Thursday Things
March 27, 2008 By: almostgotit Category: Nicole Johnson, Uncategorized, books, feminism, plagiarism, writing* The “Invisible Woman* essay was, indeed, written by Nicole Johnson, is fully subject to copyright, and her publicist tells me they were “deeply sad” when it “went global” without Nicole’s name on it.
* The Mommy Monk is one of several blogs which posted Nicole’s “Invisible Woman” piece without her name on it. That blog’s tagline is “MommyMonk: A woman attempting to find inner solitude in the daily self-denial of motherhood.” However, the blog’s author also claims to be a speaker/writer/teacher in addition to being a wife/mother. Not really the MOST solitary or anonymous person, then..
* Julie, who was very kind to comment here a couple of days ago, also posted Nicole’s piece without attribution. She claims this is not plagiarism as she doesn’t claim to have written it herself. Nevertheless, she also cites it as the central premise of her “Building Cathedrals” series of telecourses , for which she charges $20 per hour ($80 for the series). Which she markets under her own name. Nor does Julie seem quite so sanguine about folks resyndicating her own material: at the bottom of each page of her website it says © 2008 Julie L. Ford, All rights reserved
* It took me about 20 minutes to find the author of “Invisible Woman,” and 24 hours to contact and hear back from the author’s publicist. And I was just writing a post, not setting up a business. I’m just saying.
* My history-professor-husband tells me that we do, in fact, know many of the names of the artists, architects and builders who worked on medieval cathedrals. I am not done with this topic yet!
But I can talk about other things, too…
* I went out to lunch today. Why do waiters ask if you want “lettuce and tomato” but never if you want “tomato and lettuce?”
* It’s very funny to accidentally fall in step behind a man heading towards an adult bookstore. I did that today on my way home, and he kept turning around to look at me, nervously, almost as if *he* were the woman and *I* was a large, threatening man. When I realized where he was going, though, it all made sense. I should have followed him right into the store to see what he would do. Some day I’m going to do that, have been wanting to ever since that place opened a few blocks from my house. I think I’ll get all dressed up like a nice church lady, with a cardigan and hand bag, wander in as if by mistake, and start poking around, asking all sorts of questions, like “what is THIS is for?”
March 27th, 2008 at 10:42 pm
LOL – the “What’s this for?!” routine would be hilarious!
As to plagiarism, I just plagiarized a whole post coincidentally…
March 27th, 2008 at 11:29 pm
I received that essay via e-mail last September and wanted to post an excerpt from it on my blog, but I don’t like to post things like that without a source. Thanks to Google, Nicole Johnson wasn’t all that hard to find. I wasn’t quite as thorough in my research as you were, though; I didn’t contact her publisher, but I did link to her website.
These days, it seems to me that plagiarism is both easier to catch and to prevent.
March 28th, 2008 at 9:23 am
What a fascinating example of plagiarism on the Web … Plagiarism is, in a literal sense, claiming to have written something written by someone else. Profiting from unattributed work, though, is another category, probably a legal offense with another name, especially without a good faith attempt to trace the original author. I’ll be interested to hear what Johnson’s publisher has to say to Julie Ford.
I have never read a posting on your blog that didn’t make me think seriously about an idea or problem. Thanks.
March 28th, 2008 at 10:41 am
Thanks so much for these wonderful comments! Paul has strengthened my resolve to do the church-lady routine and I guess all I’d need in addition is a co-conspirator with a hidden camera.(And, Paul: I’m not at all sure you get to call this post plagiarism …)
Hi, Florinda! Thanks for visiting! Giving an author proper attribution and linking to her website does seem to be the currently-cceptable etiquette for non-profit blogs these days (I’ve done it myself), and Nicole’s publicist acknowledged herself that blogging has some different rules. I don’t think the exact perimeters (for blogging) have been legally established yet but “Fair Use” is a legally assertable concept, if also a fuzzy one, according to the U.S Copyright office…
Your comments are always welcome, Rocky, and I like your hard-nosed ones just as much as I like warming ones like these. Thank you! The legal definition of plagiarism does seem to include using a source without attribution, though… as well as profiting from derivative works. I think “fraud” might be the prosecutable offense.
March 28th, 2008 at 8:36 pm
Yes, do the church lady routine and TELL US ALL ABOUT IT!
(Photos also would be nice…..)
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Photos could be problematic: just think of all those shocking things made of pink latex. Would have to change the rating on my blog, and I’ve already included the words “Bitch” “God damn it” and “Asshole” just in the last week…
August 11th, 2008 at 9:49 am
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