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Surfer plagiarism and rules for bloggers

By Lawrence B. Ebert, Esq.

An article about plagiarism by a columnist (on surfing) at the Ventura County (Calif.) Star included the text:

"We know the rules of usage are much looser online, particularly in the world of bloggers," Moore said in the Star article. "But our readers expect us to provide complete attribution when we use material from another source. This did not meet that standard and is a breach of our ethics."

[from article in Editor & Publisher titled: 'Ventura County Star' Cans Freelance Surfer Columnist For Plagiarism ]

IPBiz queries about ethical issues involved when law review articles cite to blogs instead of the primary source which is used by the blogs?

See IPBiz post: Citations of blogs by law reviews. See also http://ipbiz.blogspot.com/2008/02/law-reviews-citing-blogs-good-thing-or.html

This secondary citation matter can quickly morph into a phantom citation issue, wherein urban legends are born. One example of this is Lemley's "transistors only for hearing aids" cite, which ultimately traces back to a short piece in the New York Times (including "Our Miss Brooks") which does NOT support Lemley's assertion.

Full post as published by IPBiz on February 28, 2008 (boomark / email).