Letter to a plagiarizer

Dear Mr ______

I was dismayed to see that a blog post I had written – 10 Great Ways to use Audacity with your Students – had been reproduced on your website verbatim. What makes it worse, is that you have made it seem as if my content was your own:

I am sure you can appreciate that as the author of Tip of the Iceberg, I spend a lot of time and energy creating blog posts which I feel will be useful for the readers of my blog. To have my post effectively  stolen, is extremely frustrating, particularly when your website stands to gain from the content of the material posted (I see Google advertisements at the end of the plagiarized post).

It makes me wonder how many other posts you have on your website that were actually written by other authors. A quick Google search of your ‘recent posts’ leads me to draw my own conclusions…

As an educator, I spend a great deal of time helping my students to understand that they cannot just copy other people’s work and pass it off as their own. Even students as young as 7 and 8 can understand this concept, and are able to attribute the work they source appropriately.

I am a great believer in Creative Commons, and have no problem with other people referring to my blog posts or quoting from them, provided they are referenced correctly. However as you made no attempt to seek my permission, or reference me as the author of the post, I request that you remove it from your site immediately.

I suggest you take the time to familiarize yourself with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (1998) to ensure issues such as this do not plague you in the future.

Sincerely,

Keri-Lee Beasley.

UPDATE 23rd July 2010:

I have since received  a very genuine email from the gentleman in question, who apologised sincerely, and has now credited me as author of the post on his website. I appreciate my correspondence with him, and hope that this serves as a learning experience for all of us.

Most issues such as these can be resolved relatively easily.

I would also like to thank members of my PLN for their support in this matter. A better bunch I could not find!

Letter to a plagiarizer

Dear Mr ______

I was dismayed to see that a blog post I had written – 10 Great Ways to use Audacity with your Students – had been reproduced on your website verbatim. What makes it worse, is that you have made it seem as if my content was your own:

I am sure you can appreciate that as the author of Tip of the Iceberg, I spend a lot of time and energy creating blog posts which I feel will be useful for the readers of my blog. To have my post effectively  stolen, is extremely frustrating, particularly when your website stands to gain from the content of the material posted (I see Google advertisements at the end of the plagiarized post).

It makes me wonder how many other posts you have on your website that were actually written by other authors. A quick Google search of your ‘recent posts’ leads me to draw my own conclusions…

As an educator, I spend a great deal of time helping my students to understand that they cannot just copy other people’s work and pass it off as their own. Even students as young as 7 and 8 can understand this concept, and are able to attribute the work they source appropriately.

I am a great believer in Creative Commons, and have no problem with other people referring to my blog posts or quoting from them, provided they are referenced correctly. However as you made no attempt to seek my permission, or reference me as the author of the post, I request that you remove it from your site immediately.

I suggest you take the time to familiarize yourself with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (1998) to ensure issues such as this do not plague you in the future.

Sincerely,

Keri-Lee Beasley.

UPDATE 23rd July 2010:

I have since received  a very genuine email from the gentleman in question, who apologised sincerely, and has now credited me as author of the post on his website. I appreciate my correspondence with him, and hope that this serves as a learning experience for all of us.

Most issues such as these can be resolved relatively easily.

I would also like to thank members of my PLN for their support in this matter. A better bunch I could not find!