[thelist] plagiarism and content

[Bob Meetin]

along the lines of plagiarism - how do you manage it?  i'm sure that 
many of you have run into this scenario.

i'm doing a site for a body shop - we brainstormed ideas of what pages 
will make up the site.  the business owners then did some market 
research with competitors' sites across the country.  they found a 
number of checklists that match what they want (already had decided on), 
just plain practical stuff - do's and don'ts - what to do if you get 
into an accident, etc.  they look pretty similar to what my insurance 
company gave me to place in my glovebox. 

i can change the wording, add a local-specific item or two (or drop), 
but fact is, the list is what it is.  this is what you do if you get 
into an accident. it's impossible to track down the original or 
practical content like this.  if you were to do a google search on "how 
do i set up a newsfeed?" you'll come up with over 1000 similar 
step-by-step recipes.

so the related questions are

1) does this constitute plagiarism?
2) is it ethical?
3) as a designer/developer, how do you manage common type content?

-bob