The Morality of Theft: why plagiarism doesn't feel like stealing

Note: This is a story I wrote for the February, 2010 issue of my school newspaper.

Teachers at Timpview have come across some very blatant plagiarism: "Once, I got three of the exact same essays, from three different students," said English teacher Mrs. VanOrden. And Social Studies teacher Mr. Stevenson "had one student who turned in a book report that was plagiarized, I gave it back and said you need to do this in your own words, and they gave another one from a different book review website. I have students pulling things off Wikipedia, and you know those blue links Wikipedia has? Yea, they leave those in.” Why is the plagiarism problem so hard to tackle? Is it the problem with our youth, our education system, or in the way we view the act of taking another person’s idea?

Plagiarism, as defined by the random house dictionary, 2010, is "the unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work." Plagiarism is using someone else's words and ideas without telling where you got them. Plagiarism is essentially stealing— isn't it?

Many Timpview students think it is. This is no surprise: In an attempt to deter plagiarism, teachers have pounded the idea that plagiarism is theft into students' heads. Teachers reason that, since the majority of students wouldn't steal a car, a handbag, or a movie, they wouldn't steal someone else's work. But this is where things get tricky.

A sentence from the previous paragraph may seem familiar to you: “You wouldn’t steal a car; You wouldn’t steal a handbag; You wouldn’t steal a movie.” This line is taken from an infamous advertisement that was made to combat the illegal downloading of pirated films. This comically dramatic video — in which various thug-like teens are shown, in grainy black-and-white, stealing a car, a handbag, a DVD, and, finally, downloading a movie from the internet, while intense techno music blasts in the background —uses the same strategy that teachers are so fond of: It tries to make young people feel bad for pirating films, tries to make them feel that pirating is stealing. But this strategy doesn’t work.

It doesn’t work, because no matter how many grainy, black-and-white adds you’ve seen: No matter how many times Mr. So-and-so says, “Copying and pasting form Wikipedia is theft:” No matter how often you’re threatened: Plagiarism just doesn’t feel like stealing. For some reason, taking someone else’s idea is not the same as taking someone else’s iPad.

Taking an idea doesn’t feel like stealing, because ideas are not a limited commodity. Malcolm Gladwell, in his 2009 Book “What the Dog Saw,” quotes Lawrence Lessig, who explains the problem with viewing ideas as property:
I understand what I am taking when I take the picnic table you put in your backyard. I am taking a thing, a picnic table, and after I take it, you don’t have it. But what am I taking when I take the good idea you had to put a picnic table in the back yard—by, for example, going to sears, buying a table, and putting it in my back yard? What am I taking then?
If taking an idea doesn’t hurt the person you are taking it from, who does it hurt?

It hurts you.

In trying to get that A, it’s easy to forget the point of this whole thing, to forget that it’s you, not you’re three-page essay that’s important. It is a teacher’s job to teach, and by passing someone else’s work off as your own, you are lying to your teacher. Homework and essays help teachers do their job; teachers use assigned work to see where you are, and to teach accordingly. “I think I’m teaching [my students], but it turns out I’m teaching Wikipedia,” Said English teacher.
Jim Davis

It’s easy to get caught up in the game: To think more about the grade than what the grade was meant to stand for (an A used to mean something, gosh-darn it!). But school is meant to be more than a game.

So students—don’t lie to your teachers about how well you can write or think. And if you think being honest about your abilities will hurt your grade, practice is a good place to start.

And teachers—don’t try the easy way out. Don’t think that you can convince your students’ emotions that plagiarism is stealing. Assign homework that encourages your students to think, not homework that encourages them to copy-and paste. Expect real ideas from your students, and you just might get some.

Plagiarism isn’t stealing—it’s lying.