A Deeper Understanding of SOPA Intent: A Usecase of Plagiarism

I fell for it.

Like a ton of bricks, I bought immediately into the propaganda being screamed at me from every major player in the Internet industry.  The ones whom stand to have the most to lose if a bill like SOPA or OPEN are passed into law.  I didn’t do my homework, I didn’t research the intent of the bill, and I didn't research what the plans were to enforce the bill.  I just started blaring STOP SOPA across my twitter page, liked every anti-SOPA post, and plus one’d everyone who moaned about the death of the Internet as we know it.

Luckily, my wake up call came in the form of David Newhoff who said, "If SOPA and PIPA are defeated not because of legal merit but because of a desire to throw off the shackles of a media oligopoly, we will only have donned the shackles of the tech oligopoly who scared us into doing their political bidding." Anti-piracy battle reveals dysfunctional thinking - The Hill's Congress Blog

I would add to David's comments and say not only their political bidding, but ultimately their financial bidding.  Based on my experience as a publisher, it is crucial to create original, trustworthy content.  From an author's perspective, it is important that your work is protected.  The success of my current company, Rock the Deadline, depends on the fact that original content is valued and respected.  At the end of this blog post, I will describe the roots of this very real fear.

During my SOPA research, I ran across an excellent article from E.D. Kain, "If You Thought SOPA Was Bad Just Wait Until You Meet ACTA".  I decided on the fly to use this as an example of how plagiarism works.   I took a phrase directly from the article and typed it into Google with double-quotes.  So any website who copied that exact phrase came up in the search results.

I looked at each post and determined whether or not they:
1) Gave source credit to E.D. Kain and Forbes.
2) Even if citing E.D. Kain as the source, made it obvious that it was his and not theirs.
3) Backlinked appropriately to the Forbes website and article.
4) Used a reasonable number of words for an excerpt.  Not more than 125 words.

Out of 9 articles on the first page of Google (not including the original),  4 of them were/would be considered plagiarism.   That's 44%.  The sources of these cases included:

• Facebook
• Tumblr
• Wordpress

In the case of Tumbler, the plagiarism went wild.  Over 60 instances just on that one platform.   Although they have a mechanism to indicate the original source of the post, it's so easy for other Tumblrs to reblog without those same considerations.  Hence making Tumblr a powerful plagiarism amplification platform.

The $800 million valuation according to the Wall Street Journal, is based on the fact that they are a social media platform.  In essence claiming minimal responsibility for what their users do in the name of social media.  Is that really what social media has become?  Code for "It's okay to look the other way when our users plagiarize because social media is good."  Is that fair to build a billion dollar company off the backs of works stolen from original content creators?

As a publisher, we were accountable for monitoring plagiarism.  We paid 5 cents to check every article with Copyscape before it was published.  Shouldn't social media publishing platforms like Facebook, Tumblr, Wordpress.com and others also be accountable for this monitoring and expense?  With the kinds of valuations these companies have, they should be.  They should not be exempt from the same rules other publishers play by just because they have been blessed with the moniker of Social Media.

Technology solutions are also poised to bring scale to plagiarism.  This is another source of major concern.  There are technologies out there allowing brand publishers to aggregate original content on the web and basically pass it off as their own.  Making it easier and easier to steal content, while they benefit financially from selling their technology.

Another type of technology lets you build an article on the fly by putting original content about a particular theme at your fingertips.  You don't even have to open a new browser to find articles to rewrite and make your own.  It's all compiled for you easily while you are "writing" your article.  Now you don't even have to work as hard to steal other people's work!

The fact is, we were taken advantage of by the major players on the Internet.  Under the guise of the injustice of censorship and the death of the Internet, they hid their real intention.  That of not spending any of their own dollars to be responsible for their behavior and the actions of their users.  We need to address plagiarism at this level.  Social media platforms and technology providers are not exempt from the expense of accountability.  This shouldn't fall on the ISP's, Google, or the original author to bear the cost of enforcement.

I don't think SOPA, PIPA, and ACTA are going to fix the root cause in their current states, and I don't believe a new Federal law is the best way to address the issue of widespread plagiarism. The money and effort spent on a lobbying war between old media and new media could be much better spent on creating awareness that we are all participants, we can change our behaviors, and we can use technology to preserve ownership rights and to enforce the laws in already in place.

#Apple seems to have figured this out in the music industry.

We all have a stake in getting this right. I know that I need to understand the issues better and to keep an open mind.  So should you.