Is it fair to copy a news article and call it a discussion? Come on......

I'm glad you started this discussion because I got in trouble not too long ago for copying articles for my discussions. I'm aware that what you're talking about is copying articles from newspapers. What I actually did was copy articles from another website, which I didn't mean to do. I was told later to give the website credit and then quote what it said using quotation marks and put it in paragraphs. Then, you can add what you want to say about it, if that makes sense. I didn't see it as plagiarizing at the time. The reason why I did it was because I felt like the website could explain it better than I could. Here lately, whenever I start a discussion, I've just been putting it in my own words the best I could. Your discussion will hopefully keep other mylotters from getting in trouble because it's against mylot's rules to copy articles from other sources. I might have forgotten this at the time that I did it. If I had given the website credit, it might have been different. No, you're not wrong at all and I think it is fair. Kathy.

I have to admit I often do discussions that involve news items, and while I might quote part of the article and provide a link to it so people can read the whole thing, I always make it a point to put my own personal input and views about the article...think that's a bit different, but yes I do come across a "discussion" where it's like whole copy of the article and no personal input to it

I do not think it is fair for people to copy and paste things like that either and make it a whole discussion without adding their own thought and feelings toward it either. I think those should be deleted because of it.

my lot rule "in order to prevent spam, only users with a rating greater than 500 are allowed to paste", only the user with 500 more posts can do like that, but if users have so many posts, why they do like that? i don't understand, i think the guys have a lot of posts in mylot will like mylot very much, and will not do copy and paste like that. it's really not fair for most of the my lot users. thanks

i will post a link and copy part of the article then put my two cents in.. i figure if i were to just talk about the story i might misqoute then some one scream at me for not getting it perfect and me look stupid where as if i copy it then put something about my opinion or ask a question about it then they have the link and cant say im making the story up or getting the facts wrong.. im a news junky so im always reading up on news so thats the only reason i post a lot of news stuff.. heck i think im my hubby and friends news channel since i am always telling them about stuff.. but yeah if i werent a news person and just looking around to make money it sucks but what can ya do??

You know, I have no problem with it really. Some people have become uninterested with learning about the latest news or current events. And discussing it here is a great way to make it "less boring" while at the same time educating someone on what's happening in the world or your local area. What I do not agree on, however, is when someone would copy & paste the entire news article in the discussion area. Then, that would be totally wrong. It would be best to inject your own point of view and invite others to share their own views as well. Doing the former (copying the entire news article) is just point-blank laziness. that's just my opinion..

Hi Dloveli, I don't mind if they say they saw an article ...bla bla bla and go on to quote the source and then give their opinion about it. I then feel I am responding to someone who really has an interest in the subject at hand. What irritates me, is when the Mylotter slaps an article or a blunt question out there with no personal input. You get the feeling they are merely "typing for dollars" and they have no interest in having a discussion; especially when they do not even respond to the people who take an interest in their post.

I am sorry but I have to disagree with you. IMO it is just like meeting with some friends and someone says "did you see what was in the news to day about....." and this opens a conversation regarding this issue. Which can either help me understand what it means, if it is a good or bad, or perhaps I had not known of the news items and I am very glad someone brought to my attention because otherwise I might have missed it. So PLEASE fellow myLotters keep me up to date on the news and your opinion on the issue.

I don't do it often, dloveli, but I have used copy and paste for a specific part of a news item when I want to link back to the article I'm discussing. I do agree that this should only be a part of the discussion and not the entirety.

dloveli, First and foremost, I think you will agree that most of the good and healthy discussions are current affairs related i.e. politics, celebrities, movies, travels and etc. I just simply cannot think or recall if there are any which aren't in one way or another related. It may be your prerogative that you see annoyance when some people would want to bring in news articles to discuss but it may not be so at the other end. I think as long as there is no plagiarisms or copyright infringements I am fine and could literally live with it. It is just being relevant in the discussion than some empty babble which can be annoying at my end. As for the money part, to each and his own - there are members who are here not because or for the money.

Using an article for an idea is obviously not the best way to do things because you will invariably rely obn the article for most of your material and it will look like copying. You can use an article to give yourself ideas for use here on mylot. Copying directly, of course, is completely out.

I think it is fine to start a discussion out of a news article. I have done that sometime. I don't agree with copy and pasting the whole artile and expecting mylotters comments on it. Instead the discussion owner can write his views about teh article and give a link to the article so that if somebody is more interested, they can go to the link for more information. I have created discussions out of new sometimes.

I have no problem with it because some of the articles are interesting to read.and i am glad that people are pointing them out from different news sources that i read. they have a section for current events here at my lot, and you can read news articles, and commit.

Inspiration or material for an article can come from any source.News reports which are bizarre are also one of them.It is only that people want to elicit your opinion and not want to copy the article.At same time i don't endorse word to word reproduction.

You know, I enjoy the articles that people discuss sometimes-I learn of things that I may have missed with the news, and I certainly get an eyeful of opinions with high profile politcs, stories, etc. And you could just as easily obtain those articles online or in the newspaper and cheat too, if you wanted.

you should at least have a preamble before you copy everything. which is what i usually do. you should at least familiarize your reader with the topic you are talking about hence the preamble.

hi dloveli what they should do is sort of record mostly in their own words what was in the news article and ask us for our own opinions onthe article, then it would not seem to be' so lazy otherwise I really see no wrong in it and anyone' that can peak our interest in something other than the ' bloody celebs gets my vote every time.

I think it is fine to talk about current news events, but the questions asked should be in ones own words, and not just copied word for word, I would imagine that, that is also a violation of the rules of mylot and a copy right violation, so the questions asked according to a news story should be one's own question and thoughts on the subject. Or providing a link to the story and asking people what they think about it. That is kind of cheap and cheating, but that does not violate any rules.

Hello there well see here there are so many people who perform discussions through such means.Its not really new but yes they are warned when caught and if they dont stop it, they are even banned from here. There are many who apologise later for what they did, you see it just goes.we all make mistakes and learn from them.

In my opinion,i think it is okay if they have write extra words that are not copy from another source.If they are abusing the copy paste function and use the article without any modification,you can always report them and see what the moderator do about it. By the way,keep coming out with good discussion and happy mylotting:)