In 'Something Borrowed,' Gladwell questions what is considered crossing the line when it comes to plagiarism. There are many different types of plagiarism such as in music, peoples' ideas, and peoples' specific work. The copyright law doesn't punish those just for copying someone's work. It punishes individuals for what they copied specifically and how much they copied. It is hard to tell by this how much is too much, however. There are many exceptions for copyrighting. For example, in songs one can not copy a large portion of someone else's song. However, you can use some of the same notes in the same sequence and it not be considered plagiarism. There is also a time limit on ideas and discoveries related to science and art because there is the possibility for the public to benefit from further development of these ideas. It is hard to define a clear line for plagiarism. Many incidences need to be analyzed individually because there are so many different types of plagiarism, rules, and exceptions.
I thought that this piece was really eye-opening to all of the different types of plagiarism that are out there. I really enjoyed the comparisons of the different songs that had similar riffs or verses. It never really occurred to me that that many songs sound so much like one another. Plagiarism, even though it sounds like its easily definable, actually is quite difficult. There are so many different exceptions and rules that need to be taken into consideration.
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