Posted by Jay Livingston
The Internet seems to be a mostly copyright-free zone. Norms about using other people’s material are still evolving, and even when there’s consensus about the norms, who can enforce them?
Two weeks ago, in a post about political rumors, I took some information put together by another blogger, J.L. Bell, who had gotten it from Snopes. I turned Bell’s numbers into a simple bar graph, checked Snopes myself, and added a few comments. I linked to Bell’s blog. (I figured everyone knows Snopes, so I didn’t bother with a link.)
About ten days later, Lisa at Sociological Images, posted my graph along with a few sentences of mine and a few of Bell’s. along with a few brief comments of her own. She gave credit where due and provided the links.
Now a political blogger, Digby has pretty much copied Lisa’s post wholesale (including the links to me and Bell).
She has deleted one or two brief sentences and added one of
his
her own. Other than that, it’s Lisa’s post. No link to Sociological Images, no hat tip, nothing.
(Click on the image for a larger view.)Digby is usually more careful.
But what Digby did with Lisa’s post goes beyond borrowing.
2 comments:
Jay -- Digby is a woman, not that it has anything to do with plagiarism. I wish English had gender-neutral pronouns.
Mike, thanks. I assumed "Digby" was a man's name, probably because the only other Digby I know of is E. Digby Baltzell, Phildelphia Gentleman, Penn sociologist, and coiner of the term WASP.
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