I do a fair amount of writing… often more than most small business owners I know. I like it, so it's become a part of my business. But I know plenty of business owners who would rather focus on many other parts of their businesses.
Because I do so much writing, I end up paying more attention to news reports of plagiarism than most people. Lately, we've seen a few cases of plagiarism hit the news, including Dan Brown, author of The DaVinci Code, Ben Domenech, blogger for the Washington Post, and Kaavya Viswanathan, young author of How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life.
Plagiarism touches both the fiction and the non-fiction world. Unfortunately, I think plagiarism is on the rise because the Internet makes it so easy to copy someone else's work and sign your own name.
If you are putting together a website and wondering where you are going to get your content, please take the high road. There are sites available where you can get content (legally) for free, like www.articlecity.com. Just as you are trying to make a living from your product, there is a writer out there who is trying to make a living from his or her product… don't take that away from him or her.
