Candy Chand Victim of Plagiarism

[Matthew]

Neale Donald Walsch, best-selling author of "Conversations with God," said Tuesday that he unwittingly passed off another writer's Christmas anecdote as his own in a recent blog post.

As a result, Walsch's blog on the spirituality Web site Beliefnet.com has been shut down. The Web site said in a statement that Walsch had failed to properly credit and attribute material from another author. Walsch had written about what he described as his son's holiday concert two decades ago in which children were to hold up letters spelling "Christmas Love." One of the children held the "m" upside down, so the audience got the message "Christwas Love," according to the retelling.


Author Candy Chand said in an interview Tuesday that she stumbled onto Walsch's post when she ran "Christmas Love" through an Internet search engine. She immediately recognized her own words, from her story based on her son's kindergarten Christmas pageant. She contacted Walsch and Beliefnet.


The story first appeared in a spiritual magazine in 1999, and was later anthologized. Chand said she copyrighted the story in 2005, in part because it had appeared on the Internet uncredited. The story was published as the illustrated book "Christmas Love" for this past Christmas, she said.


Walsch wrote on his blog Tuesday he was "truly mystified" about what happened and apologized. He said he had been telling the story for years in public talks and "somewhere along the way, internalized it as my own experience."


"As a published author myself, I would never use another author's words as my own," Walsch wrote. "Yet I have apparently done just that — although with no deliberate intent to do so." Chand, of Rancho Murieta, Calif., said she did not believe Walsch's account. "It's pretty difficult for me to believe that someone has a memory lapse that is word for word my story," she said. "He deleted the first paragraph. That's it."


Beliefnet said in a statement Walsch "failed to properly credit and attribute material from another author. As a result, Mr. Walsch has decided to remove himself from Beliefnet's blogging roster, a decision we will support in order to protect the mission and integrity of our site and community. As a faith-based web portal, Beliefnet will continue to hold ourselves and our writers to the highest standards of trust."



The Associated Press: Best-selling "God" author faces plagiarism claim


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/09/bo...html?ref=books

[RanchHQ]

Source?

[hautemomma]

Originally Posted by RanchHQ

Source?

THAT was funny

[Friend of Neale Walsch]

Hello Candy and Everyone -
Neale and I have disagreed on many occasions. I am conservative and Neale is liberal. I can tell you many faults Neale could have.

One fault of Neale's is NOT being dishonest.
I would risk the life of my granddaughter on anything pertaining to Neale's integrity.
Neale has written hundreds of thousands of pieces - and told thousands of stories to huge audiences, small audiences and in-between.
He has traveled all over this planet - has 9 children and a son named Nicholas.

I hope that Candy Chand turns this into the LOVE she knows Christ WAS.
Candy, take this as a sign for you to be LOVE in it's ultimate - and trust me, you shall become more famous [to the extent, that you want to experience this] than ever.

Neale's honest intermingling of your story - may just cause you to become a famous author - which perhaps is what you are best at.

I am certaiin that Neale took a polygrapgh - he would pass.

But let's for minute assume the worst - - so Candy - know you have been given a chance to act on this.

How shall you act. Your act on this, defines YOU.

God Bless You

[Wilbur]

From the NY Times story (Candy's in the Times!)

Except for a different first paragraph in which Mr. Walsch wrote that he could “vividly remember” the incident, his Dec. 28 Beliefnet post followed, virtually verbatim, Ms. Chand’s previously published writing, even down to prosaic details like “The morning of the dress rehearsal, I filed in ten minutes early, found a spot on the cafeteria floor and sat down.”

Pretty hard to reconcile such highly detailed "coincidence" with merely having confused something one read with one's memories.

But I do share our new guest's hope that some good comes from this exposure of Candy's work.

[Birdieman]

Originally Posted by Wilbur

From the NY Times story (Candy's in the Times!)



Pretty hard to reconcile such highly detailed "coincidence" with merely having confused something one read with one's memories.

But I do share our new guest's hope that some good comes from this exposure of Candy's work.

Because nobody deserve the benefit of the doubt. Right Wil?

Candy, it's really not that big of a deal. The record has been set straight and you've received some free publicity. Roll with it.

[Matthew]

Originally Posted by Birdieman

Because nobody deserve the benefit of the doubt. Right Wil?

BM it was copied word for word with an extra paragraph added. It is clearly plagiarism.

Originally Posted by Birdieman

Candy, it's really not that big of a deal. The record has been set straight and you've received some free publicity. Roll with it.

I don't know stealing is a pretty big deal to me.

[hautemomma]

Originally Posted by Friend of Neale Walsch

Hello Candy and Everyone -
Neale and I have disagreed on many occasions. I am conservative and Neale is liberal. I can tell you many faults Neale could have.

One fault of Neale's is NOT being dishonest.
I would risk the life of my granddaughter on anything pertaining to Neale's integrity.
Neale has written hundreds of thousands of pieces - and told thousands of stories to huge audiences, small audiences and in-between.
He has traveled all over this planet - has 9 children and a son named Nicholas.

I hope that Candy Chand turns this into the LOVE she knows Christ WAS.
Candy, take this as a sign for you to be LOVE in it's ultimate - and trust me, you shall become more famous [to the extent, that you want to experience this] than ever.

Neale's honest intermingling of your story - may just cause you to become a famous author - which perhaps is what you are best at.

I am certaiin that Neale took a polygrapgh - he would pass.

But let's for minute assume the worst - - so Candy - know you have been given a chance to act on this.

How shall you act. Your act on this, defines YOU.

God Bless You

I sat on this post for two hours..... and no one saw this as the slightest bit odd?

FONW, You must be joking....

"Honest intermingling?" You're either his mother or his agent. To blatantly plagiarize is to lie (here's a link if you want the actual definition: plagiarize definition | Dictionary.com)... so, my dear FONW, I do believe he would fail a polygraph miserably. Lets chalk up his admission as him taking responsibility (AFTER he got caught) and he can put this behind him. I'm sure he's terribly embarrassed.... after all- what worse offense could a writer/journalist commit?

And one last thing.... its my belief that Candy is doing quite well on her own. Its mildly entertaining that you're going to attach any future successes to this plagiarizing yahoo's moronic misstep in his career. You're playing the 'god' card and asking Candy NOT to take him to the mats over this? Are you kidding? Please explain more.... I cannot, for the life of me, figure out who you must be to write such an absurd post. If it were MY OWN child committing such an act I'd have her by the ear and donating the next couple months of her life to community service. He profited (professionally AND personally) from his choice to STEAL her story, so I'm sure there are several members of our legal community in this audience that might agree that there is a potential claim to a percentage of the monies earned with the aforementioned (whether or not its worth figuring out what that actual percentage is is another story).

I'll wrap this up... dont play the "Candy, do what Jesus would do" card. Its a low ball and a ridiculous attempt to, well, I'm not sure what your after here. For Candy to not take any action? Good luck on that one. She probably wont even have to- her publishers might just do it, with our without her participation in the suit.

But thats just my opinion.

[hautemomma]

and I forgot to mention.... its good to be back! Its been a while!

[pingtheduck]

Missed you haute!