[Patrician]

When anyone quotes anyone else or uses anyone else's content for anything, they need to give the credit to the owner.

With or without the author's written on implied consent, you can get into serious issues of credibility - not to mention a lawsuit for copyright infringement, unless you acknowledge the author.

This includes forum posts. It has come to my attention that someone in PIPS has been going to another forum and posting direct quotes from the main forum - and not acknowledging it is not her work.

A simple 'I saw this on another forum' or even quoting the author by name would have been different.

I am sure that this person did not intend to make it seem like those were her thoughts or that she was an expert, but that was the impression it gave in the main forum.

Another way to do to this - because everyone of us including myself read something somewhere before we knew it, is some simple re-engineering - the same way you would with a duplicate content article would have made the difference.

Ideally you could just rewrite whatever it is in your own words. Remember 'book reports' in school?

Re-engineering:

synonym swap: examples:

exchange internet for online; cold for frigid; hot for warm; big for huge; small for little; bank for financial institution; money for cash; profit for success; etc.

sentence swap/add: examples

change the order of the sentences in a paragraph. add your own sentence in there in a few places; add some words to sentences; remove sentences

rewording sentences examples -
top is original, bottom is re-engineered

Word Swap

<Be sure to> include product reviews on the website <so that your visitors> will have a clear understanding of what the product can do for them. <It’s also a good idea to include testimonials from users who have already tried the product.>
----------------------------------------------------------
<You can> include product reviews on the website <that will give your visitors> a clear understanding of what the product can do for them. <Including testimonials from users who have already tried the product is a good idea>

[GT]

Hi, Patricia:

Great insight into this important and often misunderstood issue.

As you mentioned, it is easy for an inexperienced new marketer to overlook the importance of either acknowledging the source of a quote, or re-working the info in their own words.

It is easy, and so tempting, to simply copy and paste, but if a marketer wants to develop a good reputation, they need to learn and follow the rules and etiquette of repeating content they find elsewhere.

Thanks for this post.

GT

[Malcolm Tindle]

Good post Patricia and a timely reminder for anyone who is not sure where they stand. I hope the person responsible reads this and has had her conscience pricked.

Mal.