

Ask HN: what can I do about a newspaper that plagiarized my blog? - idm

Yesterday, an NYC-area newspaper lifted some original research off my website, and when I contacted them requesting attribution (i.e. a link) they responded in a pretty unprofessional way... publicly... on their newspaper...<p>So, the truth is, it's a silly matter of Petite Lap Giraffes.  If you've been following the DirecTV viral advertisements, maybe you've seen the Russian guy with the tiny giraffe.  I blogged about this last week, and it's been a ton of fun.  ...but I had a really negative interaction with LongIslandPress.com today, and I wrote about that too:<p>http://iandennismiller.com/blog/2011/03/total-bummer-longislandpress-com-plagiarism-and-coverup/<p>It's so silly I hardly want to waste any time on it.  At the same time, their actions were so blatant and contemptuous that I almost feel like an injustice has been committed...  So my question is: what can be done about a newspaper that factually lies about something, steals your work, and is kindof mean about refusing to provide attribution?
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chc
First of all, I'm going to burst your bubble a little bit: This is not
generally considered plagiarism. Plagiarism has a specific meaning both in the
law and in the field of journalism, and using facts gleaned from a source is
not exactly the same thing, whether or not you cite that source.

Newspapers rip off facts all the time. That practice has been the bread and
butter of news gathering since it became a real profession. Overhear a couple
of city councilmen talking about "the mayor's prostitute" and then clam up
when they see you? Take that fact, go find a willing source (we'll call him
Bob) to tell you what you already know, and then publish a story saying Bob
told you the mayor hired a prostitute. Where you originally heard the
information silently disappears into the ether. You feel honest because you
went through the trouble of uncovering the information — you were just helped
along by the fact that you already knew it.

However, they are still being shady dicks here, and ripping off stories
wholesale is a bit beyond the pale. You're generally expected to cite some
source for your info, and you shouldn't deliberately hide sources unless
you're protecting somebody. In this case, it is clear that they are
intentionally hiding the fact that they ripped off your blog post — the stock
photo bit pretty much cinches it (they don't know how to re-discover that bit
of information!), and that's why they removed the paragraph.

There is no overriding body to report them to. That only really makes sense in
a field where there is some authoritative group or groups — to publish a
newspaper, the only place you need to get an OK from is your pocketbook. Think
of it like a really expensive, environmentally unfriendly blog.

So what can you do? The same thing you'd do if a marginally famous blog ripped
you off without attribution — make noise. Raise a stink in their peer group.
Hopefully, some of them will enjoy beating up their competitor for lacking
ethics and appreciate the chance to tout their own superiority.

~~~
idm
No, this is exactly what I needed to hear. Thanks, chc!

------
idm
Clickable link:

[http://iandennismiller.com/blog/2011/03/total-bummer-
longisl...](http://iandennismiller.com/blog/2011/03/total-bummer-
longislandpress-com-plagiarism-and-coverup/)

------
kosmonaut
Sure, maybe they are mean for not giving you attribution. You are right and
they are wrong. But it looks like you've got your pound of flesh now. Why not
just move on?

~~~
idm
I'll be honest: I was going to leave it like that until they posted their last
update (the one at 4:23pm in my post). It actually pissed me off at that
point, and I started thinking: "hey! This is a freaking newspaper! What else
are they going to lie about?"

So I kindof have this grudge now, and I can even couch it in a sort of
righteousness... as in, "they're destroying our trust in the whole enterprise
of journalism" and whatnot.

So, I guess I don't want to move on because I want to see if there's anyone
watching over this. For example: newspapers need to have their circulation
audited by some third party. I'm wondering if there's an ethics group
consisting of journalists who sortof watch out for things like this.

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idm
Well, here's an update:

<http://slashdot.org/>

:)

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elliottcarlson
Not sure what you can do - but I just wrote a letter to the editor.

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rmah
Simple. Sue.

~~~
btmorex
Sue them for what? As far as I can tell, there's no copyright violation here.

edit: worth pointing out, I think what they did was unethical, but not
illegal.

~~~
idm
That's kindof where I am... it was unethical, but I don't really know what is
illegal about what they did.

However, I want to believe the courts aren't the only place where something
like this gets sorted out. When someone does something unethical, there is
usually some group that will hear about it. Academics are somewhat self-
policing, and all sorts of ethical issues result in some form of justice being
meted out. Journalists seem like they're in the same boat, but journalism
isn't my domain of expertise...

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darrylhudson
If your copyright notice is in place, then Burn'em they've got cash for...
Bigtime media feels they can walk over any & everybody...so (WTF) Burn'em.

