It Isn’t Plagiarism if You Like It

There are a couple of individuals over on my facebook page having a bit of a dust-up/flame war/spirited difference of opinions over who plagiarized from who (or should that be “from whom?”  Rather surprisingly, considering that I’m a bit of a grammar Nazi on some points, I just avoid using “whom” because I’m afraid of getting it wrong and, besides, it’s completely unnecessary.  “Whom” is to the English language sort of like the tonsils or the coccyx are to the human body) and, admittedly, I don’t know the principal characters personally, but I got the feeling somebody was taking themselves a bit too seriously.

If somebody plagiarizes your thesis paper in which you prove the possibility of faster than light travel, or your genius screenplay which you had worked on forever and expected to be your ticket to Hollywood, I could see being upset.  But this was just about a blog.

This is a blog.  I do not scour the internet looking to see if anybody has plagiarized from me.  Of course, maybe I should read other people’s blogs more, but I fit in as many as I have time for.  I’ve never seen anybody even come close to plagiarizing me.

I’ve got plagiarism envy.

If somebody liked this blog enough to plagiarize from it, I’d be more flattered than angry.  It’s not as if I’m making any money on it.

Of course, if I was suddenly faced with the reality I might feel differently about it, especially if it was somebody  I didn’t much like to start with, but to pre-empt the possibility of me changing my tune hypocritically at some hypothetical point in the future, I am going to state right here, right now, anybody that wants to copy or reprint any part of this daily blog can just feel free to do so (that does not include  the poetry, of course, which you can find by clicking on the bar at the top that says “poetry.”  If you want to quote or reprint any of my poems, I would appreciate your mentioning that I wrote them)

But, my mundane daily musings on the news of the world and occasional introspective views of my life in Prague? Go for it.