Re: [OT] debianhelp.co.uk steals my words?

[Paul E Condon <pecondon@mesanetworks.net>]

On Wed, Jan 25, 2006 at 04:20:13AM -0500, Chinook wrote:
> David R. Litwin wrote:
> >In a bid to help a fellow Debian user, I wanted to link to a thread I 
> >had been involved in (concerning internet connexions). I googled some 
> >words in it and found the post in the Debian mailing list archives, 
> >which is normal.
> >
> >I also found a tiny piece of it at this site:
> >
> >http://www.debianhelp.co.uk/commonproblems1.htm
> >
> >Search for
> >
> >it was creating two connections: PPP0 (the right
> >
> >to find some of the post.
> >
> >I would normally have no problem with this EXCEPT:
> >
> >1: It makes no mention of my name. Sorry to say but what ever I write 
> >is mine and I expect to be credited (I am a would-be amateur-author).
> >
> >2: The page has exactly one and a half sentences of my post (plus what 
> >they call the "answer"). Indeed, it cuts off that half sentence at a 
> >comma (comma splice any one?) and is subsequently out of context 
> >(unless you call the sentence and a half context).
> >
> >3: This was done not only with out my consent but indeed with out my 
> >knowledge.
> >
> >I'm writing this because I wish to know the thoughts of other Debian 
> >Users and because I wish to know if any one else is familiar with this 
> >site or has also been put upon it (possibly with out their knowledge.) 
> >I shall also try to send a copy of this E-Mail to the author of the 
> >site. Maybe I'm taking this too far, but I feel rather strongly about 
> >plagiarism and the like. Lastly, I wish to apologies to those among 
> >you feel that this is not the right forum in which to bring up such a 
> >case; I have put an off topic sing before the subject heading in the 
> >hopes of warding off any anger.
> >
> >I thank you for your time and am eager to hear your thoughts.
> >
> >-- 
> >???A watched bread-crumb never boils.
> >???My hover-craft is full of eels.
> >???[...]and that's the he and the she of it.
> 
> The "honorable" thing for them to do would, of course, be to at least 
                            ^^^^
> ask.  The world being what it is you're lucky they didn't steal your 
> identity :-)   A noted game author (in the early Macromedia Director 
> Lingo days) found his games on other sites, some not even copying them 
> but patching into his site.  The cost of prosecuting was so high his 
> only recourse was theft detection crash code that was a lot of extra work.
> 

I've looked at the site. It appears to me that, in this case, the infamous
'they' is one individual. He appears to be abstracting from the debian-user
archive questions and answers that he deems valuable. Without having bothered
to check, I speculate that *all* the words are copied from debian-user and
none of the original authors have been credited. This is impolite, but far
less of an offence than some of the flame wars that I've seen on the web.

I suggest that OP use the web interface to send debianhelp maintainer
a comment on his lack of attribution for *all* his content. Maybe he
is so clueless that he is unaware of how his actions annoy many
people. The site maintainer reads debian-user. (That's how he gets his
material.) Maybe he will read this thread.

...
 
-- 
Paul E Condon           
pecondon@mesanetworks.net