After this year’s RWA national conference, a new Code of Ethics was posted on the RWA Web site.
Of the nine numbered items included in the code, numbers 2 through 5 and 8 (more than half) list offenses involving plagiarism, copyright infringement, and/or theft of intellectual property.
It’s clear that this is a major issue in the publishing world, and yet the majority of readers and writers don’t seem to understand (or, more to the point, to care) what proper behavior is, how to avoid these offenses, or why it’s such a big deal.
::sigh::
I can understand readers not understanding or caring because most of them don’t care who wrote what they are reading as long as they enjoy reading it. They do not see writing, stories or even the words inside a book as material things, it’s just stuff them came out of thin air and someone put it all together – so they don’t see how it could belong to someone, just like they don’t get that ideas belong to someone…how can it if it’s not material? I know this because I’ve had this discussion before.
But writers not getting it, or caring? That’s beyond my capability to understand. How can you feel proud of your creation if you didn’t create it?
Yet, as I think about it – I know far too many people who enjoy getting over on someone else. People who feel proud that they were able to trick people…it makes them feel superior to those they fooled. I see it all the time in the work place – people taking credit for other people’s ideas. It’s how too many people get ahead in the work place.
I read an article a few years ago about college students getting caught cheating on their Ethics exam. Sometimes I wonder where the civilized world’s values have gone.