plagiarism and why its the shittiest thing a person can do without killing a baby

We interupt your normally scheduled reviews for a Super Serious Discussion. Gather 'round, kids, this is a big'n.

Ya'll might have heard about the recent copy-and-pasting scandels involving some of the coolest bloggers out there, including Ana and Thea of The Book Smugglers and Adele from Persnickety Snark. These folk have become known for their in-depth and thought out reviews. I personally think they write some of the best reviews on the 'net right now. Someone, I don't know who, apparently thought so as well and blatently pasted it on their site, calling it their own. This was, naturally, greeted with a slew of less-then-thrilled responses from a few other bloggers (who will be properly linked at the end of this post). Not that anyone asked, but I'd like to add my own personal stance on the issue which is, of course, not friendly.

I think that if you are unable to come up with a creative thought, even if its just a frigging sentence, then you know what? You shouldn't be writing a blog. You know why? The entire point of a blog is to write about your thoughts, whats on your mind. NOT someone else's thoughts. How would you feel if you spent three hours writing an in-depth review of one of the best books you've ever read, when two days later the exact same review pops up on someone else's site? Don't feel too good, does it? Well, thats what your doing when your feeling too lazy to write something of note and just take someone else's blood sweat and tears. You are stealing their words, and you are pissing them off. Both, sir, are a crime.

Got it, asshat?

(bloggers who have also added their two cents on the copyrighting matter)
Tirzah
Kristi
Steph Su
Lenore
Sharon
Liz