Sunday, April 13, 2008

Author Confesses Plagiarizing

By: Trina Joshi

A Lonely Planet travel writer, Thomas Kohnstamm, confessed that he plagiarised or concocted portions of certain guidebooks that are now quick-sells among travelers, reports CNN.com.

He revealed that since Lonely Planet paid him little, he could not afford to visit every destination he wrote about. He authored a book on his misadventures in Colombia, but he never traveled to that country for a first-hand experience. "I wrote the book in San Francisco [California]," he told the Daily Telegraph. Instead, he made friends with an intern in the Consulate of Colombia and gathered all the information from her for the book.

The 32-year-old Kohnstam has written guidebooks on Brazil, Colombia, the Caribbean, Venezuela, Chile and South America, among many others.

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