You seem to be our literary legalies expert. Below is a question related
to plagiarism:
I picked up Koontz's "Strange Highways" for vacation reading at a discount
book store. I'm glad I only paid $1.99.  The proprietor said: "Try him, 
some people say he is better than Stephen King."
I hope I don't offend any Dean Koontz fans but I found his writing style
not only annoying but disturbing.
Koontz it fond of inserting excessive "mood" paragraphs that are like 
background music in a bad "B-movie"
The disturbing part:  Inserted among the excesses on almost every page is 
the following most curious example, for which I would like your comments,
legal and otherwise:
"..the air around the entrance to St.Thomas'  had a
sulfurous stench as if some rough beast, slouching toward Bethlehem to be
born had taken a detour to Coal Valley."
You may recognize that the middle part of the paragraph was lifted 
word for word from the poet W.B. Yeats.
("What rude beast, its hour come 'round at last, slouches his way toward 
Bethlehem to be born.")  
Many writers of fiction will have characters quote e.g. Shakespeare without
credit, or even directly use an obviously well known phrase in irony, but
I have never (consciously) seen an author do what Koontz did there.
I don't think Yeats' stanza is that well known to fit into that category.
(And it doesn't even fit the situation very well)
To anyone unfamiliar with the poem, it will be indistinguishable from
(albeit more imaginative) the clunkers that appear on almost every page:
e.g.1 "The storm wind crying in the trees was the voice of a million 
victims and the night was filled with their pathetic cries for mercy."
e.g.2  "(the wind) shaking loose a flock of dead leaves that whirled
briefly but then settled to the ground as spiritlessly as lost hopes
sifting down through the darkness of a troubled heart."
(The distraught hero is driving down the road in a rain storm)
Regarding the Yeats quote, I wonder:
1- How many of Koontz's fans sighed and said "By God, that man can write!"?
(Corollary: Did the publisher think the same thing?)
2- Did Koontz suspect (or even hope) that many of them would?  
3- How common is this practice - I know I wouldn't do it!
--- GEcho 1.11+
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