Discussions

Don't bloggers have to acknowledge their sources?

Posted by Hels • 10/22/09 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: blogging, intellectual property

I was reading a really terrific blog post on Post-Mortem Photography that was a popular (if weird) custom in the Victorian era. Then a google search revealed at least 15 more blogs on the same unusual topic, using many of the same images, the same text, but no acknowledgement of sources.

If the words are the same, bloggers must either be using a common source (like Wiki) or are taking from other, already-published blogs. In either case, shouldn't they be acknowledging where the words came from?

If my students took someone else's text without acknowledging it, I would be very unhappy. It is no better than intellectual theft.

User Comments

10/22/09

MadameX

Acknowledgment actually doesn't mean a thing, unless the content is available for license with acknowledgment. If the content is re-used without permission from the copyright holder, it's illegal.

[reply]
1. 10/22/09
  
  Hels
  
  MadameX, I should have differentiated between a legal problem (which I cannot and wouldn't want to do anything about) and a problem of intellectual honesty.
2. 10/22/09
  
  MadameX
  
  It seems to me that intellectual honesty, while important, is a secondary concern when something has been outright stolen. If, for instance, someone stole a work of art from a museum and then later told a friend that he had painted it, the second wrong seems to me extremely minor when compared with the first.
  
  Since it's very common for people and businesses to hire ghostwriters, purchase white label articles, pick up free content from article banks, etc., I don't think that there is much if any expectation that content found on a blog or website is necessarily the original work of the site owner, so I don't think that there's any question of being misleading in most cases.
10/22/09

werelax

It is very common and there are a lot of threads discussing the extent, impact and implications of this kind of plagiarism.

[reply]
1. 10/23/09
  
  Hels
  
  werelax,
  what was the group decision? Are people going to be held accountable for taking other peoples' text, often word for word, without acknowledgment?
10/23/09

joshua0011

That is one of the most common problems in this information highway. I mean, all information can be accessed easily, and because of that even people who are not educated about citing sources get to publish articles or photos which they don't own. I think not citing the sources is unethical.

[reply]