[thelist] plagiarism and content

[Dan McCullough]

If you are copying word for word it is usually considered plagiarism,
if its a new idea or not something widely known and you copy the idea
as your own some people might consider that plagiarism.  however if
you copy or list something that is widely known or industry standard
then you are usually fine.  I still would be very careful and take the
idea of the checklist and maybe reword the points on the checklist.  I
still would be very careful and make sure the design and image
elements were different.

On 6/23/06, Bob Meetin <orpc at frii.com> wrote:
> 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
>
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