… Or is it simply a copyright infringement.
Recently, an up and coming socially active, very hard working surgeon who is in the midst of building his media empire ran into a small issue.
A fellow surgeon appeared on Twitter and started a rudimentary WordPress blog (he needs a new developer :-)).
The new surgeon copied the up and comer’s twitter profile word for word… but also copied a post from his website word for word without any kind of attribution.
I don’t think that it is necessary to call out the players in question.
The offender publicly apologized on Twitter… changed his profile and took the post down.
The issue is … and here comes the grey hairs talking :-)
Some want to unleash the pitbulls and proceed with punitive actions … while I see this far more as a learning opportunity.
I love seeing new docs become Public Thinkers or contribute meaningful information to the Googlesphere… but sometimes they run astray. Poor offline preparation, poor coaching, or mal-intent from the get go… I’m not sure.
What steps would you take if your content was copied without attribution and the offender corrected it promptly?
I would hope that using it as a teaching moment would suffice — but would love to hear what the community thinks.
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Given that the neophyte took the post down and publicly apologized, justice was served and learning occurred. Legal action is required when people persist in bad behavior. To pursue this further would be to dabble in revenge, which is also bad behavior. It also takes a lot of energy which I’d rather spend on my patients and my Social Media development.
Thanks Kathy… I happen to agree… we have so many more pressing issues to address and many more productive quests to pursue :-)
thanks again
Howard Luks
I agree with Kathy. It’s irritating but since they took things down, it’s not worth your brain cycles. At most, I might have fun with it sending the perpetrator a message that you are going to report him to be fined by some official sounding, made-up organization. Let him/her waste some time trying to find that organization.
How about this one ;-)
Jury of
Executives
Reporting
Kleptomania
I think you did the right thing. Agree that there are more important ways to spend your time rather than pursuing this farther. It does trouble me though that people think this okay to do. I assume that Med School teaches people about plagiarism? Amazing that people still do this in the age of the internets. Cutting corners to get your name out there would make me wonder where else they are doing this! Not someone I would want taking care of me.
Gosh.
Welcome to my world Howard…
Our stuff (eorthopod.com) is used thousands of times a day all over the world without so much as a thought about the copyright issues. I gave up long ago worrying too much about it with the exception of egregious violations where folks are repurposing our intellectual property for financial gain.
Randale
Howard,
Both this person’s actions and yours speak volumes about your characters. Since the content came down quickly followed by an apology, I say let it go. There is and will always be only one HowardLuksMD:-)
Thanks Craig! Anxiously awaiting the unveil of your site and your wife’s too :-)
Howard
This is new and uncharted territory for many physicians. The virtual world has the potential to be very unforgiving. We are all human. We all make mistakes. As you have noted, there is great value in having a coach and a team of trusted advisors in any endeavor.
Howard,
When someone “lifts” ink and doesn’t give any kind of attribution I call that stealing.
While it’s commendable the offending surgeon publicly apologized on Twitter and took other actions I remain concerned. As a patient if I knew my Physician/Surgeon had made such a gross error in judgment I would immediately find another Physician
The Trust between a Patient and their Physician is sacred.
Walt Disney apparently said in response to someone’s worries about other company’s stealing his ideas, “I can create faster than they can steal”.
Fortunately, Howard, most of the deep and true influence in life and business requires real evidence of real performance and a real body of work – which you have, which any poser will never have.
These two concepts help mitigate the offense of being copied.
As does the idea of NOT enriching another attorney…
Noel