Comments on: Plagiarism, defamation and the power of hyperlinks

By: Harshit S.

Harshit S. — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 03:47:45 +0000

You are right Mathew. Plagiarism has become more widespread in the last few years, as more and more people want to make use of other’s content, without taking the trouble to create their own content. If there’s any perfect time to root it out, now is probably the best time or it would be too late I guess.

By: Ken Harvey

Ken Harvey — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 21:43:49 +0000

Plagiarism is simply copying or paraphrasing without citing the source. This was not apparent in the older college environment with 10-40 students. Individual variation might give unique regurgitations of the lectures and general knowledge. With 100,000 online students attempting to expound, I would guess there would be a high proportion of apparent “plagiarism.” Now the question is: How much of the preceding statement is an inadvertent plagiarism? Kenneth L. Harvey

By: Tom Bishop

Tom Bishop — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 15:47:35 +0000

Has anyone else noticed: The bigger the publication, the less likely it is to include links in articles. It seems like most small-time bloggers fill the articles they write with source links, while big-time magazines don’t, even online. It’s obnoxious how magazines like Time or Newsweek can spill 2,000 words on a subject, like a recently-passed bill, without once giving me the link to the subject. Is it an old-school mindset, a holdover from the print days? Or do they think they’re above that kind of thing, which is a touchstone of ‘blogging’?

By: q4q

q4q — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 09:24:41 +0000

maybe it will be interesting for you: Barrier to thriving plagiarism; http://www.plagiarismadvice.org/documents/conference2012/finalpapers/Kravjar_fullpaper.pdf

By: John Stackhouse

John Stackhouse — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 07:58:58 +0000

Who was it that said: “Using one source is plagiarism; two and more is research.”

John Stackhouse, Sydney NSW

By: Brad Dalton

Brad Dalton — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 06:10:48 +0000

I’ve seen a lot of copying of content and idea’s and it mostly comes from America and India.

I’ve found that big blogs like to use guest authors to copy content and idea’s rather than do it themselves.

By: Prasant Naidu

Prasant Naidu — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 01:44:17 +0000

These people who know the business so well don’t do mistake. now it is a different question if someone else is writing. what is being asked is a small mention and for that people have a problem. I am a blogger from India and has recently faced similar problem where a 15 yr old tech site Silicon India copied the complete article. Later when we made noise via social media the article was deleted without no apology when I am earning my bread via my blog.
http://lighthouseinsights.in/how-siliconindia-plagiarised-from-my-blog.html

So is it the ego. rest what makes me wonder is that this is a rampant practice and in India where the laws are not strong for heinous crimes then no one would look at plagiarism. Wonder how big was this practice in traditional days when there was no link back :)

By: Mathew Ingram

Mathew Ingram — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 00:51:54 +0000

Thanks for the comment, Melody — my point was that if doing that was truly a mistake, as Lehrer says it was, then the discipline of finding and linking to things like quotes would have prevented it from happening.

By: Kallen

Kallen — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 21:44:17 +0000

I will agree that hyperlinks are an amazing and efficient way to site sources, especially on the internet.

I’ve always felt that for written papers, plagiarism is a temptation for students, especially when properly cited sources and MLA formatting impede the process. When it becomes such a chore to cite a source, a writer may be more willing to test the boundaries.

Another win for the internet.

By: Melody Wilson

Melody Wilson — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 20:55:43 +0000

Zakaria, maybe. But Lehrer was directly copying whole articles and making up quotes… how could he link to those?