ethical dilemma:

one of the blogs i've been reading for the past year and half did something the other day that is more than just a little bit shady. the person who runs it basically presented the work of another poet (dead, super duper famous, and one of my personal influences) as their own. at first i thought, "probably was in a hurry and forgot to give credit where credit is due. no biggie. i'm sure they'll catch it." well, this particular post has gotten a bunch of comments at this point complimenting this poem and what a great writer this blogger is. no one has caught that this isn't their work and the blogger hasn't fessed up to the fact that it's someone else's work... (tremendous sigh of disappointment).

i'm not going to leave a comment on this person's blog calling them out on this infraction even though i think it's more than deserved. reason being is that i've been plagiarized before and confronting the offender about it doesn't result in much good other than getting them to stop ripping you off (or in this case, ripping off this particular poet). they'll just rip someone else off. the cycle just continues and continues.

people who plagiarize have succumbed to their very large feeling of inadequacy and are pretty much just acting out of fear. pointing this out doesn't make them feel bad, it makes them feel embarrassed... and embarrassed to the point of hatred. and there's no low they won't stoop to to get you back for publicly shaming them. i mean, come on - they're plagiarists. it's not like ethics really matter to these people. and i don't want to get in one of those weirdo internet battles with anybody. this person knows who they are and should be ashamed. if it was an accident, fix it, apologize, and be more aware of siting your sources in the future. but from where i sit, ripping off another artist's work and presenting it as your own is so amazingly WRONG that i can't even wrap my mind around it. and ripping off the work of a dead woman, no less! for shame, for shame, for shame!

i'll follow your blog a while longer just to see if you amend this. if not, you've lost this reader for good.