Plagiarism
@RebeccaScarlett (2532)
Canada
March 27, 2011 11:11am CST
What does everyone think about plagiarism on the internet? It's obviously widespread -- look at all the article spinners out there, and people who make money being "human spinners."
You did not write an article if you just switched some words around from someone else's work!
Some people spin their own work so they can publish it on multiple sites. If they still own the rights to an article, but a site won't accept it because it's published elsewhere, I think you could argue that is a grey area.
I draw the line, however, WAY before you get to the point where an entire website is plagiarized! Has anyone seen "PTC Checklist"? It is a complete ripoff of PTC Investigation. The format is the same, the order in which they "discuss" every aspect of a PTC is the same, and word for word, it is the same as a PTC-I review, except obviously a non-native english speaker tried to change it just a little.
The problem is, it's impossible to police the internet.
Does anyone have any ideas of how people like this could be stopped? Explain how it would work if you do have an idea.
1 response
@skydancer (2101)
• United States
27 Mar 11
Sometimes putting the little copyright symbol at the end along with a notice to please not publish elsewhere without permission will discourage people, however, it will not phase the very determined. I have had some popular articles of mine copied and pasted on other peoples' blogs and websites without any consultation with or permission from me. In some cases, they didn't even credit me. So far, it hasn't been anything major, though, so I didn't think it was worth it to take action; there are much bigger fish to fry. In fact, I have to say that in a way I was a little flattered that of all the information on the topics I'd posted about that they could have found, they saw something in mine that made it worth copying and pasting!
@RebeccaScarlett (2532)
• Canada
30 Mar 11
That's a good attitude to have. If you make your living creating quality writing/art/music or programming, it's terrible to have people rip it off...but also a compliment to you, that's true!
