The story about the young novelist caught accidentally plagiarizing from one of her favorite authors calls to mind a thought I’ve had recently about the role of copying in learning.
It seems to me that imitation is a crucial part of the learning process. Examples: Babies learn to talk by mimicking their parents’ vocal sounds. Garage bands learn and perform covers to figure out what it takes to write a good song. Someone making their first film may borrow cinematographic elements from favorite directors. College kids quote extensively when writing papers until they get a better grasp on the material.
In each case, copying is playing a crucial role in the learning process. I’m not aware of any existing theories of learning by imitation, but would be greatly surprised if something similar was not already out there (perhaps in psychology or education).
What is alarming about this case is that the institutional processes of publication did not catch this earlier. While authors create, it is a publisher’s job as editor to know the field and separate the good from the bad. This case appears to only involve plagiarism, thus not really a legal, but it illustrates some of the core theoretical issues in copyright nonetheless.