This week, two well-known bloggers found themselves caught up in separate “he said/she said” squabbles about plagiarism. Jason Calacanis and Chris Brogan – two highly respected bloggers and thought leaders – each wrestled with a case of who-wrote-what-first?
Round 1: DEMO vs. TechCrunch
This one has all the melodrama of a presidential campaign. But first, some history…
The TechCrunch50 conference was started by prominent bloggers Michael Arrington and Jason Calacanis as an alternative to Chris Shipley’s DEMO, an event where companies can unveil new tech products and ideas. TechCrunch has argued that DEMO, which charges companies to participate, is essentially a payola scheme.
Needless to say, there’s no love lost between these two.
Enter Deb McAlister-Holland, a no-name claiming to be affiliated with DEMO who accused Calacanis of ripping off something she wrote for DEMO. She writes:
This “advice” on demos is almost a verbatim lift from a piece I wrote over 10 years ago for David Coursey, who was Chris Shipley’s predecessor as host of the DEMO Conference.
And the response from TechCrunch co-founder Michael Arrington:
These are serious, lawyer-involving allegations and DEMO needs to back up these claims immediately. For his part, Jason says he never heard of the article they referred to. His article is written in a very conversational style that is trademark Calacanis.
For its part, DEMO distanced itself from Ms. McAlister-Holland’s remarks. In fact, the accuser seems to have vanished altogether, and the original document she alleges Calacanis copies doesn’t seem to exist.
Thank you, Ms. McAlister-Holland. Your 15 minutes are now over.
Round 2: Chris Brogan vs. Some Dude
Another respected blogger was on the other end of the “Dude, you stole that from ME!” spectrum. Chris Brogan was tipped off to another no-name who rattled off some marketing tips that were lifted from Brogan’s own work.
This one has a happy-ish ending, though. Turns out this was a case of failure to attribute. After Brogan and others discussed the blog post in question on Twitter, the copycat apparently realized his mistake, made a correction on his post, and apologized to Brogan.
I love happy endings.
Round 3: Business Owners vs. Wikipedia
Clients send me “suggested text” for their brochures, Web sites and other marketing materials all the time. From time to time, a plagiarism radar goes off. I can detect language copied from the Internet in an instant. I’m a word guy, remember? One quick Google check confirms my suspicions.
You might like the wording of your competitor’s Web site, but it’s not okay to steal the language. Copying and pasting from Wikipedia is even worse – do you really want your brochure to be copied from the “lowest common denominator” encyclopedia?
Lessons Learned: Plagiarism = Bad
I’m using this week’s incidents to illustrate a point, here. Plagiarism is a serious deal. It’s one sticky legal and PR mess you don’t want to be in.
Jason Calacanis and Chris Brogan are big-time players; they know the rules and they run classy operations. But not everybody who speaks the English language is trained to use it properly.
Instead of exposing your company to risk, talk to a copywriter. We’re professionals in our craft, just as you are in yours. We torque and twist words the way you wield a wrench. We know how to make you sound good. And we might just keep you out of hot water.