Posted on 07/02/2006 5:26:36 AM PDT by publius1
Conservative scribe Ann Coulter cribbed liberally in her latest book, "Godless," according to a plagiarism expert.
John Barrie, the creator of a leading plagiarism-recognition system, claimed he found at least three instances of what he calls "textbook plagiarism" in the leggy blond pundit's "Godless: the Church of Liberalism" after he ran the book's text through the company's digital iThenticate program.
He also says he discovered verbatim lifts in Coulter's weekly column, which is syndicated to more than 100 newspapers, including the Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) Sun-Sentinel and Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle.
Barrie, CEO of iParadigms, told The Post that one 25-word passage from the "Godless" chapter titled "The Holiest Sacrament: Abortion" appears to have been lifted nearly word for word from Planned Parenthood literature published at least 18 months before Coulter's 281-page book was released.
A separate, 24-word string from the chapter "The Creation Myth" appeared about a year earlier in the San Francisco Chronicle with just one word change-"stacked" was changed to "piled."
Another 33-word passage that appears five pages into "Godless" allegedly comes from a 1999 article in the Portland (Maine) Press Herald.
Coulter did not respond to requests for comment.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
IIRC, facts by themselves can't be copyrighted, but the manner in which they are compiled can be. Example: an almanac. I know this is about plagiarism, not copyright, but it seems somewhat relevant. I hope she didn't do what they say, BUT using software can be a blunt weapon. Especially when the strings are a sentence or two. I love Ann, and hope this is much ado aboput nothing.
As someone else pointed out in this thread, one alleged clause was 26 words, which is exactly the length of this sentence (plus four more words).
And that is the longest of a mere three alleged instances in a 300-page book.
I read some other accusations with examples, and they seemed rather bogus.
And then I bought the book from Amazon. It should be here on Tuesday.
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