This day is dedicated to all the past present and future
plagiarists. What could be more fitting than a day off!

***********************

The news has been out since the late 1980s that Martin
Luther King Jr., the American Civil Rights icon, was a
serial plagiarist. Not only did he plagiarize at least half of
his doctoral thesis; many of his speeches, including the most
famous, were plagiarized too. Nor was this a recent
development in his career - he had been plagiarizing material
since he was a teenager.

This is a fascinating story. There is the delicious irony that
Luther King Jr. has been universally feted and embalmed
with saintly oils. More interesting still, the story has been
suppressed. Most Americans have not heard about the
plagiarism and perhaps never will. The editors of his papers
did their utmost to prevent the story from spreading. Boston
University delayed, denied and obfuscated as long as possible
-- and then some.

The press, including the major newsmagazines, quashed coverage
until the story had emerged elsewhere, and then buried it in the
inside pages, entombing it in layers of qualification, special pleading
and distraction. Now that the plagiarism has become incontestable,
many academics continue to cover for the plagiarist, insisting that he
was merely being an African American!

http://www.cycad.com/cgi-bin/pinc/ap...lagiarism.html