When it comes to plagiarism, students aren’t the only offenders. Even politicians, artists, writers, and educators have been charged with plagiarism and found guilty of stealing others’ work. Moreover, plagiarism cases are documented throughout history; this crime is nothing new. Here are some of the world’s most high-profile plagiarism cases:
Take A Look At One Of The Most Famous Plagiarism Cases
1. Stephen Ambrose
Politicians, artists, writers, and educators have been faced plagiarism cases
Writer and historian Stephen Ambrose was at the center of a plagiarism case in 2002. His book “The Wild Blues: The Men and Boys Who Flew the B-24s Over Germany” was said to have been plagiarized from another book, “Wings of Morning: The Story of the Last American Bomber Shot Down over Germany in World War II,” which was written by Thomas Childers. Certain phrases stood out in both books and Ambrose was criticized for plagiarism as the scandal made frontpage news.
2. Jane Goodall
In 2013, Jane Goodall was at the center of plagiarism controversy after her book “Seeds of Hope: Wisdom and Wonder from the World of Plants” came out. While it claimed to be Goodall’s view of genetically modified crops, a lot of people began noticing that she had “borrowed” wording from random web pages, including Wikipedia.
3. Michael Bolton
When it comes to plagiarism, students aren’t the only offenders. Even politicians, artists, writers and educators have been charged with plagiarism and found guilty of stealing others’ work.
In 1991, after the song “Love is a Wonderful Thing” by Michael Bolton came out, Bolton was involved in a plagiarism lawsuit that claimed he had stolen the song from the Isley Brothers. In 2000, Bolton was fined $5.4 million in damages.
4. Vaughn Ward
Vaughn Ward was a congressional hopeful in 2010, but things didn’t pan out the way he’d planned. Instead of hiring a professional speechwriter, Ward began stealing other people’s words and pretending they were his own. Several statements on his website were copied from other sites and he even used certain lines from the speech that President Obama made during the 2004 Democratic National Convention.
5. Melissa Elias
Melissa Elias, who was once the New Jersey school board president, was called out for plagiarizing a speech that had been originally given by Anna Quindlen, a journalist who won the Pulitzer Prize. Elias delivered her not-so-original speech during the 2005 commencement at Madison High School.
6. Barack Obama
It’s strange that Obama would make it on this list since he himself was plagiarized at one point. During the February 2008 presidential campaign, he was accused of plagiarism. Accusers said he’d stolen part of his speech from Deval Patrick, the governor of Massachusetts. Patrick had given a similar speech in October of 2006. However, Patrick made a public announcement that he thought the claims of plagiarism were unfair and that he supported Obama’s speech.