This came up in his blog, but it seemed to me at the time like things had been worked out, and it wasn't that big of a deal. Now wired has an article about the agonist plagiarizing many of his battle updates from a pay newsletter put out by Stratfor. Wired says:Some of the information was attributed to news outlets and other sources, but much of it was unsourced, particularly the almost real-time combat information presumably gleaned from a string of high-level sources worldwide....
The only problem: Much of his material was plagiarized -- lifted word-for-word from a paid news service put out by Austin, Texas, commercial intelligence company Stratfor. I never had the sense that he had a "string of high-level sources worldwide" but I guess that doesn't absolve him. Still, I think he provided a valuable (if slightly illegal) service. He distilled the news at a time when this was very difficult to do. Obviously he couldn't source the Stratfor stuff, because it was a paid service.
I guess you could object that he shouldn't have used the Stratfor stuff at all. Fair enough. I'm just saying that a lot of people wanted to know what was going on, and he provided that information. I put his wrong doing in the same camp as running a gnutella client. In other words: wrong, but it's not going to stop me from using such a fine service.
pretty good ad for stratfor. i know some ceo's who subscribe... i think a lot of mercenary types use it...fun for kids!
following the gnutella analogy, copying and pasting the headlines of the stratfor articles seems closer to downloading the titles of songs without taking the actual songs. this hardly justifies the hyperbolic (and libellous) accusations of plagiarism.
i have to ask myself what can be the motivation behind what now appears to be an active smear campaign by mainstream media outlets against the agonist.
i guess they have glimpsed the future and it isn't them.
The internet community will now be the writers of our history.
as i told mr forbes - his era is through - no monopoly of information will be tolerated on the internet.
P-}
Well, apparently it was more than headlines. Whole passages were copied verbatim with no attribution.
But I agree with your point that there is probably some fear in the old media establishment that the internet is going to upset the balance a bit. Just how much is still being worked out.
Minus the spam this was a very interesting post to re-read. Four years on, the "active smear campaign by mainstream media outlets" continues!
|
I guess you could object that he shouldn't have used the Stratfor stuff at all. Fair enough. I'm just saying that a lot of people wanted to know what was going on, and he provided that information. I put his wrong doing in the same camp as running a gnutella client. In other words: wrong, but it's not going to stop me from using such a fine service.
- jim 4-08-2003 8:27 pm
pretty good ad for stratfor. i know some ceo's who subscribe... i think a lot of mercenary types use it...fun for kids!
- big jimmy 4-08-2003 10:07 pm
following the gnutella analogy, copying and pasting the headlines of the stratfor articles seems closer to downloading the titles of songs without taking the actual songs. this hardly justifies the hyperbolic (and libellous) accusations of plagiarism.
i have to ask myself what can be the motivation behind what now appears to be an active smear campaign by mainstream media outlets against the agonist.
i guess they have glimpsed the future and it isn't them.
The internet community will now be the writers of our history.
as i told mr forbes - his era is through - no monopoly of information will be tolerated on the internet.
P-}
- not quite apt (guest) 4-11-2003 4:12 am
Well, apparently it was more than headlines. Whole passages were copied verbatim with no attribution.
But I agree with your point that there is probably some fear in the old media establishment that the internet is going to upset the balance a bit. Just how much is still being worked out.
- jim 4-11-2003 8:18 pm
Minus the spam this was a very interesting post to re-read. Four years on, the "active smear campaign by mainstream media outlets" continues!
- tom moody 3-26-2007 10:15 pm