Calling Out Plagiarism

Blessings Darlings!

I respect authors, artists, etc - as a result, I take a hard line on plagiarism, as I've mentioned before. And I don't keep silent when I see folks do it FaceBook.  Oddly enough, that doesn't endear me to some people.  Specifically, it doesn't endear me to plagiarists.  Which, actually, cheers me quite a bit - if I am to be known by what groups hate me, being hated by plagiarists is a fine thing in my never humble opinion.

Well, I ran into some plagiarism in an open FaceBook group earlier this month.  It was posted on the 14th, I saw it and snarked on the 26th, and they (the plagiarist and her friends) found it today.  Instead of saying something like "ooops, you're right, I should have linked back to my source, Llewellyn Publishing's blog at <this address>", the plagiarist called ME negative.  Because pointing out plagiarism is negative, but plagiarism itself is white light and unicorn farts? 

Here is the complete text of the conversation, as of this moment.  I had to get someone else to grab the text for me (given the results, easycapture.com seems to rock!) because the plagiarist blocked me during the conversation.  If you'd like to check, the link to the group is https://www.facebook.com/groups/219529221497038/?bookmark_t=group .

I expect that the group owner didn't think s/he would need a plagiarism policy, that no one would do it.  But plagiarism puts the OWNER at risk, so some policy would be a good idea.

Anyway, for your reading pleasure:



Frondly - and HONORABLY - Fern

Plagiarism!

Blessings Darlings!

Plagiarism (from Wikipedia): defined in dictionaries as the "wrongful appropriation," "close imitation," or "purloining and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions," and the representation of them as one's own original work.

I've been running into an astonishing amount of plagiarism on Pagan sites and pages online lately.  It's hard to find an original thought.  Instead, you get a picture of an athame with text that comes from Wikipedia.  You look, and the person posted it after taking it (with permission) from another site which may or may not be the one that original plagiarized the text.  Okay, in this case, the text was originally plagiarized by Ravensgrove Coven  on Facebook. 

But that one group isn't the only one doing it.  Lots of groups on Facebook, lots of blogs, lots of websites, have scraped all their content from others, usually without attribution.  And in the cases where the stuff is copyrighted, without getting permission from the writer/artist.

Honor? The 3-fold law? The Wiccan Rede? Karma? Common decency? "The Christians stole all our stuff"? Some Pagans have no ethics, no morals, no honor, and lie about their belief in the Gods, the Rede, the 3-fold law, etc.

Like what someone else has written, and want to share it?  Great!  Write a summary mentioning who wrote it and provide a link to the original source.  That way you share it AND the creator gets the traffic/attention.  I've done that with many folks blogs posts that I like.  You will NOT read their entire blog post on MY blog.  I will link you to THEIR blogs.

Want to incorporate someone else's words that inspired your work, and don't have their permission?  Look at what I posted on Thursday, Sept 6, 2012 (with luck, I'll remember to put the link in!).  Instead of quoting the words, which I didn't have permission for and ... uh ... was pretty sure that the writer wouldn't want to give me permission for, I did a bullet point summary.  The source being from a closed group I could not link back to it in general, and since I also wanted to protect the privacy of the 'bad example', I also did not want to post her name/identifying into, like an avatar.

Today was one of those days when I called out plagiarism when I saw it.  And I discovered that some of the people ... well, I'll leave out what the Lala called them ... before she was bounced from one group ... don't seem to understand the difference between plagiarism and copyright violations.

Let me explain the difference between plagiarism and copyright violations: plagiarism, as noted above, is ANYTIME you pass off the words of another as your own (not giving credit) even if the words are public domain (that is, wikipedia); copyright violations muck up an author's 'exclusive right' to their words.

Honestly, plagiarism is explained to US kids thoroughly in high school, when they are taught to do research papers.  It's not rocket science, it's not a PhD level concept, it's not a 3rd degree mystery. 

Frondly, Fern

Immoderate

Blessings Darlings!

The [very] few of you who have commented on my blog over the years know a secret - I don't moderate the comments here.  The go up immediately.   I read all the comments after they go up and would pull any TOTALLY inappropriate ones .... but I've never had to pull any comments yet.

OBVIOUSLY my readers ROCK. And maybe my wards keep the spammers away, I dunno.

I bring this up because I read other blogs - some regularly, some as I see an interesting link.  I also comment on those blogs if I have something to ask or say.  And 20 hours ago I asked the author of a blog to cite her sources on a definition and claim she made.  I'm still waiting for my question to make it out of 'moderation limbo'. 

Oh, it's very clear that the author knows my question is there - in checking for new comments here I can see what site readers come from.  And I saw the hits from the ADMINISTRATIVE level of her blog.

Being in moderation limbo isn't a problem for me.  I'm flexible enough to win at that dance .... and get a blog post out of it.  Because I want MY reputation to be that of being open, above board, honorable, not that of hiding disagreements behind the scenes and in electronic limbo.

But that's just me.

I'm immoderate.

Frondly, Fern

Winter and Honor

Blessings Darlings!

I'm writing this on Friday morning, tho' I think it'll be posted on Tuesday next week. (I'm trying to post almost daily thru' Monday thru' Friday right now).  And tonight we're due to get some Seasonally Appropriate Weather, for the first time this winter.  A few inches of snow overnight, followed by sleet then rain tomorrow.

Which means the Spawn has to go to his job obnoxiously early tomorrow morning on snow-covered roads (they don't plow here unless there is more snow).

Being our son, he will be there and be there on time.  Normal weather is not a reason to not go to work.  Even tho' I'll be the one driving - because our car won't run if it sits out in the rain all day in the parking lot at work.

His job. His honor.  My getting up and being out of here before dawn.

Oh well.  That's life.

Frondly, Fern