Wow. I am a plagiarist.

[sepdet]

I finally remembered why plagiarism is a push-button issue for me, something I simply don't tolerate. It's yet another lesson in the Unconscious: a textbook case of repression.

When I was six, I failed to write a book report for King of the Wind, because I got partway through the book and the painful angst happening in that story was too much for me to take. Instead, I wound up writing a book report that paraphrased the blurb on the back cover.

Stupid, as well as dishonest.

Frighteningly enough, the teacher failed to notice, and gave me a good grade.

That grade haunted me for years. I am a weak person, but very strong in the forces of guilt.

I had managed to forget this, but it has come back now. So, here and now,let me come clean to the universe: I AM SORRY, I PLAGIARIZED A BOOK REPORT FOR MISS GOMBA'S CLASS in 1977.

Bah.
Silly, and yet it isn't.

It's wrong. Copyright violations where you don't pay the piper are bad, but you're still not claiming someone else's creative work, their own unique creation, as something YOU did. That's where my trigger-point is.

Comments

[laebeth87.livejournal.com]

*huggles, but cannot help to smile at title*

[akycha.livejournal.com]

Oh, my. It's always a revelation when one remembers something like that.

The harm you did was minimal; I am quite sure that the universe just said "That's all right. Now you've got that off your chest, you can stop losing sleep over it. Clean slate, honest."

[sepdet.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm really not going to feel strong guilt now. I was a six-year-old still learning right and wrong,. But it still seems right to confess, especially since I just whopped the hell out of someone for doing it on the plaza.

[heavenscalyx.livejournal.com]

Heh.

You only whopped them? I would've shredded, booted, and banned 'em. Especially people that lift fanfic. Gah.

[sepdet.livejournal.com]

It was artwork.

My whoppage was severe. Normally, we don't discuss a member's violations with other members -- we simply investigate, suspend or otherwise penalize the perp depending on the severity of the infraction, and contact the member privately. Because of the nature of this one, we broke standard procedure and added a public shaming to the mix.

I hate doing that, I really do. I do not like my home to feel nasty!

[kirbyk.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know how you feel.

Except for me, it was in the sixth grade, and I got caught, and I nearly died of shame. I really didn't like myself for a few months because of it.

Overall, I'm kind of glad I got caught, because I really did learn a lot about myself. And I hardly ever cheated after that in High School, and never in college or the Real World.

But damn, I still feel a little guilty about taking that shortcut and the stupid rationalizations I used. I knew it was wrong when I did it.

[annyness.livejournal.com]

well...I am 14 and I still sometimes take papers from the net. But not book reports. I love writing these.
We had to write a paperin Music and me&ista wrote about Abba...long story but we had to remake it. we wrote a page ourselves and found two pages from the net...
in the end we read through the two pages...they wrre just horrid and gave in the page we wrote.
*g* thank god we did it.
so, your own work is always better. And here's a long rant for your comment.