I came across a piece of published work that sounded very familiar as I read it. So I looked back and found those words in an article I wrote several years ago for a magazine. Even the sources I quoted and the books I referred to were used. Some of the words were paraphrased, but most of the information was mine. I have had this on my mind for about a year and have not said a word to anyone. I didn't know what to do. I don't want to be responsible for ruining some writer's career. Did the publisher know, or just the writer? What should I do?

Since a year has gone by since you discovered what appears to be plagiarism, your options may be limited. Here are some points to consider, however, in making your decision.

1) Are you ruining someone's life? Let's think about this. If you stole someone else's article, had it published in a magazine, got paid for it, and then got "caught" by the original author, would you consider your life unfairly ruined? Would you "never write again"? Or would you, perhaps, think more carefully about stealing again? To look at it another way, if someone broke into your house, and was caught with your property, would you be more concerned about ruining the burglar's life, or (a) recovering your goods and (b) making sure this person didn't break into another person's house?

Plagiarism is theft. It is not research, it is not a shortcut to getting ahead or getting published. It is theft, plain and simple. It is not an act deserving of sympathy or respect.

2) Can you do something about it? That's a more difficult question. If you can prove the authorship of the original material (which, you said, came from a published article of yours, which is all the proof you need), you could, theoretically, file a lawsuit against the plagiarist. Whether it is worthwhile to do so is another question, however. Much depends on (a) how much the plagiarist "gained" from the theft and (b) how much you have lost, if anything.

For example, if your article turned up minus your byline (or under another byline) in a small "club" publication that pays nothing for contributions, it is plagiarism, but you would not be able to prove a "financial" damage from such use. So, you'd probably just want to write it off as an annoyance. However, if someone publishes your work under their name in National Geographic, they have made a bunch of money that you could have made by selling the same article. Therefore, you could prove damages.

3) Did the publisher know? Probably not. Publishers have no way of checking submitted material to determine whether it is stolen from another source. Chances are, the article sold because it was a good, publishable article -- as you've already proven by selling it the first time. However, if the publisher is still doing business with this author, the publisher would probably want to know, as the publisher might ultimately be made liable if the author is stealing from other sources besides you. So, you might want to contact the publisher purely as a means of providing information. Include a copy of the original article (yours) along with the pirated article for comparison. If you aren't expecting any "damages" from the publisher, make this clear. However, you might want to ask the publisher to issue a statement that gives credit to you as the actual author of the piece -- something that the publisher can do at no cost to them.

4) Does the original writer know? Of course! Again, don't succumb to misplaced sympathy here. It's easy to inadvertently quote a single phrase or paragraph -- say, a line of dialogue or a description -- simply because it stuck in your mind and you've forgotten that you actually read it somewhere. It is not possible to copy an entire article, or most of an article, complete with references, by accident. That is not a "fair use" issue, or "research." The fact that some phrases were changed or "paraphrased" may even have been the result of editing by the publisher; the original manuscript might have been identical to your original.

Whether you want to attempt to take action against the original writer is, again, up to you. Again, usually the key issue is that of financial damage -- taking someone to court for plagiarism generally isn't worth it, unless the financial damages are high enough to justify the expense of taking legal action.

DISCLAIMER: This article should not be considered legal advice or as a substitute for legal advice. The best place to get information on how to deal with a copyright infringement is from a copyright lawyer.