Website Copying!

[kerry davies]

For clarification I wasn't going mouldy and ageist about schoolkids per se. That there Robbie Williams and Prince have been found guilty of plagiarism as were and are so many others who should know better.

 

What I was wondering is what kind of guidance was given to school kids about web copying. I have a vague ethical handle on it for my own purposes but how do young people learn what is right or wrong about it? Who lays down the lines between research and theft? Has everything not for reprint got to now be copyrighted? Just how good are the web-based plagiarism checkers?

 

Youngsters are an amazing amount better than me with technology and IT but are they taught basic courtesy and ground rules?

[benweblight]

Most of our assignments at uni are put through powerful plagiarism software; this checks against the web and also anything that's been previously checked through the software. Examples of this system I've see show it tends to be quite effective

 

This is quite a common phenomenon with eBay listings. Have had to report people for copying my listings before.

[re:gensound]

Hello to all,

I realise this thread has gone rather off topic but I thought I better jump in before too much time had passed. www.Regensound.co.uk is my website and I would like to explain the background to this little problem. Our site went live on 9th May. Our hosting company were pressing for content so my junior partner gained inspiration from other websites to make sure he had something to upload. Unfortunately he didn't adapt the text enough. Rob's business partner Damian contacted my partner around the 13th May to complain and he promptly uploaded changed content. The content was changed further sometime around the 16th. As has been pointed out the two sites are now completely different. No harm was ever intended and Rob, whom I have known for a few years now, need not worry about our little company competing with his. We just wanted a web presence.

 

I hope that clears things up,

 

Craig Newlyn.

 

www.ReGenSound.co.uk

[Bobbsy]

Thank you for coming in and explaining.

 

However, just to state my opinion: There were only four or five paragraphs of text, all of which were pretty much cut and pasted from the original. Frankly, it should only have taken your "junior partner" about five minutes to write something from scratch even if you wanted to tweak it and improve it later. Cutting and pasting is NOT "gaining inspiration". It's plagiarism and a serious copyright infringement.

 

We work in an industry where many earn there living from composing and working with intellectual property. There's never an excuse for theft, whether its words or equipment and I hope you've learned your lesson by getting caught.

 

Parting thought: I wonder how long the offending paragraphs would have stayed online if there hadn't been a fuss?

 

Bob

[kerry davies]

How pleasantly surprising to read Craigs post, just wish more people in this business were as honest and able to tell the difference between reality and PR bullshit.

 

Nice one. Also shows how well BR works, so pats on the back all round.

[Junior8]

I never cease to be amazed at the innocence of some people who put up websites. Sorry Craig but you'd have been better off with a simple holding page containing your contact details rather than going live with this as it stands. The site omits virtually all the information required to enable someone to even consider whether to put some business your way and the web designers - who put their logo proudly at the bottom of the page - are linked to their own site which isn't finished! Not a good advert...

[re:gensound]

Fair points from everybody. Thanks for the advice and input. Learning all the time. I'm just happy that the words honest and innocent have been applied to me in the latest posts. Feel free to keep on checking the website. More content coming early next week.

 

Craig

 

www.regensound.co.uk

[dbuckley]

So what happens is exactly what I noted in Post #29.

 

Very common practice.

[Bobbsy]

The other thing I was thinking is that this proves how little notice we should take of the PR blurbs on websites. The fact that a "one-size-fits-all" essay from one company could be cut and pasted onto a completely unrelated company (and remain un-noticed for weeks or months) just goes to show how meaningless they are.

 

Bob

[Joe Bleasdale]

Not quite the same...

 

But I wrote an online article for a console recently. It was only 1000 words or so long. But I found it pasted onto someone else's website with my name and credits removed. I sent them an email telling them it was my Intellectual Property. I said I was happy for them to keep it online as long as they made my credits in it quite clear. If they didn't, I said "immediate action would be taken". I didn't get a reply... but within an hour the article had changed, my credits had been added back.

 

Thanks,

[paulears]

I found the same text on 4 site, Joe - seems it spread even more!!

compulite site

blog link

liquida

onstage lighting

[Joe Bleasdale]

I found the same text on 4 site, Joe - seems it spread even more!!

compulite site

blog link

liquida

onstage lighting

 

Thanks Paul. All of those are fine now.

 

The issue in question was actually Compulite themselves. The article was pretty much pasted onto their website but will all my credits removed. It was made to look like it was someone elses. Those articles gettings reposted are fine, as long as it remains clear I wrote it. I am writing more, and will be taking more care on who can use it next time.

 

If you read it, I hope you found it informative!

 

Thanks,

 

EDIT - It was originally written for On Stage Lighting, the editor requested something. I am happy with its growth mind you!

[indyld]

Just to pick up on this thread, as usual I am pretty peeved to see people ripping off content wholesale from On Stage Lighting. I'm happy that Joe has gained some exposure but I don't count cut and pasting articles that I've commissioned as "spreading the love".

 

Edit to add: What Creative Stage Lighting did was to add the article to their blog with a snippet and a link that redirects to the original. Which is proper online publishing etiquette.

[Joe Bleasdale]

Just to pick up on this thread, as usual I am pretty peeved to see people ripping off content wholesale from On Stage Lighting. I'm happy that Joe has gained some exposure but I don't count cut and pasting articles that I've commissioned as "spreading the love".

 

Edit to add: What Creative Stage Lighting did was to add the article to their blog with a snippet and a link that redirects to the original. Which is proper online publishing etiquette.

 

Replied to your email. We are going to deal with this - harshly in my book. Exposure is one thing, no credits or no link to the original is beyond rubbish!

 

To anyone reading who is thinking of copying websites - Dont bother. This industry is small enough for us to deal with it very efficiently.

 

Thanks.

[Wol]

add the article to their blog with a snippet and a link that redirects to the original. Which is proper online publishing etiquette.

 

Ooh, I dunno. I had a certain publishing person pretty much rip my head off when I linked to an article they'd written on facebook claiming I'd plagiarised it. Apparently posting the URL on a facebook page made me responsible for the content on the page which was linked to.

 

It took way too long for them to understand how the internet and facebook works, and that just because I posted a link, doesn't mean that I was copying the content on the page I linked to, nor had any control over being able to modify the content.

 

Moral of the story: Don't copy anything, and don't link to anything. It's how the world wide web was designed to work! .... Oh wait..... ^o)