Hey guys! Hope the weekend was swell.
I stumbled across a web site this morning that made me think of you! It’s a virtual rap sheet for pop culture’s most ‘famous plagiarists,’ and I think it raises some questionable points (also fun to browse in the interest of digging up skeletons in some of our favorite celebrities’ closets).
Why questionable? Well, a good bit of the people they lay out for intellectual property theft are respected and/or megafamous artists such as JK Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series, who had to fend off some jealous nut who swore she wrote Harry first (but called him Larry). The woman was proven a liar by the courts, which the site points out, but still — having your famous face next to the words FAMOUS PLAGIARISTS when you really haven’t done anything wrong has to be infuriating.
You know, the idea behind this blog is that every idea comes from somewhere else. However, I’m certainly not saying that two authors can’t have the same idea for a story at the same time, especially when it’s based on an age old archetype like fantasy, horror or romance. Maybe that woman who went crazy on Rowling did indeed have an idea for a book about a boy wizard. Well, too bad. Should have written faster (better?).
Now, without further ado, a mugshot gallery of a few of my favorite “plagiarists,” according to the site:
That’s Stephen King, T.S Eliot, and Helen Keller (really!?).
What do you guys think? Are you running the risk of being called a thief just by creating anything? Should this web site really be posting all of these photos when some of the accusations have been proven false or can’t be proven at all?
Till next time!
Jen
