re: #3 alinuxguru

Oh come on.

a. The man is a derp, but there are only so many different ways to describe a plot of a movie and

b. wikipedia is public domain…how do you plagiarize something that is “free”?

I will not give the derp the benefit of the doubt, because there is no actual substance to the accusation itself.

Plagiarism is the use of any material not written by yourself and with no attribution to the original source or author. It makes no difference if it is in the public domain. You are confusing copyright violation with stealing someone else’s words or ideas.

This definition should be understood by anyone who had to write a paper for a college course. That would include Sen. Paul, or his speechwriters, or presumably you.

I teach English. The similarities between the unattributed Wikipedia article and Paul’s speech would be sufficent cause for me to give Sen. Paul a zero for his speech, on the basis that he plagiarized part of it.