Counterfeit Crosswords

A plagiarism scandal threatens the career of the most syndicated crossword puzzle editor

 

 

Thus far, plagiarism as we know it can copy a string of words (or musical arrangement) verbatim, or lazily paraphrase without attribution, changing and switching up words (or notes) here and there. If you have any inkling towards learning more about plagiarism, you probably are interested or engage in writing, and therefore you probably get a kick out of words.

Any crossword puzzle fans among us? I admit, I’m a fair weather fan. If I partake it’s only at work; I only glance at the NY Times version, which usually reminds me of a sickeningly pompous and pretentious mix of jeopardy themes and high falutin pop culture references. The clues are tongue and cheek enough to sound like word vomit, to me. Ok, I’m probably just not hip enough. Oh wait, look, it has been accused of “fustiness” along with racist and sexist undertones.

I like my crosswords a little more straightforward (and with a lot less movie and philosopher nods). As I struggled to get past 4 or 5 widely spaced words, I don’t think I recognized the themes that loosely hold the whole black and white block together. Abstract, but not so different from recognizing a motif or theme within an actual block of text, right?

Ever consider the work that goes into creating a crossword puzzle…an original each day, when it comes to newspaper publications…and then ponder the fact that they can be plagiarized?

Exposed, as in Timothy Parker

Oliver Roeder wrote an article for FiveThirtyEight titled A Plagiarism Scandal Is Unfolding In The Crossword World, detailing how digital puzzlers uncovered a string of similarities between Universal Crossword and USA Today Crossword editor Timothy Parker’s published puzzles, and numerous New York Times Crosswords over the years.

The gross likenesses between many puzzles turned up through collaborative detective work between a puzzle creator who saw one of his submissions to Universal be run and rerun at least three times, years apart, and once under a different author’s name, and the software engineer Saul Pwanson. Pwanson collected about 30,000 crossword puzzles into a database, joined to another vast collection of digital only crosswords provided by Barry Haldiman. Pwanson wrote code into the program to identify puzzle similarities of at least 25%.

Parker was accused of editing 65 crosswords that shared the same some combination of themes, placement of theme answers on the grid, grid placement, and clues with earlier New York Times crosswords.

Word spread quickly through Twitter and other social media, sending shockwaves through the usually sedate crossword world.

When Roeder interviewed Parker and questioned him about the allegations, Parker “…chalked it up to the statistical inevitability of having edited so many puzzles over the years. “Out of 15,000, I’m not surprised at all,” he said. “I would expect it to be a couple of hundred.”

The Theme Thickens

As explained by Slate writer and “professional crossword constructor” Matt Gaffney before and after the Parker scandal broke, coincidences do occur with some frequency, cataloged and scaled across the data compiled online. It’s the level of exact replication of clues, placement and themes that tips those scales toward abject plagiarism.

Roeder spoke with two copyright lawyers about the allegations. Kevan Choset, a practitioner of law and crossword building, told Roeder there are “‘extremely strong arguments’ that crosswords are protected by copyright law.” But, as this Opinion piece in the Washington Post by David Post conveys, there is a general consensus and contention that “theme theft” alone is not illegal, but fuels a vapid indignation.

A follow-up article by Roeder on May 16, 2016 announced USA Today’s parent company, Gannett, will no longer run any crossword puzzle edited by Parker. According to Roeder, Universal Uclick, Parker’s employer, concluded Parker could return to work for that company after a three-month leave, and that “processes and reviews had been put in place to ensure that all puzzles would be original from now on.”

As pointed out by Roeder in this article, updated information regarding the case can be followed on Twitter under hashtag #gridgate.