Ask HN: what can I do about a newspaper that plagiarized my blog?

#1

Post by idm » Wed, Mar 30, 2011, 2:02 AM UTC

Yesterday, an NYC-area newspaper lifted some original research off my website, and when I contacted them requesting attribution (i.e. a link) they responded in a pretty unprofessional way... publicly... on their newspaper...

So, the truth is, it's a silly matter of Petite Lap Giraffes. If you've been following the DirecTV viral advertisements, maybe you've seen the Russian guy with the tiny giraffe. I blogged about this last week, and it's been a ton of fun. ...but I had a really negative interaction with LongIslandPress.com today, and I wrote about that too:

http://iandennismiller.com/blog/2011/03/total-bummer-longislandpress-com-plagiarism-and-coverup/

It's so silly I hardly want to waste any time on it. At the same time, their actions were so blatant and contemptuous that I almost feel like an injustice has been committed... So my question is: what can be done about a newspaper that factually lies about something, steals your work, and is kindof mean about refusing to provide attribution?

Re: Ask HN: what can I do about a newspaper that plagiarized my blog?

#2

Post by idm » Wed, Mar 30, 2011, 2:03 AM UTC

Clickable link:

http://iandennismiller.com/blog/2011/03/total-bummer-longisl...

Re: Ask HN: what can I do about a newspaper that plagiarized my blog?

#3

Post by rmah » Wed, Mar 30, 2011, 2:14 AM UTC

Simple. Sue.

Re: Ask HN: what can I do about a newspaper that plagiarized my blog?

#4

Post by idm » Wed, Mar 30, 2011, 2:17 AM UTC

rmah wrote: post #3

Simple. Sue.

...but honestly? I mean, I'm not earning advertising money from the blog, so it's going to be hard to show any kind of damages.

Really, the only thing being broken is some sort of journalistic ethic here, and I figure there must be some kind of body that hears these kinds of complaints outside of a courtroom.

EDIT: well - okay, but what does one sue for in a case like this?

Re: Ask HN: what can I do about a newspaper that plagiarized my blog?

#5

Post by elliottcarlson » Wed, Mar 30, 2011, 2:19 AM UTC

Not sure what you can do - but I just wrote a letter to the editor.

Re: Ask HN: what can I do about a newspaper that plagiarized my blog?

#6

Post by kosmonaut » Wed, Mar 30, 2011, 2:22 AM UTC

Sure, maybe they are mean for not giving you attribution. You are right and they are wrong. But it looks like you've got your pound of flesh now. Why not just move on?

Re: Ask HN: what can I do about a newspaper that plagiarized my blog?

#7

Post by darrylhudson » Wed, Mar 30, 2011, 2:22 AM UTC

If your copyright notice is in place, then Burn'em they've got cash for... Bigtime media feels they can walk over any & everybody...so (WTF) Burn'em.

Re: Ask HN: what can I do about a newspaper that plagiarized my blog?

#8

Post by idm » Wed, Mar 30, 2011, 2:29 AM UTC

kosmonaut wrote: post #6

Sure, maybe they are mean for not giving you attribution. You are right and they are wrong. But it looks like you've got your pound of flesh now. Why not just move on?

I'll be honest: I was going to leave it like that until they posted their last update (the one at 4:23pm in my post). It actually pissed me off at that point, and I started thinking: "hey! This is a freaking newspaper! What else are they going to lie about?"

So I kindof have this grudge now, and I can even couch it in a sort of righteousness... as in, "they're destroying our trust in the whole enterprise of journalism" and whatnot.

So, I guess I don't want to move on because I want to see if there's anyone watching over this. For example: newspapers need to have their circulation audited by some third party. I'm wondering if there's an ethics group consisting of journalists who sortof watch out for things like this.

Re: Ask HN: what can I do about a newspaper that plagiarized my blog?

#9

Post by btmorex » Wed, Mar 30, 2011, 2:37 AM UTC

rmah wrote: post #3

Simple. Sue.

Sue them for what? As far as I can tell, there's no copyright violation here.

edit: worth pointing out, I think what they did was unethical, but not illegal.

Re: Ask HN: what can I do about a newspaper that plagiarized my blog?

#10

Post by idm » Wed, Mar 30, 2011, 2:46 AM UTC

btmorex wrote: post #9

rmah wrote: post #3

Simple. Sue.

Sue them for what? As far as I can tell, there's no copyright violation here. edit: worth pointing out, I think what they did was unethical, but not illegal.

That's kindof where I am... it was unethical, but I don't really know what is illegal about what they did.

However, I want to believe the courts aren't the only place where something like this gets sorted out. When someone does something unethical, there is usually some group that will hear about it. Academics are somewhat self-policing, and all sorts of ethical issues result in some form of justice being meted out. Journalists seem like they're in the same boat, but journalism isn't my domain of expertise...