My Thoughts

The trouble with some plagiarizers is they do not even understand that what they did was wrong. To them, it is their right to post other people's work as their own.

Even though we give these plagiarizers a lot of face by attempting to settle the matter discreetly, some like Jacob inevitably insist on doing it the hard way. Luckily, even a hard nut like Jacob will most likely cave in. Persistence certainly pays. Heh...

But eventually, I think we will encounter a few who will refuse to remove their plagiarized material. It has happened in the past and considering the cases we are seeing now, it's certainly a possibility we will encounter some in the future.

In addition, the discreet approach we have been taking so far is really taking up quite a lot of my time. I find myself wasting time arguing with these people, even when they evidently ripped tracts from the guide and call it their work. Research on BIOS options takes a lot of time and effort. I would rather spend my time doing that, than argue with plagiarizers.

So, please help us find a better solution to this problem!

How You Can Help Us

Many of you have written in to me to let me know about the many plagiarized copies of the BIOS Optimization Guide (and other articles as well). I really appreciate the help you have all given me. Many thanks to all of you!

The leads given to us have been of great help. So, if you read an article, guide or review that looks suspiciously like it was taken from our site, please do let us know!

You can also write in to the other "author" and tell him that you disapprove of his actions. Most plagiarizers are curiously proud creatures who desire positive feedback from their readers. Getting tons of admonishing e-mails will certainly chastise him into removing the plagiarized article.

I would also like your feedback regarding plagiarism. Do you think plagiarizers should be handled discreetly (like what we have been doing so far)? Or do you think we should create a special Plagiarizers section with regular updates on sites that have plagiarized our articles? Do you have any opinions or ideas on ways to combat plagiarism? Please let us know in this forum thread!

If you are an editor or webmaster of another hardware site, perhaps we should coordinate our efforts in detecting plagiarism. For example, if I discover a plagiarizer, perhaps it would serve the fraternity best by e-mailing the other websites about it. Of course, this would be going against the principle of providing a discreet way out for the offending site. But it is a matter worth looking into because if a person has plagiarized articles from one site, it is highly possible that he has also plagiarized other sites as well. Please feel free to e-mail me to discuss this further!

Conclusion

As far as I can see, plagiarism is a menace that we will be fighting for a long time to come. There will always be a few sites out there who will try to profit from other people's work. If we are to stop them, we will have to work together.

Remember, plagiarism is not about money, it's not about freedom of expression. It has always been and will always be about the right of the author to be acknowledged for his work!

Questions & Comments

If you have any questions or comments about this article, please feel free to post them here! We look forward to hearing from you! :)