Tuesday, July 19, 2011

To Plagiarize is to Steal

While doing some background information checks on an article that I had written and published; I went to Google to research one reference that I had quoted.
To my amazement part of my published article appeared. Some of my vocabulary had been grossly altered and some of the paragraphs rearranged.
But the names of my characters were still the same, and the places visited were identical. It was about one-third of my article.
It had been added to parts of two other authors articles.
With some research, some email letters written, and some good old technology detective work the thief was tracked down.
The culprit, after the host website looked into their goings on, was found to have committed many rule violations. All of their work has been dropped from this website on a permanent basis.
There still is the threat of legal proceedings.
Check your work(s) on a regular basis. You worked hard to produce your published material. Don't let some thief who has no morals end up getting any credit at all for your genius.

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Personal Accomplishment

Today, my wife and I competed in two separate running events. We had joined a community running group and recently completed the 12 week program. My wife set a personal record in the 10K run and finished 2nd in her age group. I ran a half marathon,  set a personal record, and finished 4th in my age group.
What a great feeling to successfully finish a program and achieve the goals you had set at the beginning of the program. It was such a success we signed up for the next 12 week session!
It doesn't take much to get off the couch, meet new friends who look out for each other, and achieve personal and group goals. All communities have these types of walking and running groups. You do not have to be an elite runner. Try it-It your Life.

Friday, July 8, 2011

Stealing Someone Elses Article for Your Gain--Plagiarism

I did a search on Google .com today for information about an article that I had written earlier this year.
To my amazement someone had taken one of my articles, grossly changed some of the words, changed the progression of the paragraphs, added it to a couple of other articles from some other author and printed them as theirs.
Someone needs to look up the definition for plagiarism.
I guess copyright laws don't mean anything. If I can track down this low life they will hear my thoughts about such actions. Fuming!