Re: Plagiarism

From: Tim X <timx_at_spamto.devnul.com>
Date: 25 Jun 2003 19:32:21 +1000
Message-ID: <87d6h2h596.fsf@tiger.rapttech.com.au>

>>>>> "Nuno" == Nuno Souto <wizofoz2k_at_yahoo.com.au> writes:

 Nuno> rgaffuri_at_cox.net (Ryan Gaffuri) wrote in message  Nuno> news:<1efdad5b.0306170903.30931e7d_at_posting.google.com>...
>> was it published some where?

 Nuno> No, not at all. Internal project.

>> I use alot of code I get off the web and from past projects. I
>> make sure to take the best stuff when I leave... why wouldnt I?
>> Its easier that just doing it myself. You cant think of
>> everything.

 Nuno> No problem whatsoever, provided it is acknowledged as to its
 Nuno> origin.  Isn't that the whole FUNDAMENTAL of free software?
 Nuno> You re-use it, provided you show where you got it from?

 Nuno> I have no problem whatsoever with anyone re-using ANY of my

 Nuno> code. Provided it doesn't suddenly show up as "their initial  Nuno> code". Including my own comments...

 Nuno> Cheers Nuno Souto wizofoz2k_at_yahoo.com.au.nospam

No matter how you dress it up - claiming code is yours when it was written by someone else is dishonest and definatly plagerism, irrespective of whether its in the public domain or within your own office.

I've had this happen to me a number of times and now just take it all in my stride. The one piece of comfort I get is that I know most of the time those who indulge in this practice are usually doing so because they are not original enough or possess the knowledge to do their own real work and in the end, they won't amount to much.

The converse can sometimes happen though. I was very shocked some time back when a friend contacted me and told me that while they were working with a couple of Red Hat packages they noticed I had been credited with som eof the work in the packages. I didn't understand how - I had never contributed to any packages I knew of - I didn't even use Red Hat anymore. I visited the site and downloaded the packages my friend was talking about and sure enough, in one I was listed as one of the contributors and in the other some of the code was attributed to me.

It turns out this was from contributions I use to make to one of the RedHat mailing lists way back in version 3/4? I had never expected to be attributed for my contributions, but I have to admit, it did give me a rather warm fuzzy feeling.

Tim

-- 
Tim Cross
The e-mail address on this message is FALSE (obviously!). My real e-mail is
to a company in Australia called rapttech and my login is tcross - if you 
really need to send mail, you should be able to work it out!

Received on Wed Jun 25 2003 - 04:32:21 CDT