This isn’t an article that I enjoy writing up. I met Nicole Scott briefly years ago at a CTIA Expo press event. She seemed like a very nice person. Today, I’m not sure I can make the same attribution.
I awoke this morning to check our internal metrics, see who’s talking about our reports, see what comments I need to respond to. I find that NetbookNews.com cited one of our articles. At first, I was interested, and loaded up their report.
And then I got a little sick in my stomach. I found Nicole Scott’s article editorializing on why Nokia is still updating MeeGo… and found entire portions of my editorial inside of it.
It’s quite common for people to in-line quote others in their editorials, but this is plagiarism. Nicole took portions of our article and directly copied-and-pasted them as her own, such as the following:
Wireless connectivity is also a major issue in areas where the next billion are lacking devices. In many areas, due to bandwidth, lack of local loops, and other issues, SMS may be the fastest data out there. MeeGo can offer services that allow for small data bursts to be turned into an app-rich environment, and then quickly toggle over to low-power Bluetooth or Wi-Fi when faster data is available.
Other portions of the article were plagiarized by re-wording, but essentially point-by-point re-testaments of my report.
Nicole did ultimately add a “via PhoneNews (sic)” link at the bottom of her editorial. I’m sorry, but this is still plagiarism, plain and simple. Nicole used portions of my editorial as her own work, without differentiating between which parts of the editorial were her words, and which were mine.
Online journalism is a tough business. It has gotten far tougher in a social search era. Believe me, I know. This is not the first time I’ve been a victim of plagiarism, it won’t be the last either. But NetbookNews.com is an equal in the business. They tout on their about page of being cited in Time Magazine, and other big-box members of the tech media. They boast a Facebook following several times that of PhoneNews.com. These aren’t things in and of themselves that draw attention to this problem, but in their totality are emblematic of what people are doing to get their word counts up to pass muster.
I haven’t talked to Nicole before writing this up. I haven’t emailed NetbookNews.com. Quite frankly, I shouldn’t have to. If NetbookNews.com wants to make this a business, they should have standards in place that make plagiarism impossible. We always hesitate bringing onboard writers because of this, and when we do, we tell them one copied sentence without a quote will be your going away party… sans the party.
I’m sure they’ll modify the article, I’m sure they’ll apologize, but, I am writing this to talk to you the reader.
I want you, the reader, to understand that it’s tough out there right now. Search engines demand sites write longer articles, especially mid-size sites like this one (and yes, NetbookNews.com too). Those same search engine companies are paying less, catering to their big-box pressers. They’re also picking favorites and expecting favorable coverage in return. In short, sites like this one depend on you, the reader, to stay loyal. And, in these tough times, we do have to point these things out while asking that you follow us even more. In the end, the best thing I can ask is you to drop us in your feed reader (if you use one), follow us on Twitter, and like us on Facebook. And, if you’re in the Bay Area / Silicon Valley, hop on our upcoming local meetups.
And please, media, it’s PhoneNews.com not PhoneNews.
Busted!
Hey Guys!
I’m really sorry that I should have given you more credit in my article. But I think that this is not really a nice way to handle it.
I changed the article and added in block quotes.
Again. Apologies.
Wow! Talk about a way to apologize. I’ve seen people fired for less. Plagiarism is cardinal-sin territory in the journalism field.
And it looks like you made other edits to the article that made those blockquotes warranted. Something you omitted from your apology… and probably your superiors.
I Just read this article and am always reading phonenews.com and this article is not needed. this is a personal issue that should have been addressed with nicole first and if she didnt listen then MAYBE put in this article. I as a reader dont want to be reading about each others problems am here to read about Phonenews not plagiarismnews. Thank you 🙂
You guys come off looking like douchebags on this issue.
Disagree. The thieves that keep editing it over there need douching. You should read comments over there!
Like this gem from Ms. Scott herself. Note I can use quotation marks… she seems to have some disdain for them in her writing.
“Naming the source is enough! It’s a good point, he should be happy that he’s come up with something that’s worth repeating”
Uh, no, it’s not enough. She blatantly and intentionally took this site’s work and presented it as her own words. Then she edited the articles multiple times to hide it… even the people over there caught her doing it.
Yeah, that’s the person you’re saying doesn’t look like a “douchbag”. It’s points of view like that, which allow rape victims to be told that they were “asking for it”.
Wow, that is ridiculous Ms. Scott.
I agree with Osiris, kind of seems very unprofessional and childish. I think personal views like this should be handled with the parities involved and not made public in this manner.
I think Mr. Price was kind in his retort. As one who was plagiarized in 2004 for a story I wrote in 1997 I get his anger. It is worse than when someone steals your money or car. It stings on level that is a very personal violation.
Nicole Schott’s original article/s were riddled with mistakes and obvious plagiarism. Spelling errors, grammatical errors, wrong information, misspellings of Maemo, etc. Her writing is amateur, and she was utterly unapologetic until we all commented on her obvious copying. She edited her article, deleted our comments, and is trying to look like the good guy in this, while she is obviously a hack who does not understand technology at all, just skims headlines and rewords/plagiarizes other peoples’ articles. I would not be surprised if we took all of her articles and ran a Google comparo, we would find overlapping sentences/rewording of other peoples’ writing. No talent hack.
Chris I seem to recall something about you stealing an article from engadget.
Hey kettle, this is the pot, you’re black.
Jesse, I have no idea what you are talking about. I have never plagiarized any source. Either bring in some evidence, or take your baseless accusations out.
“jesse” is probably Nicole Scott.