Re: [epub] So We're Back To Integrity!

["M. Evans" <marye@xxxxxxx>]

From: "M. Evans" <marye@mvp.net>

>At 02:52 AM 08/20/1999 -0400, you wrote:
>>From: Mydenise@aol.com
>>
>>Hi, Everyone!

>The question is, when it is more an issue of similiar concepts, etc., where 
>do you draw the line on who gets the credit?

(snip)

>We all absorb and integrate info. from many different 
>sources and maybe give it a different twist (which is  what innovation is) 
>and then pass it on as our own original ideas (which it is partly and, at
the 
>same time, isn't) 

(snip)

>To me, it is not a 
>black and white issue.

You're absolutely right, it's not a totally black and white issue.  But
neither is 'intellectual property ownership' so unclear as to make it
impossible to know when you're committing theft.

You cut and paste somebody else's writing into your publication --without
permission or attribution --you're stealing.  No question about it.

But you clip and save snippets, paragraphs, whole sections, for perusal
later as background and knowledge-base, then synthesize that stuff into an
article of your own, I don't think it's theft.

The key word is synthesize.  Here I mean learning.  (And I think you mean
that, too) Taking in all you've learned, making it a part of you, and
writing about it in your own voice.  It becomes 'stuff' that you know.  And
when you write about it, it's YOUR stuff.  Not original, except in the
presentation, but your's nonetheless.

Someone else's words expressed verbatim must ALWAYS be attributed.

I think if we recall the high-school and college Themes we had to write,
remember the criticism by the teachers "In Your Own Words," there'll be no
problem figuring out what to do with material you got from somewhere else.  

As I said before, it's an issue of integrity, plain and simple.


Mary E. Evans
<a href="mailto:webmaster@knowyourpc.com">
"mailto:webmaster@knowyourpc.com" </a>
<a href="http://talk.knowyourpc.com">
"http://talk.knowyourpc.com" </a>

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