ALRIGHT ANONS, HERE IS SOME SERIOUS FIREPOWER AGAINST SHOAH LEGOUF TROOP
web.archive.org/web/20170111132412/http://time.com/6094/shia-labeouf-plagiarism-scandal/
1. LaBeouf plagiarized an apology to Alec Baldwin
In February 2013, LaBeouf abruptly quit what would have been his first Broadway show, Orphans, due to “creative differences” (that is, he couldn’t get along with Alec Baldwin, according to reports). LaBeouf decided that the best way to explain his departure would be to tweet out a photo of his email apology to the cast and Baldwin by name. Unfortunately, parts of his prose — sample: “a man owns up… a man grasps his mistakes” — were ripped off verbatim from a 2009 Esquire article titled “What is a Man?” People, including the article’s author, noticed. Obviously.
2. To rationalize the plagiarism, LaBeouf lifted another quote from David Mamet
invent nothing, deny nothing, speak up, stand up, stay out of school.
— Shia LaBeouf (@thecampaignbook) February 21, 2013
3. LaBeouf plagiarized his directorial debut
LaBeouf’s short film HowardCantour.com premiered at the May 2012 Cannes Film Festival. It wasn’t until it was posted online on Dec. 16, 2013 that viewers began to notice that the film was almost an exact adaptation of a graphic novel by Daniel Clowes, best known for Ghost World.
Clowes told BuzzFeed, which brought much of this story to public light: “The first I ever heard of the film was this morning when someone sent me a link. I’ve never spoken to or met Mr. LaBeouf. I’ve never even seen one of his films that I can recall — and I was shocked, to say the least, when I saw that he took the script and even many of the visuals from a very personal story I did six or seven years ago and passed it off as his own work. I actually can’t imagine what was going through his mind.”
. He then apologized for plagiarism by plagiarizing a Yahoo! Answers post from four years ago:
LaBeouf:
Copying isn't particularly creative work. Being inspired by someone else's idea to produce something new and different IS creative work.
— Shia LaBeouf (@thecampaignbook) December 17, 2013
5. LaBeouf’s graphic novels pulled quotes from Charles Bukowski and French writer Benoit Duteurtre
In April 2012, LaBeouf announced his intention to become a comic book writer and artist at the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo. He said that the process was “like singing in the shower—it’s very free and without edit.” But it turns out there was a reason why the copy was so clean. On Dec. 18, 2013, news broke that many lines from his self-published 2012 books Let’s Fucking Party and Stale N Mate were lifted from Charles Bukowski and Benoit Duteurtre’s work.
6. LaBeouf apologized again. First, he did so in the voice of Tiger Woods…
Shia:
I have let my family down, and I regret those transgressions with all of my heart.
— Shia LaBeouf (@thecampaignbook) December 18, 2013
Tiger: “I have let my family down and I regret those transgressions with all of my heart.”
7. Then in the words of Robert McNamara…
Shia:
I was wrong, terribly wrong. I owe it to future generations to explain why.
— Shia LaBeouf (@thecampaignbook) December 18, 2013
McNamara: “We were wrong, terribly wrong. We owe it to future generations to explain why.”
8. Kanye West…
Shia:
It starts with this…I'm sorry @danielclowes
— Shia LaBeouf (@thecampaignbook) December 18, 2013
Kanye: “It starts with this… I’m sorry Taylor.”
9. Poster artist Shepard Fairey…
Shia:
I sincerely apologize for my lapse in judgment & I do take full responsibility for my actions, which were mine alone.
— Shia LaBeouf (@thecampaignbook) December 19, 2013
Shepard: “I sincerely apologize for my lapse in judgment, and I take full responsibility for my actions, which were mine alone.”
10. And finally, Mark Zuckerberg
Shia:
I want to thank all of you who have written in and created groups and protested. Even though I wish I hadn't made so many of you angry.
— Shia LaBeouf (@thecampaignbook) December 19, 2013
Zuck: “I want to thank all of you who have written in and created groups and protested. Even though I wish I hadn’t made so many of you angry, I am glad we got to hear you.”
(LaBeouf also hired a skywriter to apologize to Clowes in the sky overlooking Los Angeles in January. Clowes lives in the Bay Area. He took legal action.)
11. LaBeouf ripped off copy for his website
The website description of LaBeouf’s Campaign Book project is almost identical to the online copy used by Comic’s Journal’s Daniel Nadel to describe his own project, PictureBox.