Plagiarism and the law revisited

Plagiarism is increasingly being included in legal actions. Besides being invoked in a recent government suit against the Tobacco industry, EMediaWire reports: Brayton Purcell, a respected plaintiff law firm based in Novato, California, filed a lawsuit for copyright infringement when it discovered large portions of its popular web site, Elder Abuse Information (http://www.elder-abuse-information.com), posted on another law firm's web site. Plagiarism has traditionally been understood as an ethical and not a legal issue. See, for example, Charles Cronin's paper, "Plagiarism, Copyright, Academia and Commerce".