Questions of Originality, Artistic Integrity and Artists Rights - Assignment Example

The quote states that there were “twelve instances of almost verbatim similarities – totaling perhaps six hundred and seventy-five words – between passages from frozen and from a 1997 magazine profile of Lewis” (Gladwell). This passage indicates that the playwright for “Frozen” did not merely take a story or ideas, which can be re-resented with originality (like a re-telling of a classic fairy tale) but rather used words that someone else had written, enough words to fill a very short essay, and simply copied them.

This copying is across a line. There are people who make their living by writing, and that is real work that demands real respect. Clearly, Lewis was earning money from her book sales, and the writer of the magazine piece was being paid for her work as well. The playwright thus had no right to simply steal their language. Everyone in any kind of schooling knows the difference between plagiarism and acceptable usage, and ways to avoid plagiarism such as re-phrasing to not steal someone else’s words, or providing a citation, which was both offers available to the playwright had he chosen to follow them.

Furthermore, if he felt that he desperately needed those lines for his artistic achievement, the playwright could have contacted either writer for their consent, but obviously chose not to.