Last week, Molly @ Buckeye Commentary published an article discussing OSU’s NFL draft history.
It was a well-researched piece, about 1300 words or so, and one that clearly took quite a bit of time and effort. She even included three paragraphs on LeCharles Bentley, for crying out loud.
So I was confused when my feed reader showed me the same article again, only this time, from Buckeye Legends, and under another byline (Katie Bernal).
When I double-checked later, the BL version had added a final paragraph:
“Portions of this article compliments of Bleacher Report.”
If by portions, they mean ‘the entire article word-for-word.’ It’s an unwritten rule of the blogosphere to credit the source, and if copying a section verbatim, to use blockquote elements (like I did in the preceding paragraph). Otherwise, it’s good form to at least use quotes and a reference link. However, you won’t find many bloggers copying and pasting someone’s entire post into their own – that’s what we call weak sauce.
I gave Molly the heads-up, and judging from her comment over at BL, it does seem that their re-publishing was not authorized.
BL is a good blog. They have great writers with good stories and inside perspective. Hopefully they’ll do the right thing and give Molly credit for the piece.
UPDATE:
Buckeye Legends has pulled the post, without explanation. It’s not on Google Cache, and I didn’t manage to grab the HTML or make a PDF of the page. But the fact they pulled the article is at least some concession – it’s a de facto admission of their role in what happened.
saw the article on the buckeye players in the NFL, and thought it was a great article.
Molly actually caught this plagiarism first. She contacted the author and had the article taken down. It is hard to believe someone would do that.