Do Blogs Plagerize?

Ten or 15 years ago, cheap desktop publishing software and laser printers unleashed a era of hideous newsletters and brochures. People were free to design with typefaces and write words, but knew little (or eve less) of design and editing. The era of bad design and poor writing is, alas, not yet over; my daughter's figure skating club's most recent newsletter was written in all caps.

In 2005, we have cheap Internet access and even cheaper Weblog hosting services acting an enablers for unleashing a new generation of non-writers involved in clueless self-editing. Mainstream media complains of bloggers lacking fact checkers and layers of editors, but all that extra overhead doesn't prevent the Newsweeks and CBSs from screwing up royally.

My concern, and that of other writers and editors, is plagerism. Numerous blogs copy whole sections of text from other sources. I suppose this takes its cue from the semi-legal samples found in hip-hop music, but it is the Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V keystrokes that are really to blame: it's so easy.

Plagerism, strictly speaking, is intellectual property theft. Plagerists are lazy people who pretend that someone else's writing is their own. They are not smart enough to have their own thoughts. Wholesale copying, the way that some blogs do, is wrong for these reasons:

1. Laziness: it’s a way for a blog to fill its pages by simple copy’n paste.
2. Lack of Value: a valuable blog adds opinion and/or facts to another’s posting.
3. Abuse: by posting entire articles, there is no incentive for readers to visit the source blog, thereby depriving the original author of a larger audience.

Last week, CAD journalist Randall Newton had problem with a CAD blog named "BlogCAD." The blog engages in wholesale copying of articles, albeit with a source reference at the end. Not plagerism, but certainly violation of copyright.

Mr Newton had this to say:

Blogging is not about copying word-for-word the work of others; it is about having a conversation. I am pleased when BlogCAD mentions an article I have written at AECnews, and provides a link.

But I am offended when you copy the entire text of the article and publish it as if it were your own, even if you do attribute the source. Articles published at AECnews.com are the copyright property of Cyon Research. BlogCAD is not authorized to republish the content.

Please remove all instances where you have copied AECnews articles immediately. You may continue to mention articles we have published, and provide a link.

Mr Newton made his request May 28; four days later, no response, other than BlogCAD continuing to post entire articles.

Comments

[Damiano]

Sorry for the late response we have seen now your
Blogcad complaint on Ralph Blog (we didn't see your
comment).

We are really tring to offer a good service to the
CAD blogosphere and we've been very, very sad to read you
comment, so I'll try to explain to you our idea
and I hope you'understand the pure and
genuine effort behind BlogCAD.

BlogCAD is technically a "reblogging RSS feeds aggregator";
it means that are reblogged some of the best CAD blogs
and websites, republishing the content of their feed
(= if a blog syndicates only an abstract it will
be published the abstract only this vs all the content
if all the content is included in the feed).

This is a new way of giving visibility to top
bloggers and web sites and very popular blogs
like unmediated http://www.unmediated.org/
work exactely in this way;
also creative commons http://creativecommons.org/
is the licensing system more and more important in the
blogosphere adopted by top bloggers, to solve these matters.

"Reblogging" is not plagerism because
requires to choose sources, posts and additionaly
it helps with Google ranking and Technorati and Feedster
pupularity all the blogs (as you see always the original
source is linked): let's say is a win/win proposition.

Anyhow we understand your position and we have cancelled
your feed; no more articles from your website will
be on blogcad.
Let us know if you want us to delete also all the past
artcles, and we'll do it asap.

We really would like to hear your opinion about
and we hope you understand our effort.

[Lisa]

I agree wholeheartedly with your comments. Someone found my website less than a year after first publication and proceeded to slightly re-word the articles and present them as originals, without so much as a nod in my general direction for all the hard work and research I put into it. It takes no brains but a lot of nerve.

On a side note, you may want to correct your entry to "plagIArize" and "plagIArism."

Best wishes!

[D. Lucian Strong]

You're so right! I have to put this article on my blog!! :-D

[Greg Milliken]

Ralph Blog -- I like that.

I went over to BlogCAD expecting to see a bunch of Google ads everywhere, like the bogus splogs that just monetize traffic.

I didn't see any imbedded ads, so at least they have that going for them.

[toothpick_tp]

Nowadays, plagiarism is a real problem. I'm sure that you won't find a person who has never faced this problem. And sometimes we don't know what to do with it.