Discussion about NPR Audio and Plagiarism Article

                Both the radio piece titled “Digital Music Sampling: Creativity Or Criminality?” from NPR and the article titled “Plagiarism Lines Blur for Students in Digital Age” by Trip Gabriel discuss forms of “plagiarism,” but have different takes on the issue. The radio piece discussed “sampling,” which is taking a bit of one song and using it for your own use. In discussion about whether or not this is fair, or legal, the host Ira Flatow and guests Hank Shocklee, Kembrew McLeod, and Dean Garfield come to an implied general agreement that sampling is fundamentally not stealing someone else’s work because it does not use the entire song. However, the Laws do not necessarily support the group’s consensus, as McLeod brings up when he discusses the court case in which the judge said that taking any part of a song, no matter how small, requires a license from the one who holds the copyright. This “no matter how small” condition is very similar to how citation is with writing: no matter how much of someone else’s writing you used, you still must cite this source. However, the difficult part in comparing these two is how you would cite someone else’s music when you use it. In general, citation in writing is usually avoided because it is a process that many lazy people do not appear to have time for, according to the article. “Citation” is avoided with these musical mediums because citing would require paying an amount of money, a percentage of profits, and more fees, rather than simply taking thirty minutes to develop a works cited page for a composition paper. The guests of the radio show agree that the grey line with sampling is affecting the way music evolution happens, and that some music evolution was stifled or prevented because of the fear of being sued for using material that is not theirs to use. Shocklee brings up the Fair Use Act with copyrighting, but this defense does not always work and as a result some can get sued. Garfield also argues that the line for “Fair Use” is very blurry, as using most of a person’s song can be considered appropriate whereas using all of a person’s song is copyright infringement. In general, the article discusses plagiarism in text sources and how it is increasingly easier to make arguments that some things are able to be used without citation, even if this is fundamentally wrong. An argument made is that using a computer, a student is much more likely to feel that the information is anyone’s, compared to being in a library, holding a physical book and seeing that it isn’t their book because they cannot take it out of the library. The article summarizes itself in the final page, giving an example of a large group of students who felt that they should cite their sources, but were simply too lazy to do so. This is probably the most common reason for plagiarism: the idea to cite was there, but the writer was too lazy for citation.

Works Cited

"Digital Music Sampling: Creativity Or Criminality?" National Public Radio. 28 Jan. 2011. Web. 04 Feb. 2012.

Gabriel, Trip. "Lines on Plagiarism Blur for Students in the Digital Age." The New York Times. 01 Aug. 2010. Web. 04 Feb. 2012.