Comments on: Blogging As Pressing “Copy” on a Xerox Machine

By: @rrodrigo

@rrodrigo — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 03:45:14 +0000

At first I was thinking…well “copy” to share with my students…but it’s at the Educause site…I’d just send them there, correct?

By: Alan Levine aka CogDog

Alan Levine aka CogDog — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 06:07:54 +0000

@Antonio Vantaggiato: Thanks- again remix via RSS is completely different, as it is what is enabled by syndication tools. This article is not available in RSS and was intentionally lifted, copied, pasted into someone else’s “publish” box. I seek only to understand the logic behind the effort.

By: Alan Levine aka CogDog

Alan Levine aka CogDog — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 06:05:19 +0000

@Mike Romard: Thanks Mike, it seems to be a bit more of “not caring” than “not knowing”- this is hardly a new notion; it’s never been an ethical thing to do to republish an entire work of someone else w/o giving credit. A quote or even a few paragraphs is a different story, especially when it is embedded in the context of new information. This is outright copying, without adding anything new to the shared environment of the open web.

I’m less frustrated, despite the strong wording, than not understanding, all which is as futile as trying to get inside the mind of a spammer (if such creatures have minds).

By: Antonio Vantaggiato

Antonio Vantaggiato — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 01:36:49 +0000

Alan, it is a difficult issue. If it had been an automated quote (like Google News) probably you wouldn’t have barked. I, for instance, have an automatic “journal” being put together by pasting RSS feeds from some authors, but without asking their explicit consent. I feel I can do this because of the license on their blogs, and because I do not wrap their content within my own interpretations. I may be wrong, though!

The problem is that in your case it was not a quote nor an abstract. It is the full republication of a published article, not even a blog post, for which there is perhaps a less stringent ethics.

By: Mike Romard

Mike Romard — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 01:30:46 +0000

Alan,
It’s easy to understand your frustration. I think it’s matter of our times – going too fast and not everyone knowing the ‘rules’ or feeling they need to follow them.

A few days ago, I was wondering myself, how would one quote some great words from a book in a blog post I was writing. And I’m taking the time to credit others for their thoughts. Most just storm right through.

In our early days, we were taught how to write a bibliography. Nowadays, proper etiquette and intellectual credit seem to be a lagging element of the Web 2.0 era and I don’t envision it getting any slower or better.

By: Alan Levine aka CogDog

Alan Levine aka CogDog — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 01:23:51 +0000

@Chris Lott: I knew I could count on you ;-) Make lots of copies!

By: Chris Lott

Chris Lott — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 01:17:51 +0000

I would lift your blog post but I’m too busy lifting my hairy ass onto the copy machine. But I’m a good netizen, I’ll attribute it to you!