to the enormous pile of
depleted thought [jn complete agreement with you here!] that surrounds the postmodern controversy. Worse than that,
I repeat it again here, such a gesture only discredits what would otherwise
be a respectful cause.

The bottom line is that this little appendix-of-a-page I mentioned subsists
itself on beating a dead horse while delightfully missing the the very same
target. I sincerely hope that, in the name of the Author and the Source, you
will take an action to resolve the issue I pointed out in this letter.

Respectfully
Eugene Scherba

http://www.eugenescherba.com

Response:

J.P. Lesko

>>> <bill.smith@comcast.net> 01/29/06 8:06 AM >>>
Mr. Plesko:

I believe on your list of plagarists should appear www.famousplagiarists.com for stealing and repeating, without documentation, the claim that Al Gore claimed to have invented the Internet.

In the Wolf Blitzer CNN interview which forms the only basis for the allegation Gore committed plagarism, Gore states only:

"During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet."

Source:
http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stories/1999/03/09/president.2000/transcript.gore/

Since the precise allegation made against Gore as a plagarist is "taking credit for inventing the Internet" and as it cites a verb he did not use on the CNN broadcast, the source for the assertion that Gore claimed to have, in www.plagarism.com's term, "invented" the Internet must lie elsewhere -- other than in Gore's own words. But where? Obviously since he never said it, there is no original research or reporting that would justify such a claim. Therefore, the only possible source for the statement that Gore is or was "taking credit for inventing the Internet" must be a secondary source -- and www.famousplagarists.com cites none. Moreover, in its page on Gore's alleged plagarism, www.famousplagarists.com lists titles of several articles it uses to foster the perception that Gore made a claim that he did not make. The Web site never once cites to the source of publication of the articles.

It is apparent that www.famousplagarists.com has picked up, without proper attribution, political "spin" and allegations from those who continue to assert that Gore claimed to have "invented" the Internet. There is not a single word of attribution for the claim made. As there is no research to support this claim, www.plagarists.com is repeating, without attribution, the claims of others and is, then, engaging in plagarism.

One may debate whether Gore "took the initiative" in creating the Internet and this sortof claim, by Gore, is open to academic and factual challenge. But to do so by repeating as fact the claims of others is plagarism

Kindly note this on your Web site. If you are serious about standing for an academic study of plagarists, your intellectual and academic dishonesty must be held to the same standards that you have decided to hold others, or to repeat your words:

"Taking the thoughts and writings of someone else and pretending them to be your own—it doesn’t require too much common sense or scholarly analysis to see why this shouldn’t be done."

W.F. Smith

cc: President . . . , Dean . . . , ombudsman . . . , Vice President . . . [many thanks!]

Just noticed your message which for some reason ended up in my "junk mail" box (tend to get a lot of "junk" mail). Sorry for not responding sooner.

If you will examine this profile more closely, you will see that there is more to the allegation against Al Gore than is reflected in your counter-allegation: "the Wolf Blitzer CNN interview which forms the only basis for the allegation Gore committed plagarism".

If this were true, I would not have included Mr. Gore on the "Famous Plagiarists" website. In fact, these allegations go back much further than the now (in)famous Wolf Blitzer interview. I had actually thought of featuring both G.W. Bush and J. Kerry when I began this site in 2004 since allegations of plagiarism were made during the presidential election mudslinging season, but I deemed these to be more spurious than the allegations involving Biden and Gore, and refrained.

As part of my response, I will copy below the portion of this profile ( http://www.famousplagiarists.com/politics.htm#gore ) which refers to the "language lifting" of Mr. Gore:

"In the same Newsweek article which reported on Joe Biden’s plagiarism by including a copy of Biden’s transcripts, reference was made to an instance of language lifting by Al Gore, still a senator back then in 1987. This alleged language lifting happened long before his claim to have invented the Internet. It happened long before his claims to have been the source for Love Story. And it was still a few more years before he would serve as Vice President under that “unusually good liar” by the name of William Jefferson Clinton.
Newsweek’s Mickey Kaus devoted several lines to “Gore’s gaffe”, an apparent instance of Gore borrowing a story from another politician:

Sen. Albert Gore, another Democratic candidate blatantly stole a trademark anecdote of Congressman Morris Udall’s, got caught and was punished with only a few back-page paragraphs. But nobody suspected Gore of dangerous glibness. They did Biden." (block qt. from Kaus).

Cited on my "References" page as follows:

Kaus, M. (1987, September 28). Biden’s belly flop. Newsweek, vol. 110 (13), pp. 23-24.

Please take note also that I begin this profile with the statement that "the plagiarism allegations [i.e. against Gore] were not quite as serious as other notable cases of political plagiarism". I have therefore qualified these allegations and modifed the "threat level" accordingly as well to a "Level 2" Guarded Risk category.

I do not believe that I have incorrectly reported on the political spin following Gore's claim to have taken the "initiative" (impetus--same thing, isn't it?) with development of the Internet.

Please note also, as reported in my profile, that the reaction to Gore's claim was across party lines: "Gore found himself as a national laughingstock. Articles with quite un-flattering titles such as “Al Gore, inter-nitwit”, “Bore for president”, “Stretching the fabric”, “Albert the Brainiac”, “Who stole Al Gore’s website?”, “(T)Ruthless Al Gore” and “The VEEP is a truth-stretcher too” made Gore the butt of many jokes across party lines."

These were just a few of the article titles from which I drew my observations.

I do revisit these profiles regularly and will do so with the Gore profile to double-check once again that this info is accurate.

With thanks for your email and quite interesting suggestion. If you have scholarly inclinations, I wonder if you might consider contributing a "Perspectives" article to the new journal Plagiary ( www.plagiary.org ) sometime in the near future, perhaps a piece addressing the use of plagiarism allegations as a political weapon or something along these lines.

Got any good suggestions for Republican plagiarists? Happy to feature these as well as I did with Steve Pearce ( http://www.famousplagiarists.com/politics.htm#pearce ), not to mention the conservative lobbyist Bruce Logan ( http://www.famousplagiarists.com/politics.htm#logan ) who was found to be plagiarizing.

Again, thanks for writing.

Best,

J.P. Lesko

>>> "Michael D. Adams" <exomike@bellsouth.net> 3/11/2006 4:12 pm >>>

I read the items on Ward Churchill and Al Gore and they appeared to have
been plagiarized from urban legends and Rovian smears.
Ever So Sincerely,
Michael D. Adams
Atlanta

Particularly troubling with regard to the Churchill case are the dubious claims to Native American ancestry (c.f. the 'Nasdijj' case) as well as threats against a Canadian professor some years back who alleged that Churchill had plagiarized her work.

With regard to the Gore case, please refer to the Newsweek article cited in the profile (i.e. there is more to this than the Gore Internet initiative/impetus).

Thank you for your interest in the "Famous Plagiarists Research Project" and for this feedback.

Dr. Lesko

Note: Gore profile has recently been updated.

Update: Instead of invented the Internet, read "I [Al Gore] took the initiative in creating the Internet" (Blitzer, W. interview with Al Gore). Al Gore did not actually claim that he "invented" the Internet. Rather, he stated, "During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet." With thanks to Bill Smith <bill.smith@comcast.net> for bringing this to my attention. Read Bill's interesting letter to Dr. Lesko here [above current entry] , including Dr. Lesko's response.

 

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Disclaimer: All of the famous plagiarists featured in this webspace remain “alleged plagiarists”, the documented allegations having been made by others in the professional literature and/or the popular media. Further details relating to these allegations will be forthcoming in the book edition of Famous Plagiarists. Although Dr. Lesko is a professor at Saginaw Valley State University, the Famous Plagiarists Research Project represents the individual research of John P. Lesko, plagiarologist, and SVSU accepts no responsibility for the content of these pages. Comments or questions should be directed to