Huseyin Ozel writes of a plagiarist:

"nobody has (to my
knowledge at least) taken any action. Interestingly enough, the
original author also knew about the incident; but he did not care."

He asks rhetorically:

"If the original author does not care about it, who will?"


Those who might hire and associate with the plagiarist will care. The
original author might be flattered, like Upton Sinclair, who wrote that "The
business of writers is to have their ideas stolen." If your ideas are
radical and distinctive enough, anyway, few plagiarists want to touch them.

Overt sanctions are rare, because "nobody wants to get involved". Higher
administrators have risen there by "letting sleeping dogs lie". They also
reckon that "People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones." Here
are two partial solutions from actual case studies.

1. A colleague (this was in another age and galaxy, far, far away) published
a student's paper as his own. The student approached me for help, knowing
that this colleague and I had clashed. I was in my own glass house at the
time, for reasons not relevant here, so I simply made 15 copies of the
student's original work and the colleague's publication and bound them
together. I sequestered them in my office and said nothing. The grapevine
did the rest. When someone came asking for copies I obliged, but again said
nothing.

	I wish I could report that the righteous faculty demanded the
offender's head. They didn't, but that was a valuable lesson, too - it told
me a lot about my colleagues and their values, which I had sensed all along.
Pretty soon the plagiarist became a dean - maybe that was punishment enough,
but the innocent have suffered along with the guilty. As for me, it inspired
me later to write "The Corruption of Economics", which was good fun, and all
true.

2. In yet another age and galaxy a student took leave to attend a political
convention in a nearby city. He was head of "Students for John Doe", Doe
being a favorite son of the galaxy. The convention nominated Richard Roe
instead, and wouldn't you know, my student returned as national chair of
"Students for Richard Roe". Then, to get credit for the course, my student,
let's call him Iago, submitted a 100 page paper, professionally typed, and
stolen from pp. 1-100. I failed him. He blustered and threatened with
extraordinary brass and gall, but finally went away and was forgotten - by
me.

	Several years later I was in yet another galaxy, named for the first
president of our greater galaxy, and heard favorable comments about this new
Congressman Iago. The commentators were members of Bader's Invaders, an
idealistic and investigative group, not easily taken in, so I had thought. I
warned them, but they didn't want to hear it.

	It got worse. Like Sir Joseph Porter, KCB, who got started by
polishing up the handle on the big front door, Iago's upward trajectory
accelerated. He was selected as his Party's candidate for U.S. Senator.
Iago's coronation was to occur in the galaxy's other big city, the one named
for the neighboring galaxy. Iago and his wife and children took off in their
private plane from their huge ranch near Iagocothe when the plane crashed,
killing them all. Illustrating, perhaps,  that the mills of the gods grind
slowly, but they grind exceeding fine. Well, not so fine but what they took
the (presumed) innocent along with the guilty.

	Anyway, Huseyin, look on the bright side, life has its ways of
exacting sanctions.

Mason Gaffney