Forum Moderators: not2easy
Let's say that someone goes to the shop and purchases 4 self help books and reads them all, then takes the best parts from each book and puts that info into his/her own words...
Could he/she sell that new information?
My opinion on this is that in most industries the books and ebooks are just the same info being recycled, and in theory we all get our info from other sources, even gurus.
Your thoughts?
If they *rewrite* the good parts by just changing some things around, then it is most likely infringement.
So let's say that the book says that doing A & B will help your focus, could you take those principles and re-write them completely?
"Discovery consists of looking at the same thing as everyone else and thinking something different." Albert Szent-Gyorgyi.
Syzygy
Unfortunately, yes, this is the way a lot of technical computer books are written today, particularly when they are rushed-out for the release of some new product or product release. Too many "Foo Bible" books are nothing but rehashes of the software publishers manuals.
My opinion on this is that in most industries the books and ebooks are just the same info being recycled, and in theory we all get our info from other sources, even gurus.
This is a common practice nowadays. Why am I not surprised to read about that.
I had a copyright attorney tell me that the only thing that a copyright protects is the actual words in a certain order not the ideas they represent.
The WWW is going through a phase where pretenders to knowledge and experience are popping up like mushrooms, hoping to garner some quick coin before the world catches on. My best guess is that the same mechanisms that might allow someone to spread the word of their elixir will also serve to spread the word that the elixir is a sham.
Save your time. Write about something from your own life and life experience. Chances are it will stand a better chance of success.
[edited by: Webwork at 6:47 pm (utc) on May 27, 2007]
If the writer isn't an expert in the topic... they aren't likely to produce anything of compelling value.
This, to me, would rather quickly present itself as the voice of a pretender to knowledge and experience.
My opinion on this is that in most industries the books and ebooks are just the same info being recycled, and in theory we all get our info from other sources, even gurus.
If they take the information (facts) from those books, then writes a book using that information, it is probably not copyright infringement. In other words, take some notes, then write something based on your notes.
Oh dear.
Plagiarism is "not referencing your sources and (thus) pretending that someone else's ideas are your own". It doesn't matter how many or how few sources you used. If you don't reference them, you're a plagiarist.
Now, if you write that the French Revolution began in 1789, that Einstein is responsible for formulating the General Theory of Relativity or that the sun is ninety-three million miles from the Earth, then you're okay: these are established facts. Nobody is going to think that you are claiming you discovered these facts while the rest of the world waited on the edge of their seats.
If you borrow thoughts, ideas, techniques, opinions, commentaries, conclusions, strategies, designs, observations, research, criticisms, evaluations, judgements, anecdotes or examples (or anything else in that vein) then please, if only out of common decency, reference your sources and give credit where it is due.
takes the best parts from each book and puts that info into his/her own words
This is an ethically dubious plan, but that doesn't really matter, because such a plan would almost certainly fail, especially in an already saturated market such as self-help.
Without compelling content, you're selling swampland.
Don't become, in the beautiful words of Webwork,
the voice of a pretender to knowledge and experience.
My opinion on this is that in most industries the books and ebooks are just the same info being recycled, and in theory we all get our info from other sources, even gurus
While it is noble for some to take what they believe is the high road and that if you can't come up with entirely brand new ideas and concepts that the world has never seen or heard of before you should not even try and write or develop new stuff. That is a bit unrealistic.
While I certainly would never say copy someone else's material or take one of their original ideas and claim it as your own there is nothing wrong with repeating things others have heard with your own spin on them. There are many out there both in academia and out that will tell you that people often read other author's book or listening to them speak at a seminar not to hear a never before discovered idea, BUT to be re-assured that material they have read before or heard before is valid. They get this validation by listening to someone else repeat it or write about it.
In addition, taking others ideas and writings and re-arranging those ideas into new combinations and uses plus adding your own life experiences and wisdom and writing or presenting this information to others also creates and adds value for others. There have been many times I have taken ideas and thoughts from 3 or 4 different people and put them together into new combinations and information. I have never ever copied their work, but have used it to build new bridges to new ideas and thoughts. This is called advancement not plagiarism.
It would be a wonderful world indeed if everyone could only create perfectly original ideas that nobody has ever seen and constantly unleash them on mankind for our benefit, but that is not reality. I just think it is unfair to say that if someone improves or creates new uses for an already established idea that they have not "created" anything and are simply recycling old material.
Fortune Hunter
there is nothing wrong with repeating things others have heard with your own spin on them.
It would be a wonderful world indeed if everyone could only create perfectly original ideas that nobody has ever seen
Yes, as you say, totally unrealistic. Nobody ever advocates doing this. Just give credit where credit is due.
That way you can claim full credit for your spin.
If nobody knows what's yours and what's someone else's then for all anyone knows you might have rehashed the lot of it and the spin isn't yours either.
I have taken ideas and thoughts from 3 or 4 different people and put them together into new combinations and information. I have never ever copied their work
You didn't copy their work if you wrote:
Person A said this.
Person B said this.
Person C had a different angle on Person A's method.
Here's my spin on how to put the same twist on Person B's method.
But if you didn't give credit where it was due, then, yes, you copied.
Moving words and phrases around, doesn't mean you haven't copied. We're not in 2nd grade now.
Person A said this.
Person B said this.
Person C had a different angle on Person A's method.
Here's my spin on how to put the same twist on Person B's method.
With the world awash in plagiarized content how pray tell would you know if person A is really the person that developed the idea? What if they simply took it from someone else? Might get a bit difficult tracking down the original owner of said content.
Moving words and phrases around, doesn't mean you haven't copied. We're not in 2nd grade now.
Not sure that even warrants a response since anyone with a reading level higher than the 2nd grade could see that was not what I was saying at all.
With the world awash in plagiarized content how pray tell would you know if person A is really the person that developed the idea? What if they simply took it from someone else?
With the world awash in plagiarized content how pray tell would you know if person A is really the person that developed the idea? What if they simply took it from someone else? Might get a bit difficult tracking down the original owner of said content.
I just think it is unfair to say that if someone improves or creates new uses for an already established idea that they have not "created" anything and are simply recycling old material.
From Isaac Newton: "If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants," and there's nothing wrong with acknowledging it.
[edited by: Beagle at 9:50 pm (utc) on June 5, 2007]
