Plagiarism on the Net--How Widespread?
Update 17 Oct 06: Keelynet has a post today that explains the reason for lack of attribution. He apparently saw my story on another website where it had been re-published without clear attribution. It was an unintentional mistake and has been corrected.
By the way, I did a recent blog search on laser television, and found an excerpt from my laser TV story (above) published on a website I have never heard of, under my original title. There was a link to my website via Topix.net. So I can understand how a web author might run across one of my stories on yet a third website, and for it not to be clear where the story originated.
One of my favourite sites for looking at new sci-tech stories is Keelynet.com. Unfortunately, on 12 Oct 06, Keelynet copied an Al Fin story from 23 Sept 06 verbatim--"The Ammonia Economy Tries to Displace the Hydrogen Economy"--without attribution.
Whenever I quote from another site, I post a link to the original site. Perhaps many sites assume that all articles on blogs are from secondary sources--not original. That is not the case. This is not the first time I have found some of my stories used by other websites, but almost always a link or some form of attribution was provided--albeit sometimes in almost invisible small print or faint print.
Is this a problem for any other bloggers? I am not in this for any monetary rewards, but simple attribution for original writing should not be too much to ask. What do you think?
By the way, I did a recent blog search on laser television, and found an excerpt from my laser TV story (above) published on a website I have never heard of, under my original title. There was a link to my website via Topix.net. So I can understand how a web author might run across one of my stories on yet a third website, and for it not to be clear where the story originated.
One of my favourite sites for looking at new sci-tech stories is Keelynet.com. Unfortunately, on 12 Oct 06, Keelynet copied an Al Fin story from 23 Sept 06 verbatim--"The Ammonia Economy Tries to Displace the Hydrogen Economy"--without attribution.
Whenever I quote from another site, I post a link to the original site. Perhaps many sites assume that all articles on blogs are from secondary sources--not original. That is not the case. This is not the first time I have found some of my stories used by other websites, but almost always a link or some form of attribution was provided--albeit sometimes in almost invisible small print or faint print.
Is this a problem for any other bloggers? I am not in this for any monetary rewards, but simple attribution for original writing should not be too much to ask. What do you think?
posted by al fin at 12:04 pm
5 Comments:
Al,
I agree with you that that is poor form on Keelynet.com's part to take your posts and not give attribution. It looks like they not only took that post but also a couple of others as well. You wrote it, you deserve a mention so people that like it will come check out your blog.
On the other hand, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. It says something that they are trying to pass off your posts as if they wrote them.
I haven't run into that problem (that I know about).
Thanks for the comment, mping.
Sometimes two blogs have political or religious differences, and one blog might be reluctant to shunt readers to the "heretical" blog.
For example, if I see the same MIT research news story linked from several sites, and I do a comment on that story, I may only give a referral mention to one or two of the referral sites. I give preference in that situation to bloggers and sites that I have good relations with. But, naturally, if I quote another site I give full attribution and usually links to every source I quote, regardless of any differences of opinion I may have with writers on that site.
Even if I do not quote an information source, if it looks like a good source for my readers to get more information, I try to link it as a courtesy to the reader.
I could be so lucky... Seriously, if someone copied what I wrote it would mean someone actually read it. I guess it is a backhanded compliment of sorts. They thought enough of your work to steal it, so to speak. I try always to credit the source of quotes or articles I may use while blogging... And I have on occasion re-written some point - if it is not in a particularly quotable form - that I read elsewhere when it dovetails into the topic and or my belief. But to copy something word for word and post it as if it were your own does cross the line.
Maybe you're right, Craig, maybe I should take it as flattery.
In reality, though, I think the person who published my article without attribution thought that my article was merely a newsrelease from some service or other that I myself had published secondhand. They apparently took the link for further information that accompanied my article as the original source for my article--without actually going to that link and reading it.
In other words, they considered me as a referrer rather than an author, and chose not to link to me on that basis.
In that situation, I typically link to a referring site in terms of giving "a hat tip to ----".
Craig, you may have been copied and just not know it. How would you know unless you did blog searches and google searches on all your stories? I have accidentally run across over a half dozen of my articles published in other sites where I had to search for several minutes to find the almost hidden attribution.
When I do blog searches on my stories, I'm looking for other blogs who posted on the same or similar topics. But sometimes I find my original stories verbatim published on other websites. I even found a commercial site borrowing bits and pieces of a story, using my words.
I am publishing an update in the original post with this same information--Keelynet has published an apology and added attribution to the original post there.
Apparently Keelynet found my article on another website where it had been re-published without clear attribution. He was not aware that the story was originally from Al Fin blog. It was an unintentional mistake, and has been corrected.
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“During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act” _George Orwell
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