Argentinian Politician's Proposal For New Anti-Plagiarism Law Plagiarizes Wikipedia
from the where's-the-anti-irony-law dept
Britxardo alerts us to an amazingly ironic story coming out of Argentina. It seems that an elected politician there, Gerónimo Vargas Aignasse, has introduced some new legislation against plagiarism (Google translation of the original). It seems odd enough that he would be outlawing plagiarism (here in the US plagiarism is socially shunned, and could cost you your job, but isn't against the law unless it also reaches the point of copyright infringement, which is different), and it's made even worse by the fact that it looks like he's confusing plagiarism with copyright infringement -- noting in the explanation of the bill that "plagiarism" is harming the recording industry.But that's not the ironic part.
As unbelievable as it may seem, it appears that the text Vargas Aignasse used to explain the bill was plagiarized straight from Wikipedia (Google translation of the original). Seriously. And not just a little bit. The first three paragraphs of the Spanish Wikipedia page on plagiarism are identical to three paragraphs in the explanation of the bill.
Just to make sure someone didn't do the opposite and take the text of the introduction and make it the Wikipedia page, I looked, and as I'm typing this, the Wikipedia page hasn't been updated since April -- and it looks like the bulk of that page has actually been in place for quite some time. The bill was introduced on May 6th.
It's difficult to think of anything more ironic than introducing a bill that calls for "imprisonment from three to eight years" for plagiarism... that plagiarizes the explanation for that bill. It's out and out plagiarism too. The three paragraphs look to be copied completely, and no effort is made to identify the source. It's also a bit weird that the text from Wikipedia -- which is basically just a definition of plagiarism -- is being used as the explanation of the bill. Nowhere does it describe why it's a problem or why it requires stringent jailtime. But, perhaps that's something Vargas Aignasse can ponder while serving three to eight years in prison for violating the law he just introduced... with the law he just introduced.
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Filed Under: argentina, geronimo vargas aignasse, plagiarism, wikipedia
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I'm still trying to wrap my head around the idea of plagiarizing a song. What the frick?! Are you sure there's not some sort of April 1st holiday in Argentina around this time?
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The cc license concerns the copyright issue, not plagiarism. The two are different things. It is still plagiarism because the guy acts as if the content was his own.
Separately, it even violates the CC license, which is an attribution license.
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plagiarizing plagiarism policies
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Ha
This story is too funny, and scary at the same time.
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Regardless of anyone's opinion of the actual law. This is a guy introducing a law against something and in the explanation of the law itself he violated it.
This is one very small step from outlawing the creation of laws.
Regardless of the merits of the bill - a politician that is really this dumb should not get re-elected.
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now, now
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.....Seriously? THAT'S your objection? You really don't have anything better? I could drum up a few trollish examples for you, if you like....
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You mean like copyright extension.
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"Typically, self-plagiarism is only considered to be a serious ethical issue in settings where a publication is asserted to consist of new material, such as in academic publishing or educational assignments [20]. It does not apply (except in the legal sense) to public-interest texts, such as social, professional, and cultural opinions usually published in newspapers and magazines."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plagiarism#Self-plagiarism
I'm not sure if this would constitute self plagiarism, is there a reasonable expectation that the bill's text is "new" material?
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BTW, the justification has nothing to do with the amendment to the article. The amendment reads: There will be 3 to 8 years prison to whoever commits fraud by using an assumed name, misrepresents quality, uses fake documents [translation note: specifically college degrees and such], misrepresented influence, abuse of confidence [I really can't understand what test is valid for this] or feigning to have property, credit, commission, enterprise or negotiation or who uses another sort of trick or misrepresentation.
So this is basically a law penalizing lying (and the college degree is kind of hot here right now because of opposing parties that are found not to have the title they say they have) and not a law about plagiarism.
It's also funny that this guy actually has a precedent of being suspect of smuggling counterfeit products himself (http://www.derf.com.ar/despachos.asp?cod_des=72815&ID_Seccion=34).
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He´s from Tucumán
So it seems to be truth,
Tucumanos gatos!!!!
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http://gawker.com/5538623/harvards-most-infamous-plagiarist-is-more-successful-than-yo u
"Stuck in an awful dead-end job? Try becoming embroiled in a plagiarism scandal! It worked for famous Harvard plagiarist Kaavya Viswanathan. She just got a sweet summer job at one of the most prominent law firms in the country."
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plagiarism IS illegal in several US states
I plagiarized this list:
# California Education Code §§ 66400 – 66405
# Colorado § 23-4-101 – 106
# Connecticut § 53-392a – e
# Florida § 877.17
# Illinois ch. 110, § 5/0.01 – 5/1
# Maine 17-A § 705
# Massachusetts ch. 271, § 50
# Nevada 207.320
# New Jersey 18A:2-3
# New York Education Law § 213-b
# North Carolina § 14-118.2
# Pennsylvania title 18, § 7324
# Virginia § 18.2-505
# Washington 28B.10.580 – 584
(probably not a copyright violation: uncreative list of facts, arranged alphabetically)
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He didn't write the article
So can we please stop with the "he might have written it" line of comments.
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I seem to see a pattern...
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Imagine that whenever these guys have to discuss an idea or a law that is gonna represent the whole country, they are sleeping (the worst part is that you can see that on TV... creepy).
I guess we are always be more known for the corrupt politicians than for the nice things we have in here...
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By the way, how do I know this? Well . . . I moved here from Buenos Aires. Why? Because of all the rampant corruption! Funny I smell the same kind of corruption coming to this once great nation. :-(
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If lying was against the law almost every politician should be in jail. I suppose the law doesn't apply to politicians.
"and not a law about plagiarism. "
The section that was plagiarized from wikipedia was about plagiarism and so at least that part of the law had to do with plagiarism, or else why plagiarize a wiki article about plagiarism.
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about that bribery thing....
and oh yeah, the guy who plagiarized the plagiarism Wiki article is either amazingly cocky or amazingly clueless.
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My own guess is that this politician's political enemies managed to plant a mole among his staffers. That mole planted the Wikipedia text in the plagiarism bill and he, like most politicians, rubber stamped it. Now the political hay-making can begin!
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The presence of textual materials in electronic format has made plagiarism easier than ever. Copying and pasting paragraphs or even entire text can now be accomplished with a few mouse clicks.
Plagiarism may be a violation of copyright law and patent law and as such may lead to legal liability. The most commonly plagiarism is expressed in the publication under the name of another product or another's ideas, as well as fragments of foreign borrowing works without specifying the source of borrowing. Sign of plagiarism is the assignment of authorship, as improper use, publication, copying a work protected by copyright, by itself, is not plagiarism, and other kind of violation of copyright law called "piracy." "Piracy" is plagiarized misuse of the results of intellectual work and assigning authorship publishing entity.
When a man stands in front of creative task can never be absolutely certain that he will not copy-paste in some place other people's information, passing it off as his own. Copy-paste is much easier than creative work, so the temptation to cheat is great. This becomes a key issue for business and education.
AntiPlagiarism - software designed to effectively detect and thereby prevent plagiarism. It is a versatile tool to deal with World Wide Web copy-pasting information from the assignment of authorship.
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