Is this Plagiarism?
Anja Müller
I was surfing around when I found a site whose pages where,
either verbatim off a book I read, or phrases mixed with
the owners thoughts. (no, no distinguishing quotes, etc.)
As an (amateur) writer I immediately thought "Plagiarism!",
so I wrote the owner an e-mail, asking (politely) if she
had permission to put that stuff on the web and if there
was a mention of who the true author is on her website.
She wrote back, saying that, yes, there are a lot of quotes
of that particular author in her pages and yes, there is
a mention.
So I went back to the site and searched carefully, till I finally
found a mention, in very small print.
("The quotes and inspiration were taken from (authors name)")
So she doesn´t feel it´s plagiarism, since she did put that
mention in. But as the reader, you couldn´t tell which were her
thoughts and which were quotes, and basically, the whole website
is one big quote.
I thought you could only quote for a review and then only brief
passages.
Now I´m confused. :(
So, what do you think?
Anja
Skip Press
In article <X8MT6.2308$bA3.1...@www.newsranger.com>,
Anja Müller <nos...@newsranger.com> wrote:
--
Who by the pen has taught mankind
Things they knew not (being blind).
-- Muhammad, The Koran
All the best,
Skip Press, the Duke of URL
Hollywood and Somewhat Important News at
http://home.earthlink.net/~skippress/wsnBDFB.html
David M. Harris
If she used substantial text from another person without permission,
it's not necessarily plagiarism, but it is a copyright violation. Just
crediting the author is not enough; you need the author's permission.
dmh
--
Fight Spam! Join CAUCE! == http://www.cauce.org/
JAH
wrote:
>I think you should send the Web police to her house right now!
>
>In article <X8MT6.2308$bA3.1...@www.newsranger.com>,
> Anja Müller <nos...@newsranger.com> wrote:
>
>>I was surfing around when I found a site whose pages where,
>>either verbatim off a book I read, or phrases mixed with
>>the owners thoughts. (no, no distinguishing quotes, etc.)
>>
Or the Cyber Sheriff. Where is he?
JAH
Today is the future in the past
http://www.jahitchcock.com/cyberstalked
Tetractys
> Or the Cyber Sheriff. Where is he?
Still working on that old CP/M reverse
engineering case up in Redmond.
Casey
"Anja Müller" <nos...@newsranger.com> wrote in message
news:X8MT6.2308$bA3.1...@www.newsranger.com...
"I was surfing around," Anja said in her email, "when I found a site..."
This is a form of attribution that leaves no doubt who authored it.
If I were to say "As the reader, you couldn't tell which were her
thoughts...," then the line becomes gray even though it is quoted. Lots of
writers mistakenly use "orphan quotes" with the mistaken intention of
emphasizing the words.
Attribution belongs directly with the quoted material. Now, even
with attribution, the main message of the text must come from the writer.
Disregarding fictional dialog, quotations can be used to add credibility
from an expert to ones own statements, to strengthen a point made, or to
show the position of someone else.
You imply knowledge of the author of the purloined stuff. Send him
an email and point him at the URL. You'll be doing him a favor.
--
Regards,
Casey
Wri...@verizonxmail.com
Freelance Writer and Photographer
[remove the ''x'' to send email]
Anja Müller
Casey
thanks for taking the time to explain this to me. I´m not interested
in policing anybody, much less on the net!
There were no "quotation marks" or an attribution right under the quoted
material.
I just wanted to know if this was ok.
Thanks again,
Anja
In article <GaRT6.987$ep3.1...@dfiatx1-snr1.gtei.net>, Casey says...