h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Perhaps you should include something on respecting other people's intellectual property and copyright in your guidelines.

I have just seen an entry - "Ska - The History of Ska" that is a direct copy from a book - The History of Ska by Brian Rosenthal.

I think the intellectual property point is made here http://www.h2g2.com/dontpanic.cgi?name=terms & in the registration email sent when people register - though maybe it would bear repeating on this page as well.

;^)#

Bruce

As hardly anybody bothers to read terms and conditions, it would seem best to stress the point in this entry.

(=:

From Distant Shores

Hi Distant Shores,

Thanks for pointing out the entry, we really appreciate it

Just in case anyone reading this has missed the terms and conditions regarding plagiarism, here they are - 'You agree not to use the forum to transmit material that infringes the intellectual property or other rights of another'.

Good luck with your own Ska entry, I'll look forward to reading it!

Anna

Anna

Incidentally, I noticed that the terms and conditions was listed amongst the 5 most neglected entries over the weekend.

(-:

From Distant Shores

Very true

;^)#

Hmmm.... I do wonder who'll get the blame when some plagiarised stuff slips through the net into the approved guide....

Well, if we do come across entries which appear to have been copied from somewhere else, we remove them immediately. After investigating the matter thoroughly, of course.

MyRedDice

It will all depend on the roll of the dice - I thought you knew ?

(-:

From Distant Shores

Well, *I* knew, obviously - but I've grown rather fond of people's attempts to rationalise their random responses to random events... Besides, I do love the somersaults people turn when they deal with legal matters online.

Is it a long entry? There's something called fair usage, and if the extract is less than a certain percentage of the complete work, then I think it does not necessarily count as plagiarism. Fair usage law is really really confusing, but for text I believe it amounts to 10% or 1,000 words of text, whichever is less. ~Wayne

Wayne

I believe that the entry was close to, if not exaclty, 100 per cent copied from the original source. I didn't sit down and read it line by line. However, the first paragraph was identical, as was the last, the bit in the middle seemed very familiar.

Anyway, I appreciate the clarification of the issue. I now feel more confident that my own entries are covered by fair usage.

From Distant Shores

Of course, fair usage isn't a definition recognised by all Copyright laws in all countries

;^)#