Stolen Ideas. Top Plagiarism Cases

Plagiarism is a large issue in the modern world because other people’s information is readily available. However, it is not only students who plagiarize other people’s information. Plagiarism and idea stealing are mostly a result of the difficult part of the creative process. Some great people in history have also been proved guilty of copying and stealing ideas from inventors and authors.

A list of six famous plagiarism cases and the perpetrators

1. Dan Brown: The Da Vinci Code, which is the work of Brown, was rated highly due to its successful and controversial nature. This was not only due to the subject matter of the book but also due to allegations of plagiarism that surrounded a huge part of the book.
2. Nicki Minaj: This Hip-hop superstar is not new to cases of plagiarism. The latest accusation was made against her in 2012 after she produced her hit song Starships. There were similar ideas from a song performed by Clive Tanaka in 2011. Terrence Davidson has also accused her of copying his wig designs. Terrence claimed $30 million in compensation.
3. Helen Keller: She is remembered due to her influence as an activist in the late 18th century. Her first case of plagiarism related to a book she wrote when she was eleven. It was called The Frost King. Later it was discovered it was just a reciting of the book The Frost Fairies which was written by Margaret Canby.
4. J. K. Rowling: She is the author of the famous book series Harry Potter. She was accused of plagiarism in 2010 due to similarities of her fourth installment in the Harry Potter series with a book that had been published in 1987. The book had been written by Adrian Jacobs and was titled The Adventures of Willy the Wizard.
5. R.R. Tolkien: He successfully wrote an epic high fantasy trilogy The Lord of the Rings. The allegations of plagiarism developed due to similarities with the epic Ring of the Nibelung, which was composed by Richard Wagner.
6. L. James: This author wrote the Fifty Shades of Grey, which is the first novel in a trilogy. The novel started as a Twilight fan fiction which was titled Master of the Universe. It had two main characters Bella and Edward whose names were lifted from the Twilight Saga. Only the names were changed later in the novel, and the book remained the same.

Other cases of stolen ideas include:

1. Star Wars VS Battlestar Galactica: Battlestar Galactica stole a total of 34 ideas from Star Wars – this act was not taken lightly by Universal Studios.
2. Apple VS Microsoft: The source of dispute between these two tech giants began with a very simple question, who was the inventor of the graphical user interface, also called GUI? The first lawsuit due to the manufacture of Windows 2.0 that was similar to Mac’s visual display was filed in 1988. Apple contested against the violation of display rights that totaled up to 189 similarities.
3. Alexander Graham Bell: He is said to have invented the telephone, which was surprising because his mother and wife were both deaf. The first person who has discovered the telephone was a poor Italian by the name of Antonio Meucci eleven years before Alexander Graham.
4. Galileo Galilee: He is a renowned Italian astronomer, mathematician, and physicist and he is remembered for inventing the telescope. However, he did not invent it. The telescope was invented by Dutchman Hans Lippershey in 1608, but he was unable to patent it. Later in 1609, Galileo built his telescope, and it was patented because it could see a little further than Lippershey’s optical instrument.