Eric&Meyer

Our cultural approach to plagiarism is self-destructive. We believe in a magical ‘creativity’ that blesses certain people with ‘original’ ideas from nowhere. From that perspective, giving credit to anyone else is the same as admitting that you have failed as a creative genius. You are a fraud. So artists struggle to convince themselves and others that what they have done is completely original.

But the reality of creating is much more pedestrian. Artists use a process of copying, transforming, and combining ideas into something new. Understanding that process changes everything.

If you believe in artistic process, your focus can be on combining and transforming openly (and thoroughly), and then on giving credit. You can cite as many sources as possible and cite them generously. Because the problem isn’t borrowing ideas — everyone borrows ideas — the problem is pretending that they are somehow magically “your” ideas.

Fight back: Always cite at least three sources, and make sure that each of them has influenced your work directly. Then cite three more sources that have been inspirations more generally. Then cite three more. And more. How many sources can you cite? Cite them all. And then, as a coup de grâce, encourage others to build off your creations (and give you credit).

Don’t copy less: copy more. Then transform. Then cite.