Help! My Article Has Been Plagiarized, What Should I Do?

What should we do if someone plagiarize our article? Permit her to do that. By giving our express consent, she has legitimate right to publish her article as her own.

WHY? She infringes our authorship right. We are losing money because of it. Why giving her a privilege instead of punishment? Yes, she infringes our authorship right, and we are losing consequential profits because of it.

We should give her the privilege instead of punishment, and the reasons are as follow.

Definition and Reality of Plagiarism

Plagiarism defined as copying the creation of another people, and claiming it as one's own. ¹² Plagiarism can be done to a whole article, or just partially.

Plagiarism could be done unintentionally. That is when someone quote parts of other author's article without attributing it.³ Attributing means stating the source and author of such quoted part in the article.

Plagiarism infringes the authorship right own by the author, and to a certain degree, Plagiarism causing a potential loss⁴, and consequential loss to be suffered by the authentic author.⁵

Common Reaction to Plagiarism

Common reaction (especially from victim) to the act of plagiarism is Angry, and many times, the victim of plagiarism pursue Legal Action against the Plagiator. Many Legal Action developed to Litigation Process (that is Civil Court Proceedings).

In many cases, the Authentic Author wins the case over the Plagiator, but there are also many cases where the Authentic Author partially wins the case. There are also many cases where the Authentic Author lose the case.

Regardless of the end result of the Legal Action, the Authentic Author definitely suffered some losses. Those are:

1. Court Costs
2. Lawyer Fee
3. Time Loss
4. Energy Loss

Lawyer Fee and Court Costs can be reimbursed by virtue to the Civil Court Decision (but they must be stated and demanded to the Civil Court in advance). Time Loss and Energy Loss are abstract losses suffered by the Authentic Author during Civil Court Proceedings.

Time Loss and Energy Loss are inevitable and unavoidable. To win the case, we have to go to the Court, and to the lawyer. There are times and costs needed to go there, not mentioning the lots of headache. Such losses cannot be reimbursed.

As a conclusion, Win or Lose in the Legal Action, we (the Authentic Author) LOSE. That means, regardless of the end result of the Court Proceedings, we (the Authentic Author) are a victim.

We are the victim of the Plagiarism, and we became the victim for pursuing legal actions against the Plagiator. Now, contemplate the reaction as explained below.

Winner's Reaction to Plagiarism
Permit the Plagiator to use our (whole or part of) article in her published article. Because we grant our permit, then she has a legitimate right to copy our creation.

Yes, we lose some profit. It is a loss. She should have compensate us some amount of money. That is a potential loss.

We also suffered consequential loss. She should pay us royalty for publishing our work. If we save the money in the bank, may be we could gain interest from the sum of money she suppose to pay to us. The lose of potential interest is one of the consequential losses.

Regardless of the Losses, consider the benefits of Plagiarism to, and the benefits of doing winner's reaction against the Plagiator.

1. Having our article plagiarized should be taken as an indication of our article's quality. The Plagiarism tells the world that we are a quality writer.
2. Free promotion of our reputation as a good writer.
3. If public knows our noble deed of permitting the Plagiator to copy our article, it will be good to our future, and our future writings.
4. By granting permit to the Plagiator, we are not a victim.
5. Because we are not a victim, we do not pursue any Legal Action against the Plagiator. That means, No Court Proceedings. No Court Proceedings means No Time Loss, No Energy Loss, and No Headache. Because of that, we do not fall deeper as a victim for pursuing any Legal Action against the Plagiator.
6. Spiritually, it is a good deed, and God note that for His Final Judgment.
7. Who knows we might end up in a good and mutual benefited relationship with the ex-plagiator.
8. To consider the Plagiator's creation as our competition, will give us a motivation to create something new, something better. With or without Plagiarism, there surely will be other creations that is better, or newer than ours. Why we pursue Legal Action against the Plagiator just because we are afraid of changes? We should embrace it, since change is the only one that is not change in this world and life.
9. Keep in mind, and remind ourselves, that our creation today is not the best. It is not good enough, and therefore, we will and must always strive to create something newer, something better. By doing that, in the end, we will find ourselves as a very much better person than we used to be.

Although we grant permit, and choose not to proceed any legal action against the Plagiator, we must:

1. Warn the Plagiator that she has done an activity considered to be Plagiarism.
2. Reserve our moral right. Grant a permit to the Plagiator, but with condition that she must attribute our name in her article that plagiarized some or whole of our article.

May be she is unaware that she has done Plagiarism, and will make up her mistake. In the end, we make her a better person. Why waste our lifetime fighting, and causing loss to both of us?

To know our enemy's weakness, and use that knowledge to beat our enemy, will make us a winner, but to know our enemy's weakness, and opt to not to use that knowledge to beat our enemy will make us win the battle Triumphantly. A noble winner.

Sun Tzu once said:

"The best victory is when the opponent surrenders of its own accord before there are any actual hostilities...It is best to win without fighting." ⁶

So, what do you think?

PS: Comments and corrections are invited.

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¹- "plagiarism." Wikipedia. Wikipedia, 2005. Answers.com 27 Jan. 2007. http://www.answers.com/topic/plagiarism
- "plagiarism." West's Encyclopedia of American Law. The Gale Group, Inc, 1998. Answers.com 27 Jan. 2007. http://www.answers.com/topic/plagiarism
- "plagiarism." Computer Desktop Encyclopedia. Computer Language Company Inc., 2007. Answers.com 27 Jan. 2007. http://www.answers.com/topic/plagiarism
- "plagiarism." The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2002. Answers.com 27 Jan. 2007. http://www.answers.com/topic/plagiarism
²See definition of plagiarism.
³"plagiarism." Wikipedia. Wikipedia, 2005. Answers.com 27 Jan. 2007. http://www.answers.com/topic/plagiarism
⁴Potential Loss is the definite value expected to be earn, but never realized because of an incident.
⁵Consequential loss is the value of loss resulting from loss of use of property. For example, a fire damages the structure of business premises and the business loses customer income until it can reopen. See:"Consequential Loss." Dictionary of Insurance Terms. Barron's Educational Series, Inc, 2000. Answers.com 27 Jan. 2007. http://www.answers.com/topic/consequential-loss
⁶"Sun Tzu: The Art of War". Wikiquote. Wikiquote 27 Jan. 2007. http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sun_Tzu