Tuesday, August 05, 2014

Any Right Wing Hissy Fit Must Get Attention

Shame on the New York Times for it's "oh who can tell what the truth is" coverage of the fake Rick Perlstein "plagiarism" scandal.

This doesn't even rise to the level of semi-semi-plausible accusation, but plagiarism is one of those subjects which makes people stupid. Plagiarism is not the same as copyright violation (something can be both, but they're different concepts). Citation standards vary across mediums, disciplines, and contexts. Slightly sloppy paraphrasing with a citation should generally be seen as...slightly sloppy paraphrasing with a citation, unless, perhaps, it's pattern. Facts cannot be copyrighted. One should, as a custom, cite sources of facts unless they're common knowledge but what is "common knowledge" is defined by custom and the whole concept is... custom.

Anyway, make the cult of Ray-Gun cry. Buy Rick's book!