Thread: Plagiarism?

I usually navigate to this forum through the front door, and I notice that there are now gun related articles up for our reading pleasure.

I note that right now there is an article entitled "Glock Pistol Sales Surge in Aftermath of Arizona Shootings ," the byline credits "Northwest Firearms" as the author.

It appears to be written by Michael Riley and published by Bloomberg news.

Maybe I'm reading it wrong, but it doesn't appear that the actual author or content provider are credited anywhere.

Sorry if it's a misunderstanding, if not, I'd suggest that you (the powers that be) be more careful about that sort of thing.

Toolfan, you raise a very good point. TheHighRoad forum ran into some legal trouble when some members posted the contents of news articles without giving proper credit. Some newspapers do not allow any of their articles to be reprinted without specific permission.

Toolfan, you raise a very good point. TheHighRoad forum ran into some legal trouble when some members posted the contents of news articles without giving proper credit. Some newspapers do not allow any of their articles to be reprinted without specific permission. But that is just my original opinion...

Originally Posted by toolfan

I usually navigate to this forum through the front door, and I notice that there are now gun related articles up for our reading pleasure.

I note that right now there is an article entitled "Glock Pistol Sales Surge in Aftermath of Arizona Shootings ," the byline credits "Northwest Firearms" as the author.

It appears to be written by Michael Riley and published by Bloomberg news.

Maybe I'm reading it wrong, but it doesn't appear that the actual author or content provider are credited anywhere.

Sorry if it's a misunderstanding, if not, I'd suggest that you (the powers that be) be more careful about that sort of thing.

Its lazy journalism.. Period.

Its a quick google search, and they'll notice where the crosslink came from. Such as, discussion here noted certain things and was discussed in the forums. Journalist does a search and sees it in the preliminary results, and doesn't dig any deeper into it.

Simply credits "where" he saw the link, even though it was a link of a link, etc, etc on this forum.

Quoting a small part of an article and then a link to the story is fair use and not plagiarism. Although some news sites hate the crosslinking, its how the internet works.. They just want to figure out how to make money off it. (good luck with that I guess).

Anyway, thats the simple explanation. Just lazy people not properly doing their jobs.

Yeah, I was going to ask the same thing. I'm guessing at a minimum you'd want to link back to the original article source depending on the copyright holders policies.

That is a good point, although the "by" part on the news story just shows the user name of who posted the story. There might be a way somehow to either change that to a field to where an author can be written instead, or someway to add it elsewhere.

Disagree. The "by Northwest Firearms" is clearly the username who posted the article. It is clear at the bottom of Glock article who the reporter and editor of the story is and how to contact them.

Oh.. I see what you guys are talking about. The anchor page..

Yeah..

Usually those are automagic posters (that will aggregate news links) and post relavent information on the "home" page, outside of the forum.

Has nothing to do with who wrote the article.

Beyond that, other members can be "news posters" and post links on the anchor page.. Putting their username in that place, because they posted the news link.

Northwest Firearms is reprinting someone else's original content.

Northwest Firearms not only does not link the original source, they actually take credit for it's publication. The post is "by" northwest firearms yet contains NO content authored by Northwest Firearms.

I'm no lawyer, but the way it is currently set up is as close to a copyright violation as I've seen on an internet forum.

Thanks for the heads up guys, I'll take care of this.

Originally Posted by toolfan

Northwest Firearms is reprinting someone else's original content.

Northwest Firearms not only does not link the original source, they actually take credit for it's publication. The post is "by" northwest firearms yet contains NO content authored by Northwest Firearms.

I'm no lawyer, but the way it is currently set up is as close to a copyright violation as I've seen on an internet forum.

It does no such thing thing sir.

It shows the News Posting on the front page as the username.

While that may not make sense to a lot of people here, I can understand the confusion. When your forum has a userbase 1000 times the size of this one. Trust me, you'll want those links on the front page tagged with who put them there, because you may have 10 to 20 members trusted with posting access to the front page..

It is NOT taking credit for the story. Only the link on the front page. There is no copyright violation. Its a crosslink.

Please.. Do not become a lawyer.. We wish freedom for ourselves.. Lets extend that to the free use of internet links as well.

kthx.

Edit : as well, the original source for the story is TWO clicks away.. Its not hidden. You have a mouse. use that thang.

Edit2 : I have noticed that I check the functionality today. Comment should take you to the thread.. And clicking the headline should take you to the originally linked article. At this moment, the headline click to go to the source is not functioning correctly.

Originally Posted by MarkSBG

Toolfan, you raise a very good point. TheHighRoad forum ran into some legal trouble when some members posted the contents of news articles without giving proper credit. Some newspapers do not allow any of their articles to be reprinted without specific permission. But that is just my original opinion...

I see what you did there.

We'll now be including a link to the original article at the bottom of each article. This should clear up any confusion. Regarding the 'by Northwest Firearms', that is the user who posted the article, and is working as it should be.