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Of the most recent 22 threads created in the User-Submitted News section, all but 7 were complete and unaltered reposts of another's work.
As someone who for years covered consumer technology, writing articles very similar to the plagiarised work in question, the idea of reposting such work verbatim was absolutely reprehensible. Committing such an act as an employed blogger would likely end in immediate termination.
Why? Well for one, it's illegal. As per the Berne Convention, written word is copywritten work and protected under relevant laws. This is inherent and does not require any sort of registration with copyright authority.
That being said, the primary deterent was not one of legality (or maybe it is, however not the focus of this post), but rather morality. To take the work of another is considered sin. As with pirating movies or video games, to pirate written word similarly denies the creator their deserved requital. Yeah, it's great that you gave a little nod towards the one who actually wrote the words you are posting. What reason do I have to click-through if the entire article is already in front of me? You are effectively denying them the traffic while reaping the rewards of their work.
Although this is a rampant issue across the messageboards of the internet, I will use GBAtemp as the example.
GBAtemp is a community which inherently promotes IP theft. Conversation primarily consists of which flashcart or which software can be most effectively utilized to pirate games. This is not surprising, considering the site started as a file sharing platform for such works, and also not surprising that reappropration of content (such as news articles) would be rampant without staff moderation.
Therein lies the key differentiator. When a member throws out links to a ROM of the latest DS games, the post is eradicated (often along with the poster's account). An excerpt from the forum rules exemplifies this:
At the end of the day, why does it matter? GBAtemp is a small site and posting content in this way probably won't have a quantifiable detriment on the actual authors. So why did I write this?
IP theft is bad. It's bad for industry and it's bad for our culture. It inhibits return on producing content, which in turn reduces motivation to actually produce more content. Now asking someone to stop pirating games or movies is probably futile. I'm not going to waste time trying to. Properly sourcing articles (without plagiarism) is very easy however.
Guild McCommunist's posts are a good example of proper sourcing. As you can see, he doesn't use any more than an errant sentence from the source material, opting instead to give his take on the important aspects in his own words. He doesn't take a long time writing either, just a quick gist then provided link if you want to see the actual article.
Even if that's too much for you: you're super-lazy or otherwise don't want to put any effort into your post, you know what you can do? It's entire body can just be a link! The Tempers get the full article, the authors get their page views, Costello gets active threads, and everyone is happy.
Summary
1) Plagiarism is bad.
2) Not plagiarising is easy.
3) Don't plagiarise.
PS: If you want to see what happens when rampant plagiarism goes unchecked, just peek at the wraggster-run ghost town of DCEmu. Once a thriving community and respected name in the homebrew scene, now whored out to hit as many ad impressions as he possibly can against other people's content. Absolutely disgusting.
PPS: Prior to writing this, I submitted to moderator review about 40 posts from the USN for plagiarism. As a responce to this, mthrnite has created a sticky denouncing such posts. Good to know that *someone* on the staff is aware that this is an issue.
PSPS: Here's Wololo's recent post on the subject.
Of the most recent 22 threads created in the User-Submitted News section, all but 7 were complete and unaltered reposts of another's work.
As someone who for years covered consumer technology, writing articles very similar to the plagiarised work in question, the idea of reposting such work verbatim was absolutely reprehensible. Committing such an act as an employed blogger would likely end in immediate termination.
Why? Well for one, it's illegal. As per the Berne Convention, written word is copywritten work and protected under relevant laws. This is inherent and does not require any sort of registration with copyright authority.
That being said, the primary deterent was not one of legality (or maybe it is, however not the focus of this post), but rather morality. To take the work of another is considered sin. As with pirating movies or video games, to pirate written word similarly denies the creator their deserved requital. Yeah, it's great that you gave a little nod towards the one who actually wrote the words you are posting. What reason do I have to click-through if the entire article is already in front of me? You are effectively denying them the traffic while reaping the rewards of their work.
Although this is a rampant issue across the messageboards of the internet, I will use GBAtemp as the example.
GBAtemp is a community which inherently promotes IP theft. Conversation primarily consists of which flashcart or which software can be most effectively utilized to pirate games. This is not surprising, considering the site started as a file sharing platform for such works, and also not surprising that reappropration of content (such as news articles) would be rampant without staff moderation.
Therein lies the key differentiator. When a member throws out links to a ROM of the latest DS games, the post is eradicated (often along with the poster's account). An excerpt from the forum rules exemplifies this:
The rules are hyper-focused on deterring file sharing. The most tangible form of a digital object, and most likely to result in litigation against the site. Article sharing on the other hand appears to be a-okay seeing as the rules don't call it out, nor do the site volunteers tasked with keeping such things in check pay any mind to such content. Even former staff members are getting in on the fun.
At the end of the day, why does it matter? GBAtemp is a small site and posting content in this way probably won't have a quantifiable detriment on the actual authors. So why did I write this?
IP theft is bad. It's bad for industry and it's bad for our culture. It inhibits return on producing content, which in turn reduces motivation to actually produce more content. Now asking someone to stop pirating games or movies is probably futile. I'm not going to waste time trying to. Properly sourcing articles (without plagiarism) is very easy however.
Guild McCommunist's posts are a good example of proper sourcing. As you can see, he doesn't use any more than an errant sentence from the source material, opting instead to give his take on the important aspects in his own words. He doesn't take a long time writing either, just a quick gist then provided link if you want to see the actual article.
Even if that's too much for you: you're super-lazy or otherwise don't want to put any effort into your post, you know what you can do? It's entire body can just be a link! The Tempers get the full article, the authors get their page views, Costello gets active threads, and everyone is happy.
Summary
1) Plagiarism is bad.
2) Not plagiarising is easy.
3) Don't plagiarise.
PS: If you want to see what happens when rampant plagiarism goes unchecked, just peek at the wraggster-run ghost town of DCEmu. Once a thriving community and respected name in the homebrew scene, now whored out to hit as many ad impressions as he possibly can against other people's content. Absolutely disgusting.
PPS: Prior to writing this, I submitted to moderator review about 40 posts from the USN for plagiarism. As a responce to this, mthrnite has created a sticky denouncing such posts. Good to know that *someone* on the staff is aware that this is an issue.
PSPS: Here's Wololo's recent post on the subject.
