Happy Friday, A woman on Medium is being audited for plagiarism as I write this. She didn’t mean to plagiarize. If anyone read the articles that qualify as plagiarism, they wouldn’t think she was plagiarizing, either. Turns out she has several health conditions and writes about them. Quite a lot, apparently, because she has 1600 posts to edit in 24 hours. She was grabbing chunks of text from WebMD and other legitimate health sites to make sure she’s not getting the context wrong by paraphrasing. Yes, she was citing the source in every case.
Sep 30, 2022·edited Sep 30, 2022Liked by Linda Caroll
Hey Linda,
Good piece.😊
Focusing on plagiarism in general, overall I think writers do need to be more aware of their rights and what's happening with their content. That's a given - it goes with being a writer and wanting to earn $$ with your craft.
But I think Medium has a much greater responsibility for what's happening then they are willing to assume. Writers stealing copy and publishing it on Substack or Vocal is out of their "jurisdiction." Fair enough. But writers stealing copy and publishing it on Medium - that in my opinion is their responsibility as well. Creating a secure platform where their customers can engage.
Even the landlord in your example would be held accountable for keeping all entrances to the building locked and secure at a minimum.
I think Medium has been making the tough decisions - with a dwindling staff - on what issues to enforce. This may be a factor too.
Thanks, Joe. I think the volume is probably greater than anyone realizes and the different types of plagiarism adds layers of complexity. Between robots hitting the server and people using copy/paste to grab parts of someone else's post, and then other writers cobbling articles from Wikipedia and other sites -- it's a constant game of whack a mole. And on top of it all, when writers don't even know what IS plagiarism and write posts getting their readers worked up, it's a mess to deal with.
As to the person who quoted your Substack newletter on Medium (and I hope it wasn’t me), I can see where they wouldn’t realize it’s a problem since you not only write but have publications on Medium. Many of us are a bit in the dark about how everything works.
lol, it was not you, for sure. It does irk me that the writer grabs my content and puts it in stuff that goes in the partner program. Basically getting paid for my writing, but hey, there's a link to my profile so it's cited. Sigh.
You have brought up quite the loaded topic. I like your message. Writers need to be better educated about plagiarism - but realistically, can most of us spare the time and money to pursue legal action? Sure, we could send a note - and maybe that is at least a step towards education in some cases. However, when writers have copied entire articles, they know what they are doing and don’t care. They are stealing. Medium should handle such cases swiftly and firmly.
I agree with Joe’s point about even landlords need to take some responsibility. What if we compared Medium with an employer, which in some ways is reasonable? If the employer knows they have created an environment that makes it easy for employees to steal personal possessions, they shouldn’t expect every victim to pursue their own legal case. Yes - that’s maybe part of the way the law works, but shouldn’t they also be responsible for creating a safe environment? Maybe that means education, enhanced security, or a change in procedures - even just a checklist with clearly spelled out, easy to understand bullet points about plagiarism that writers must agree with before we hit submit.
Not sure of the answer, but it seems like there should be some responsibility on both sides.
I also saw the story from the woman you mention. I think it’s really harsh to only give her 24 hours, considering she was clearly making a good faith effort not to plagiarize. Medium says to provide citations and she did. Cleary there are some problems that need to be more effectively addressed.
I think the biggest problem is lack of staff to handle different instances of plagiarism in different ways. In a perfect world, she would be given more time to correct the mistake she made. Problem is, the process is automated, it seems. Medium uses software to flag plagiarism. Then the form letter goes out. So everyone gets the same letter, whether it was accidental or intentional. I can't image how much staff it would take to review every bit of plagiarism they find.
Good point. Another reason for Medium to try to do some serious problem-solving. Although, guess they have had bigger issues to resolve. Hope this is one of the things on the "eventually" list.
There is so much plagiarized content on Medium, and on the internet imho.
If someone reports plagiarism, they should be required to give the ID of both the plagiarist and the original writer if they're on Medium. That way, Medium could notify both the plagiarist and the content author. I know that's only one circumstance but it's one that occurs frequently.
It was useless. That's part of the point -- he sincerely believed it was up to Medium to "deal with" the plagiarists. He thinks they should be booted off the platform entirely. That's the greater problem, that writers don't understand themselves. I went back into my history to find it, but holy hell it's a mess in there and the post was not recent enough to refind easily.
Not telling the 40 people before hand was a bad move. When I make a decision this important, I ask myself "Am I depriving someone of future employment?" There is one writer whose been doing this on Medium for two years. I looked at their bio and decided they need this income and pressed the 'mute the author' button.
Hey Linda,
Good piece.😊
Focusing on plagiarism in general, overall I think writers do need to be more aware of their rights and what's happening with their content. That's a given - it goes with being a writer and wanting to earn $$ with your craft.
But I think Medium has a much greater responsibility for what's happening then they are willing to assume. Writers stealing copy and publishing it on Substack or Vocal is out of their "jurisdiction." Fair enough. But writers stealing copy and publishing it on Medium - that in my opinion is their responsibility as well. Creating a secure platform where their customers can engage.
Even the landlord in your example would be held accountable for keeping all entrances to the building locked and secure at a minimum.
I think Medium has been making the tough decisions - with a dwindling staff - on what issues to enforce. This may be a factor too.
Cheers.
Thanks, Joe. I think the volume is probably greater than anyone realizes and the different types of plagiarism adds layers of complexity. Between robots hitting the server and people using copy/paste to grab parts of someone else's post, and then other writers cobbling articles from Wikipedia and other sites -- it's a constant game of whack a mole. And on top of it all, when writers don't even know what IS plagiarism and write posts getting their readers worked up, it's a mess to deal with.
As to the person who quoted your Substack newletter on Medium (and I hope it wasn’t me), I can see where they wouldn’t realize it’s a problem since you not only write but have publications on Medium. Many of us are a bit in the dark about how everything works.
lol, it was not you, for sure. It does irk me that the writer grabs my content and puts it in stuff that goes in the partner program. Basically getting paid for my writing, but hey, there's a link to my profile so it's cited. Sigh.
You have brought up quite the loaded topic. I like your message. Writers need to be better educated about plagiarism - but realistically, can most of us spare the time and money to pursue legal action? Sure, we could send a note - and maybe that is at least a step towards education in some cases. However, when writers have copied entire articles, they know what they are doing and don’t care. They are stealing. Medium should handle such cases swiftly and firmly.
I agree with Joe’s point about even landlords need to take some responsibility. What if we compared Medium with an employer, which in some ways is reasonable? If the employer knows they have created an environment that makes it easy for employees to steal personal possessions, they shouldn’t expect every victim to pursue their own legal case. Yes - that’s maybe part of the way the law works, but shouldn’t they also be responsible for creating a safe environment? Maybe that means education, enhanced security, or a change in procedures - even just a checklist with clearly spelled out, easy to understand bullet points about plagiarism that writers must agree with before we hit submit.
Not sure of the answer, but it seems like there should be some responsibility on both sides.
I also saw the story from the woman you mention. I think it’s really harsh to only give her 24 hours, considering she was clearly making a good faith effort not to plagiarize. Medium says to provide citations and she did. Cleary there are some problems that need to be more effectively addressed.
I think the biggest problem is lack of staff to handle different instances of plagiarism in different ways. In a perfect world, she would be given more time to correct the mistake she made. Problem is, the process is automated, it seems. Medium uses software to flag plagiarism. Then the form letter goes out. So everyone gets the same letter, whether it was accidental or intentional. I can't image how much staff it would take to review every bit of plagiarism they find.
Good point. Another reason for Medium to try to do some serious problem-solving. Although, guess they have had bigger issues to resolve. Hope this is one of the things on the "eventually" list.
I learned a lot about plagiarism from your story, Linda. And I liked your landlord analogy!
Thanks, Jerry.
Great analysis of Medium's plagiarism approach. From whom did you steal all those insights? (Just kidding.)
I so wanted to paste in the form letter they send, but that would have been plagiarism, so I didn't.
David, don't even joke about it. The accusation of cheating and plagiarism is a curse that sticks to the accused. Never to the accuser.
Right? Thanks, Margie.
Sorry, I did not mean to offend.
There is so much plagiarized content on Medium, and on the internet imho.
If someone reports plagiarism, they should be required to give the ID of both the plagiarist and the original writer if they're on Medium. That way, Medium could notify both the plagiarist and the content author. I know that's only one circumstance but it's one that occurs frequently.
You could point that out to them and ask that they revise the plagiarism content and give us a percentage tool. 😜
Interesting piece. Fascinating discussion/comments
I’m not offended. My dad had a political career and jokes are seized on to discredit people. Anything can be made public.
It was useless. That's part of the point -- he sincerely believed it was up to Medium to "deal with" the plagiarists. He thinks they should be booted off the platform entirely. That's the greater problem, that writers don't understand themselves. I went back into my history to find it, but holy hell it's a mess in there and the post was not recent enough to refind easily.
Not telling the 40 people before hand was a bad move. When I make a decision this important, I ask myself "Am I depriving someone of future employment?" There is one writer whose been doing this on Medium for two years. I looked at their bio and decided they need this income and pressed the 'mute the author' button.
I muted the person who takes my content, too. I don't want to see it anymore because if mine isn't properly sourced, I doubt anyone else is either.