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"We talk and it's gone"

By Lawrence B. Ebert, Esq.

Ken Robertson was talking about broadcasters ripping off the print media in writing:

"Broadcasters are used to this 'we talk and it's gone' mentality, and they get into a habit of taking short cuts."

IP profs sometimes take the "we write and it's gone" approach to scholarship. Lemley/Moore in "Ending Abuse" said Quillen's grant numbers were preferred over Clarke's and then in "Rubber Stamp" that point was treated as "gone."

News Chick on Robertson on attribution:

If the information is common knowledge that a reporter can get from dozens of sources, that's one thing. If broadcasters get information from a newspaper, he says it needs to be attributed. That sounds like a reasonable request.

**See PI Reader Blog, the News Chick who (also) wrote:

When I first started at KIRO radio in 1988, I was the night editor. One of my duties was to go through the papers, (what was then the afternoon Seattle Times and the late edition of the Post-Intelligencer) look for stories we didn't have, and rewrite them in a broadcast style.

I didn't think of it as plagiarism back then, but I didn't like doing it. Now, 21 years wiser, I think it's plagiarism and I don't do it.

One wonders what Glenn Poshard thought of page 54 of his thesis "back then."

What about copying a political speech?

Full post as published by IPBiz on May 28, 2009 (boomark / email).