Plagiarism. Like our little friend up there shows us, plagiarism is the act of presenting another’s work or ideas as your own. In light of the recent plagiarism scandals that are currently flooding the Korean pop music scene, I figured I would do some analyzing on 1) what exactly constitutes plagiarism, 2) who’s to blame and 3) the reaction of fans.

1. What exactly constitutes plagiarism?
Well, as stated in the official definition above, plagiarism is passing off another’s work or ideas as your own. This encompasses a variety of possibilities: information, music, choreography, writing, etc. The list goes on and on. Essentially, if you use something belonging to someone else and do not credit the creator, then that is plagiarism, no questions asked.

2. Who’s to blame in all this?
Well, technically speaking, the people doing the actual plagiarizing are the artists themselves. They are the ones that are performing the songs and choreography. This does not mean, however, that the artists are necessarily at fault. The real blame lays in the hands of whoever “came up” with the material in the first place. Producers, managers, song writers and choreographers are all candidates. These people are under constant pressure to create material that will WOW audiences. This pressure can sometimes lead to less than original work.

3. How are fans reacting?
While fans are devastated by news such as this, it’s clear that there is an extreme bias towards the side of the artist rather than the side of the prosecutor. It seems that in most cases, anyone that accuses another of plagiarism is automatically labeled as a “bad guy;” they are just trying to mooch off of a big-named artist or are simply making stuff up. While this may be the case in some scenarios, the fact of the matter is that most people just want credit for the work that they put in. If you baked some delicious cookies, gave a batch to a friend and later found out he passed them off as his own cookies, how would you feel? Not good , right? Another argument fans resort to is saying that the people should be “thankful” the artists are using their material. Well, no, they shouldn’t be. If they aren’t getting credit for their own work, then what’s the point? One other argument is based on coincidence. Well, in the case of the After School “BANG!” choreography, I don’t think I can agree at all with the fans that are pulling the coincidence card. It’s just too similar. Yes, dance moves are recycled but not in that exact same order. In reality, coincidences rarely occur.

So what’s the bottom line?
Well, obviously the bottom line here is to not plagiarize. No offense to fans but the companies that stole work from other people should be made to compensate those people for their hard work, and that’s that. In an ideal world, people would be okay with having nothing from their own talents rather than having something through the wrongful use of another’s talents. Well, I guess that just isn’t the case.

How do you guys feel about this? Agree? Disagree?