An interesting article by The Guardian blogger Robert McCrum tells of a current court case against a prodigy best-seller author who, allegedly, has lifted content from another online author.

As a student, it was drilled into us that plagiarism was (is) the worst crime any literature student/author could commit.

Now in the age of the internet, many authors and writers are looking to the net as a means of being in instant contact with their readers - but, what protects their work?

What is going to define what is copyrighted and what will protect that work which can easily be copied and pasted to another document?
And more importantly, "when everything is available free online, what is the meaning of copyright?" (Robert McCrum).

Read Robert McCrum's blog entry here.

Photo: The Guardian Books Blog logo.