Plagiarized Post
@capirani (2840)
United States
November 24, 2008 8:37pm CST
I just accidently found a post that was taken almost word for word from another article I had read recently on Yahoo. This makes me wonder how many other people post things that they have taken from other places online thinking they won't be found out and they can start more discussions that way. Wouldn't this kind of posting be a violation on mylot? It makes me want to be more careful about some of the things I read and respond to on here. It isn't hard to do something like this with all the articles that are out there in cyberspace these days. It would be rare maybe to find someone in here who had actually read that article and then read the same thing on a discussion here. But, how rare is it if it just happened and I found it?
I probably have offended the person who copied and pasted this article as his discussion because I commented on the discussion and called him out on it as well as letting other posters know what happened. I posted the link to the original article as well as the words that he copied and pasted. So I have probably made someone mad at me. But, it shouldn't have been done in the first place.
What do all you other mylotters think about this kind of posting?
2 people like this
3 responses
@KrauseHome (36447)
• United States
25 Nov 08
Unfortunately, this is a thing we are actually beginning to see more and more here on this site, and other Writing Blog sites as well, and unless someone removes that post, etc. I think there is not much people can do. I would think it would be easy to find more original stuff to post about in here since we have so many people in here from all over the world and so much going on out there, but you never know.
@capirani (2840)
• United States
25 Nov 08
The original article was a good article. It would not have been difficult to take some ideas from the article and write another original post based on their own thoughts and feelings rather than just using the original article word for word. The topic was a good topic. It didn't need to be copied and pasted to make it good. An added negative about it is that this person made it sound like this is how he feels. Since it was obviously another person's words....how does anyone know what this person really feels? He is now going to be difficult to trust by others on here, don't you think?
@unusualsuspect (2602)
• United States
25 Nov 08
You did the right thing, and there's no need for you to be concerned about offending a thief. Plagiarism is just another word for theft. It's a serious problem on the internet, and people who write on various sites are always finding that their work has been stolen. I found someone on Associated Content who had copied and pasted over a thousand articles from different sources. Some web sites that pay for writing put every submission through Copyscape to make sure that it's original. That's something they have to pay for, so I imagine that means less pay for their writers.
@capirani (2840)
• United States
25 Nov 08
It just keeps getting harder and harder with the internet popularity to know what is actually original and what isn't these days. I wouldn't know how anyone would be able to check up on everything. I have heard a lot about people stealing blog posts and trying to pass them off as their own. This is the first time I have ever seen anything I could call plagiarism. The only reason I caught it is that I had remembered having just read the article a few days ago.
@theembittered (1025)
• United States
25 Nov 08
Some people just put this kind of post because they think this is a easy way to earn money but this is not fair and you must have to report this when you see things like that ;). Have a good night and see you :D
