If anything has the highest value in any set of schools, it is a policy against plagiarism. Academics understand the seriousness of plagiarism, especially since many of them tend to do it among themselves. In 2005, Melissa Elias, who was president of the Madison school board at the time, gave a commencement speech in which several sections were plagiarized from a speech that Anna Quindlen, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, had given. delivered at Mount Holyoke in 1999. Kaavya Viswanathan, a sophomore at Harvard University, had published a book containing several parts of copies of works by four different authors. Individuals with high academic expectations committed both of these incidents, one being the president of a school and the other being a student at an Ivy League university. However, despite their valor in academia, they both plagiarized, the only difference being that Viswanathan was receiving royalties for his act of plagiarism. One has to wonder if there really is a difference between these two cases, as both individuals clearly plagiarized intentionally. When dealing with plagiarism cases, one must be extremely careful due to the varying degrees of plagiarism that depend on the individual's intentionality and profit motive. There are no accusations of plagiarism for some writing forums until there is a profit opportunity. JK Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series, has accused die-hard Harry Potter fan Steven Vander Ark of plagiarism after a publishing house approached him about turning their free online Harry Potter lexicon into a book. An article by David B. Caruso in USA Today traces the start of the trial. According to Caruso, before Vander Ark was accused, Rowli...... middle of paper ...... profit from his plagiarism; and Melissa Elias can relate to Steven Vander Ark because, even though she plagiarized someone else's speech, she gained virtually no personal benefit from it. Regardless of the severity spectrum of plagiarism, it in no way justifies stealing someone else's idea. The only thing that makes every living being on this planet unique is the originality of each organism and this originality must embody the mark they leave behind. ". USATODAY.com. USA TODAY, April 20, 2008. Web. February 15, 2014. Gladwell, Malcolm. "Something Borrowed." The New Yorker.com. The New Yorker, November 22, 2004. Web. February 15, 2014 . Widdicombe, Lizzie. “The Plagiarist’s Tale.” The New Yorker, February 13, 2012.. 2014.