I believe bestselling author Mark Dawson is a serial plagiarist • Hacker News Board

Re: I believe bestselling author Mark Dawson is a serial plagiarist

#191

Post by ColinWright » Tue, Jan 23, 2024, 2:49 PM UTC

smeej wrote: post #189

ColinWright wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your observation about the root of the word might be accurate, but (in my personal view unfortunately) is not relevant. "Plagiarism" is now used to describe previously published (and in some cases unpublished!) work that is being "recycled", regardless of author, without explicitly noting it to be such. I'm not defending the usage, I'm simply explaining how the term is now used. Language mutates, origins are lost, an…

This is why I'm asking whose definition it is. Whose idea was it to start using this term, which had a useful and important definition for generations, to refer to something else now, and then act as though everyone should just know this? I'd assume it would have had to be somebody pretty important, for their fiat to have such weight. I'd like to know who it was.

I'm sure you can use on-line search tools to find where and when the term first appeared on the internet. My suspicion is that the phenomenon was being discussed informally between people who assess students' work, someone used the term "plagiarism", someone will have pointed out that it was "plagiarising" the student's own work, so the prefix was added, and stuck.

It's a concept that needs a name, and when a name turns up it often spreads quickly with no obvious source.

Re: I believe bestselling author Mark Dawson is a serial plagiarist

#192

Post by shmeeed » Tue, Jan 23, 2024, 3:53 PM UTC

smeej wrote: post #188

shmeeed wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The avoidance of self-plagiarism isn't some kind of honour code for all aspects of life - it only applies to the specific case of a paper to submit for academic credit. The examples you describe have nothing to do with that, of course. >As many as it meets the requirements for. What I'm trying to tell you is that it normally won't meet the requirements a second time. It's usually part of the university's examination…

Scientific deception? It was a philosophy paper (in my original post). There weren't any scientific claims. I just made a statement in one paper that I had previously made about the same topic in a different paper. If I had taken two classes that both requested an essay on the symbolism of Plato's cave, I'd be stoked I already had one at the ready. Wouldn't even occur to me that there was some problem with it. But ev…

Thank you for the clarification. I suppose that explains it - as an engineer, I was naturally thinking of a pretty different kind of paper. I guess the same standards don't make sense for every field.

Re: I believe bestselling author Mark Dawson is a serial plagiarist

#193

Post by burnished » Wed, Jan 24, 2024, 11:43 PM UTC

dash2 wrote: post #118

burnished wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know that definition of plagiarism exists in schools (how broadly I couldn't say) but it's completely incoherent and unused in any other context.

The underlying concept is using other people's ideas as your own. It's coherent and there's good reason for using it in academia, and probably also in journalism and creative writing.

The piece that is incoherent is the self plagiarism. If it were just the reasonable bit you mention then there'd be no point in calling it out :)

Re: I believe bestselling author Mark Dawson is a serial plagiarist

#194

Post by burnished » Fri, Jan 26, 2024, 6:16 PM UTC

LudwigNagasena wrote: post #98

tyingq wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no automatic connection from immoral to illegal. I can think of lots of intentional deception that secures unfair gain that is not illegal.

I was under the impression that fraud is fraud regardless of whether it is illegal or simply immoral. (Not a native speaker.) https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fraud > 1. (law) The crime of stealing or otherwise illegally obtaining money by use of deception tactics. > 2. Any act of deception carried out for the purpose of unfair, undeserved or unlawful gain. > ...

Sure, I think the matter of contention here is whether buying your own book is deceptive (as a mandatory element of fraud). So if the body publishing those figures of sales hasn't reached an agreement with you that you'll refrain from that behavior then I don't see a way for it to be deceptive and so not fraudulent.

Re: I believe bestselling author Mark Dawson is a serial plagiarist

#195

Post by rerdavies » Wed, Jan 31, 2024, 5:32 PM UTC

stemlord wrote: post #104

rerdavies wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Never copy code off stack overflow!

Why not? What if the answer is linked to via comment?

Why not? Because, under the terms of use of StackOverflow, all posted code is licensed under a CC BY SA license.

You could, I suppose, add a CC BY SA acknowledgement to both StackOverflow, and the person who posted the code for every snippet of code you copy from StackOverflow in license notifications in your own project. You must acknowledge both. But you know you won't.

Instead, you will rely on the goodwill of every corporate overlord who will ever own StackOverflow, or inherit its copyright assignments for one Mickey Mouse copyright lifetime. Which seems unwise given that the current corporate overlords don't seem to be trustworthy. And seems particularly unwise now that the Millennial internet is passing away.

There was some discussion about allowing authors to post code under a dual-use license when StackoverFlow first converted their terms of use to require CC BY SA licensing. But whenever I add dual-use license notifications to my StackOverflow posts, StackOverflow moderators keep editing it out without my permission!

If the answer links to code on another site, then that code isn't covered by the StackOverflow terms of use.