yet another reason why Harvard sucks

from Reuters:

U.S. publisher Random House on Tuesday accused a Harvard student of "literary identity theft" in the debut novel that turned the teenage author into a literary sensation.

Indian-born Kaavya Viswanathan, 19, has acknowledged unintentionally imitating passages from two novels by author Megan McCafferty -- "Sloppy Firsts" and "Second Helpings." Viswanathan has promised to amend future editions of her novel, which is on The New York Times bestseller list.

McCafferty's publisher said more than 40 passages in Viswanathan's debut book, "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life," contain either identical language or common scene and dialogue structure to the two McCafferty works.

"This extensive taking from Ms McCafferty's books is nothing less than an act of literary theft," said Steve Ross, senior vice president of Crown Publishing Group, a unit of Random House which published McCafferty's works.

"Ms Viswanathan's claim that similarities in her phrasing were 'unconscious' or unintentional' is suspect," he said in a statement. Crown was seeking an "amicable and timely resolution to this situation.."

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In one example of similarities between Viswanathan's work and McCafferty's cited by Crown Publishing, Viswanathan writes of one of her characters, "Moneypenny was the brainy female character. Yet another example of how every girl had to be one or the other: smart or pretty."

This compares to a passage in "Sloppy Firsts" reading: "Sabrina was the brainy Angel. Yet another example of how every girl had to be one or the other: Pretty or smart."