Sunday, April 30, 2006

Plagiarism doesn't have to be word for word

Publisher Little, Brown and Co. finally got their act together and pulled 'How Opal Mehta Got Kissed..." from the shelves.

Lesson the first: Plagiarism doesn't have to be word for word. Author Kaavya Viswanathan changed nouns and verbs throughout the passages she stole from Megan McCafferty, but the similarities are still blindingly clear.

Lesson the second: Teenagers shouldn't get $500,000 book contracts.