This one is just bizarre. Romenesko points us to the news that the director of the University of Utah's Middle East Center, Dr. Bahman Baktiari, who regularly writes op-ed pieces for various newspapers, has been accused of plagiarism. His defense? He claims he had no idea he was supposed to attribute the content he copied. Plagiarism cases turn up here and there, but I think this may be the first time I've seen someone -- especially from an academic setting -- claim that they didn't even realize they were supposed to make it clear they did not write the content. And, it's not even like he picked obscure publications to copy. What brought this all to light was an op-ed he wrote for the Salt Lake City Tribune, which used at least four unattributed sources, including both the NY Times and the Economist. I guess that means if you're a student in one of his classes, you're now off the hook to copy at will without attribution...
We here at Techdirt certainly take something of an extreme position when it comes to reusing our words: we won't even stop you if you don't give us credit. But, mostly, that's because we recognize that taking credit for someone else's work is likely to backfire on you, damaging your reputation, and we believe that in the end, you'll regret it. Still, that doesn't make it enjoyable when we see someone trying to pass off our work as their own, so I can certainly understand the reaction of people who get quite upset when it happens. Still, even if you get upset, that doesn't mean you should immediately fly off the handle and threaten legal action. There are much more measured ways to approach it.
For example, Brian points us to a blog post by the folks at Common Craft, who have noticed that many mainstream media sources are using their video about how Twitter works without any credit whatsoever. The content itself is under a Creative Commons non-commercial, no-derivatives license, which it seems clear most of the media properties in question are breaking. Only one (ABC/Disney) actually seems to have followed through on the licensing terms.
But still, what's impressive is that Common Craft still takes a very low key approach to it, first noting that perhaps the media's use is "fair use," and then saying:
I'm not writing to make a big hairy deal about the use of the video. The truth is, we're not sure what's appropriate or what to expect
And then asks the community what they think and how they should respond... while also naming the offending parties (NPR, CNN, CBS and KOMO News in Seattle). No matter what you think of the situation, or what Common Craft should do, I think it's fantastic to see yet another case of someone taking a much more measured and reasonable approach to such things, rather than immediately going into "threat" or "cease-and-desist" mode. Personally, I think that the approach they've taken makes the most sense: simply make your community and your fans aware of the situation, and then watch as they help police it for you -- alerting news organizations (most of whom probably didn't even realize they should have credited the video) of their mistake.
It's no secret that copyright law has fit, at best, awkwardly into the digital age. Originally designed to make creators more profitable, as the cost of creation has fallen, the government granted monopoly seems more and more outdated. When ideas are abundant, limiting them seems silly. Now, the EFF's Danny O'Brien points out that what might actually matter most to content creators is not limiting copies, but attaining proper attribution -- even though that was not the intended purpose of copyright law.
Because copying used to be expensive, it was reasonable to assume that someone making a copy was going to sell it. Copyright law was aimed at that action to funnel money back to the original creators. It had the side effect of limiting plagiarism by making it more costly, but it was never copyright's goal to mandate proper attribution. Now, however, copying isn't anything extraordinary; in fact, it is the very nature of digital technologies. With the decrease in the price of copies, the cost associated with plagiarism has plummeted, too. O'Brien tells the story of a DJ friend who is more than happy to have her works widely distributed through copies online, but when she learned that another DJ was passing her creation off as his own, she became upset. Shirking copyright law for publicity's sake was fine, but when the historical side-effect of proper attribution also disappeared, she was more worried. Although plagiarism isn't always as troublesome as many assume, as attribution becomes untangled from copyright, the two ideas will be increasingly approached differently by creators.
