Comments on: Attributor Signs Up Reuters

By: PlagiarismToday » Attributor Launches Content Monitoring Service

PlagiarismToday » Attributor Launches Content Monitoring Service — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 17:15:23 +0000

[...] useful, please consider subscribing to my RSS feed. Thank you for visiting!Web startup Attributor, previously covered here, has announced the launch of their content monitoring and analysis platform and is openly accepting [...]

By: JB

JB — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 06:46:40 +0000

What Attributor can do is provide a steep deterrent and reduce the people who dare to try. In this modern climate, anyone who plagiarizes, especially regularly, should expect to get caught.

By: JB

JB — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 01:46:40 +0000

Geetha: Unfortunately, I doubt that Attributor, or any system, will outright prevent plagiarism. There have been effective anti-plagiarism tools available to the academic and the literary arena for some time. Those tools do a phenomenal job detecting verbatim plagiarism but have not done much to prevent students or writers from engaging in it. What Attributor can do is provide a steep deterrent and reduce the people who dare to try. In this modern climate, anyone who plagiarizes, especially regularly, should expect to get caught.

By: Geetha K C

Geetha K C — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 13:10:49 +0000

I too hope Attributor can effectively prevent plagiarism. By the way, I’m a lecturer in Physics. Of course the principles of Science remain the same everywhere and whoever writes them there cannot be much change. Only thing is that they can be presented in different ways. Depending on the author’s talent, some approaches may be more striking and simple and more understandable to the students. But I have come across text books in which the contents are the “photostat copy” of another text book which deals with the same subject.The author never mentions anywhere in the book that the matter of this book has been adapted from the other book. This is an example of academic plagiarism.

By: Geetha K C

Geetha K C — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 08:10:49 +0000

I too hope Attributor can effectively prevent plagiarism. By the way, I'm a lecturer in Physics. Of course the principles of Science remain the same everywhere and whoever writes them there cannot be much change. Only thing is that they can be presented in different ways. Depending on the author's talent, some approaches may be more striking and simple and more understandable to the students. But I have come across text books in which the contents are the "photostat copy" of another text book which deals with the same subject.The author never mentions anywhere in the book that the matter of this book has been adapted from the other book. This is an example of academic plagiarism.

By: JB

JB — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 13:30:57 +0000

Geetha: Let’s hope that Attributor can do just that.

By: JB

JB — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 08:30:57 +0000

Geetha: Let's hope that Attributor can do just that.

By: Geetha K C

Geetha K C — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 21:06:59 +0000

Sure Attributor is doing a great service. Plagiarism is not merely the act of copying and pasting of another’s writing. It includes the theft of “ideas” also. This indeed can be very de-moralising to the original conceiver of the “ideas”. It should be prevented in every way possible.

By: Geetha K C

Geetha K C — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 16:06:59 +0000

Sure Attributor is doing a great service. Plagiarism is not merely the act of copying and pasting of another's writing. It includes the theft of "ideas" also. This indeed can be very de-moralising to the original conceiver of the "ideas". It should be prevented in every way possible.

By: JB

JB — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 14:57:10 +0000

Ramanath: I think there’s always going to be a human element in detecting plagiarism. Someone at some point has to actually read the work to see if it is a plagiarism or not. The best systems will work to minimize and simplify that work.

Reena: While I personally agree with what you said, I also have to say that it is up to the individual authors to decide how they want their content used. I feel that a more liberal system benefits both me and the world, but others feel differently and that is their right. I think an application like this should be there for everyone, including those such as myself more interested in plagiarism and others who want to enforce broader rights.

Pramath: Agreed, however, plagiarism of ideas is not enforceable under the law. An idea can not be copyrighted, only the expression of it. Ergo, a system used to detect plagiarism of ideas would only have a very limited use.

Alet: It definitely seems to be raising the bar a bit. I hope it goes well.

Chrisat: Hopefully Attributor can be a big part of the solution, absolutely agreed.

NTG: I have to say that I am unsure about the impact TII has had on academic plagiarism. I wonder if it has simply shifted the plagiarism from copy and paste to a more paraphrase plagiarism or, worse yet, to a custom paper mill kind of plagiarism.

In that regard though, the situation of bloggers is very different from that of professors and a service like Attributor might make a real difference. Here’s hoping that the execution is as good as the idea!