My post yesterday on the Clinton camp's allegations that Obama plagiarized his Saturday night speech in Wisconsin has drawn some discussion. Governor Deval Patrick of Massachusetts, the source of Obama's apt turn of phrase, went on record with the NY Times to say it was no big deal. Today Governor Patrick went on ABC's Good Morning America to say straight up that Obama didn't plagiarize. Governor Patrick echoed Madville Times commenter FJ by saying that words matter, and that what matters is not who said the words first but that the words Obama used --the words Patrick says he asked Obama to use -- were right.
As I said yesterday, that's good enough for me. When the source of an allegedly plagiarized text says it wasn't plagiarized, well, then it wasn't plagiarized. I hereby pick my flag up off the field, put it back in my pocket, and blow the whistle. Back to the big game!
While We're glad you picked up your flag, it's useful to read what the intellectual property experts write about Clinton's false claims of plagiarism. I suspect that plagiarism is like harrassment in that few people know what it is and what it isn't.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=avq8yBdfCk7U&refer=home
Experts consulted by Bloomberg News sided with Obama. They dismissed the uproar as political banter and mundane compared with questions over authenticity in past political cycles.
``I don't think he got caught with his hand in the cookie jar here,'' said Jonathan Zittrain, a law professor at Oxford University who studies intellectual property and isn't affiliated with a campaign. ``I think silly season is a more accurate description of the situation.''
``From a legal view, the allegations of plagiarism were preposterous,'' said Charles Sims, a First Amendment and copyright attorney at Proskauer Rose LLP in New York. ``The amounts here are totally trivial and not a legal issue. There would be no claim whatsoever.''
To accuse Obama of stealing ``two lines by somebody who is a colleague of yours is almost like saying you're plagiarizing from your speechwriter,'' said Stephen Hess, a presidential scholar at the Brookings Institution in Washington who was a speechwriter for President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
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