Richard, I agree with you that it is not right to do that without proper source citation. Frankly, there is so little source citation on anything that anyone finds on the internet... and I often found facts and/or sentences that were taken from work I have provided someone. I believe very few people take the time to properly source their data so they know where each and every fact came from, or every sentence they might "borrow." I just don't get as upset over it when bits of my work turn up in someone else's. I would feel differently if entire blocks or pages were lifted. One rarely sees a web site that has included sources in it. I always posted sources for each fact on my web sites. Out of curiosity as to how many people were looking at the source page, I included a counter on the page which included some 500 sources. I was surprised to see that the source page had very few hits, even though I knew many of the other pages were receiving a great many. It always struck me as strange that few folks seemed to care about copying the sources to verify the facts or any of the information they found on my pages. Since few people seem to record the sources on the data they get from the net, it makes it difficult for them to credit anyone with the information or research. As I said, it just hasn't upset me that much when a sentence or two of my work has been used by other people. Although I would have liked to have been credited, I've come to expect that as long as I'm posting anything on the internet or sharing any data with anyone at all, some of that is going to happen when so many folks aren't any more careful recording sources than many are. And it is true that facts cannot be copyrighted. Trish At 01:10 PM 2/12/2000 -0500, you wrote: At the risk of appearing pedantic, the dictionary definition of plagiarize (using The American Heritage Dictionary, 1993 Houghton Mifflin) is: 1. To use or pass off as one's own (the ideas or writings of another). 2. To appropriate for use as one's own passages or ideas from another. --intr. To plagiarize the ideas or words of another. There is nothing more destructive to research and the free exchange of information than this despicable behavior on the part of Ms. Robbin's thief. Already, Ms. Robbins has stated that she will not be posting to GenForum "for awhile" and I, for one, find that to be a sad state of affairs for everyone of us. Not meaning to flame anyone, using a "sentence or two here and there",* without proper attribution and permission is not the right thing to do and is not acceptable. Richard > -----Original Message----- > From: GenOdyssey [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Saturday, February 12, 2000 11:43 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: Infringement & plagiarism from GenForum > > > I looked at the page on the URL you posted, but am not seeing why this > would be an example of copyright infringement and plagarism. Perhaps I > missed something... or I didn't read the page the way you > intended it to be > read from the occurrences you mention? Perhaps there were whole > blocks of > text used instead of only facts or a *sentence or two here and there?