Isn't that a form of plagiarism?

techMonster · #1 (**permalink**) 01-03-2008, 01:57 PM

I have one question:

Normally, whenever I write any article or blog post, if I have taken a particular information from some third party, then I make sure that I've given credit to the original author by citing the sources. Ideally, this is how it should be isn't it?

But most of the time, when I read blog posts or magazine articles or newspaper articles, I feel like the information has been taken from third party but no reference has been mentioned. I'm sure most of you must have made similar observations.

My questions is, why don't they cite their sources? Isn't that a form of plagiarism?

West · #2 (**permalink**) 01-03-2008, 02:20 PM

I have seen articles reused on other websites without the author listed. But the articles on websites such as articlecity.com and ezinearticles are free, and you are allowed to reuse the content on your own site. But, when you think about, the original author will usually get credit for their writing because if you reuse info on the web, the search engine will recognize that as duplicate content, and your site will not get as much attention from the SE's when compared to the site with the original content.

techMonster · #3 (**permalink**) 01-03-2008, 02:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by West

I have seen articles reused on other websites without the author listed. But the articles on websites such as articlecity.com and ezinearticles are free, and you are allowed to reuse the content on your own site.

Here, I'm not referring to free articles which are to be published as-is. I'm referring to articles which are written by taking some information from other sources which are not cited.

lisa · #4 (**permalink**) 01-03-2008, 04:18 PM

I think as long as you put the content in your own words and it's significantly re-worded then there's no need to cite the source. Now of course if people are taking excerpts and full paragraphs from other articles then by right, yes, you should always cite the source. But if you have an article with a lot of the same info as someone else's yet it's re-worded most people never cite. Not saying it's right, but they generally don't.

TechieGuy · #5 (**permalink**) 01-03-2008, 07:28 PM

Just to expand on the ezinearticles thought. You are allowed to use any content published there, but you must post the article as is, including the resource box information about the author at the bottom, without any edits.

I have an article on ezinearticles that has been published on several sites. Some of the sites have modified the article by changing some of the keywords. This caused the article to make no sense whatsoever, and at the end of it they still had my name and blog.

techMonster · #6 (**permalink**) 01-03-2008, 10:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lisa

I think as long as you put the content in your own words and it's significantly re-worded then there's no need to cite the source. Now of course if people are taking excerpts and full paragraphs from other articles then by right, yes, you should always cite the source. But if you have an article with a lot of the same info as someone else's yet it's re-worded most people never cite. Not saying it's right, but they generally don't.

Hmmm!!! Rewording may take care of copyright violation. But plagiarism and copyright violation is different isn't it? If that's the case, copyscape won't take care of such violations or will it? What I mean is, if somebody takes my thoughts or research and changes it totally by rewording it, will copyscape detect it?

If just rewording is enough, then people can even reword an article obtained from article directories like ezinearticles.com and make it their own isn't it? In that case, what is the difference between PLR articles and articles from article directories?

lisa · #7 (**permalink**) 01-03-2008, 11:29 PM

If someone takes your thoughts and rewords it Copyscape will have a harder time detecting it. It was my understanding they look for patterns of the same words and sentences. Right?

The difference in ezinearticles and PLR is that with ezinearticles you must copy the content "as is" and cite the source. With PLR you have rights to make any changes and not cite the source. You are given the license to do as you wish with the provided articles.

In essence, using PLR is no different than someone taking a random article from someone's site and re-wording. The second method doesn't cost you a dime but it's unethical. At least with PLR you are given the rights to change it as much or as little as you need to.

Also there's a fine line here too. It's one thing to take an article and paraphrase every sentence versus taking an IDEA from an article, expanding it and developing a totally different article from someone's basic ideas. I don't think there's anything wrong with the latter.

Either way I just prefer to right my own stuff. That way I know I'll stay out trouble and it's ethical.

Did I answer the question? I feel like I'm typing a lot but not saying anything. I think I'm sleepy. LOL

techMonster · #8 (**permalink**) 01-04-2008, 02:21 AM

Quote:

Also there's a fine line here too. It's one thing to take an article and paraphrase every sentence versus taking an IDEA from an article, expanding it and developing a totally different article from someone's basic ideas. I don't think there's anything wrong with the latter.

That exactly answers my question. Even I write from my own experience. But sometimes, if I take information from third-party source, then I make sure I cite them properly. The question came to my mind when I read some articles where I thought that the some information stated in the article was taken from some other source.

These days, lots of article generation tools are available. Also, I've heard that sometimes, ghostwriters just rewrites some of their previous articles. One such case was the plagiarism case on Yahoo. I think, these facts could be the main reason why I saw such articles.

I would like to thank everybody here for taking time and answering my questions. Is it ok if I turn this thread into an article and post it on my blog?

lisa · #9 (**permalink**) 01-04-2008, 11:01 AM

Don't think you should take it word for word due to the duplicate content penalty, but you're free to summarize what's been discussed and use that info in your article.

Rob · #10 (**permalink**) 01-04-2008, 01:42 PM

I don't agree in using others peoples work full stop, i think its completely different if you are reading a book or someone resource and then summing up completing in your own words the general taste of the article. But apart from that you will not get any credits from the search engines, and people may question your content. But its up to you i feel alot cleaner when using my own work

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