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Is plagiarism the best compliment?

They say that plagiarism is the best compliment, although I have no idea who they are.

It was brought to my attention that this book seems to have lifted more than a few answers directly from my post, not to mention that nearly all the questions are lifted from Scott Hanselman's post.

I don't know if Scott was asked about it, but I certainly wasn't. I skimmed a bit in Google books and I couldn't find any credit section.

I really don't like it.

Print | posted on Thursday, January 24, 2008 6:50 AM

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# re: Is plagiarism the best compliment? 1/24/2008 10:48 AM Frans Bouma

Oh don't lose sleep over it. You should start to worry when they don't find you a creditable source for their stuff anymore ;)

It's similar to companies using your product's brandname as an ad-word in google. As long as THEY need that brandname to promote their stuff (and not vice versa) I'm good. ;)

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# re: Is plagiarism the best compliment? 1/24/2008 11:08 AM Eamon Nerbonne

(sorry - this might be a double post but I got a weird form-expired error)

It's really nasty that he doesn't credit various people at all. Do you intend to take any follow-up actions?

There is an acknowledgements section in the beginning which is where I would have expected at least a comment about the source of a number of these questions.

Ethically, I have less trouble with the fact that he didn't ask, that with the fact that he didn't give credit. That he didn't rephrase the questions and answers begs the question is a certain compensation might be in order too - but credit should have been given in any case.

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# re: Is plagiarism the best compliment? 1/24/2008 11:25 AM Ayende Rahien

No idea about follow up actions at the moment.
I am trying to find this guy's email, to see what he has to say first.

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# re: Is plagiarism the best compliment? 1/24/2008 11:51 AM Marco

For the moment i would take is as a compliment.. But maybe you could add a donate button to your blog?? Your information and source code is worth it..

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# re: Is plagiarism the best compliment? 1/24/2008 12:01 PM Ayende Rahien

Marco,
Check the main site, it has such a section.

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# re: Is plagiarism the best compliment? 1/24/2008 12:01 PM Ayende Rahien

Oh, you already did.
Thanks.

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# re: Is plagiarism the best compliment? 1/24/2008 12:05 PM Marco

Yes, i did but i had to search for it.. maybe add the link to your blog?

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# re: Is plagiarism the best compliment? 1/24/2008 4:35 PM Justice~!

I think it's total bullshit someone completely ripped you and Hanselman to write that. If that was the case maybe you and Hanselman should've been getting credit/kudos for that book.

Although now this gives me the idea to write "All About Rhino" and just c&p liberally from here! INSTANT MONEY.

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# re: Is plagiarism the best compliment? 1/24/2008 5:47 PM Peter Ritchie

How about everyone post comments pointing out the book is mostly "lifted" content on Amazon.com?

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# re: Is plagiarism the best compliment? 1/24/2008 5:49 PM Peter Ritchie

...that is in addition to Mathew Wills comment.

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# re: Is plagiarism the best compliment? 1/24/2008 7:47 PM Scott Hanselman

Wow, this is news to me...that SUCKS.

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# re: Is plagiarism the best compliment? 1/24/2008 9:29 PM Joshua Flanagan

I like that the author didn't even put the slightest effort into making any contribution at all. All of the typos/grammatical errors (which are fine in a quick blog post, I'm not nitting) were perfectly preserved!

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# re: Is plagiarism the best compliment? 1/24/2008 11:12 PM Mendelt Siebenga

This sucks. But at least posting reviews on amazon can point some interested readers to the blogs of the original writers.
Don't forget to post reviews on other amazon sites like amazon.co.uk.

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# re: Is plagiarism the best compliment? 1/25/2008 2:45 AM rams

No its is not.

This is bad.
Ok, look out for my new book "Hibernate, NHibernate and everything about ORMs". I'll just colect everything Ayende has written on the subject and get it published.

Agree with Peter. Lets all post comments on Amazon.

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# re: Is plagiarism the best compliment? 1/25/2008 10:27 AM Bunter

I'd say sue the author. Hehe, or you could actually publish your own book. I'm sure your DSL book will be great but Ayende.NET would be as great, I bet.

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# re: Is plagiarism the best compliment? 1/25/2008 12:29 PM anon

This is yet another example of developers that have no qualms stealing other people's content and code. It is hard to pinpoint the problem as it is the individual that chooses to plagiarize. However, it may actually be a cultural problem. Intellectual property rights are difficult to uphold when your culture is largely socialist. In this case, plagiarism is justifiable. How do you combat this?

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# re: Is plagiarism the best compliment? 1/25/2008 9:56 PM Ben Scheirman

What a freaking tool.

"I thank GOD for all his blessings - he gave me such good googling skills"

"I'd like to thank my parents, my publisher, and all my friends for enduring me during the process of writing this book. It almost took me 124 entire minutes to write."

I sincerely doubt he will ever sell any copies of that trash. He didn't add any of his own commentary, none of his own ideas.

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# re: Is plagiarism the best compliment? 1/26/2008 11:07 PM Derik Whittaker

I wonder what the publisher will think when they find out they are paying some idiot for content he did not even come up with.

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# re: Is plagiarism the best compliment? 2/8/2008 5:56 PM Dave

Why contact the publisher itself? They know the author and have the ability to take the book of the market. Otherwise sue them for unauthorized distributing copyrighted materials.

When article parts from the book are really copied, that's also copyright violation. Changes are the publisher will take actions towards the author because no publisher wants to be sued over plagiarism.

In the Netherlands you would be able to claim all profits the author has made by this book. In this case you would receive a percentage in relation with the copied parts.

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# re: Is plagiarism the best compliment? 2/14/2008 11:10 PM Tim

A firmly worded email to the publisher with the necessary evidence may be all it takes to get the book off the market and the author's name blacklisted.

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