A couple of years ago I was introduced to the concept of "ego-surfing."
The organization I work for (obviously NOT an English dept) had hired a
web marketing consultant whose wife was a free-lance writer. He said she
regularly searches the internet not only for references to her but for
uses of her work. She identifies a unique string of words in something
she's written and searches on that, and has actually found plagiarism of
her work. Imitation may be a sincere form of flattery, but we know how Sam
felt about protecting one's work. - Peg Wherry, Weber State University


On Tue, 8 Jan 2002, Susanna Ashton wrote:

> Anyway, I noticed that several of the papers they were selling were
> themselves plagiarized.  The most egregious example I noticed was a couple
> of essays for sale titled "A Case Study in Critical Controversy" which
> steal directly and indirectly from the critical commentary written by
> Gerald Graff and James Phelan for the Bedford St Martin's Press versions of
> Huckleberry Finn.
>
> I wrote a nasty note to the site (as if they care about their quality
> control....hah!), but if you have published any widely-available critical
> commentary on Twain, it might be worth your while to peruse this site and
> see if they are selling your material for other people to pass off as their
> own.