Stealing Intellectual Property Isn't Nice

An earlier post today, "Worst High School Analogies, plus Gilbert and Sullivan," introduced me to a good parody of a Gilbert and Sullivan song.

It also introduced me to another example of Internet users' fast-and-loose treatment of intellectual property rights. The lyrics of "I am the very model of a Newsgroup personality" are funny, and for the most part well-written. They've also been spread across cyberspace, sometimes without an author being claimed. "Tom Holt" may have written the piece, but I wouldn't bet the farm on it.

"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,"(1) but I wouldn't want to be flattered this way. It's not just pride of authorship, although that's a factor. I'm trying to support my family, partly through income generated by my writing. Writers, particularly those who are so 'inartistic' as to desire monetary rewards for their efforts, may not want their work to be distributed without

• Consent
• Acknowledgment of authorship
• Pay

For professional writers, and writers trying to make a career of using their talent and skill, this sort of casual theft can be a serious matter.

A Google search for "I am the very model of a Newsgroup personality" yielded over a thousand hits. Google's de-duping system pared it down to 22. Here are the links that were still working, and had lyrics at the linked page.

• http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=997390
• http://www.luxumbradei.com/parody/newsgroup.html
  (Tom Holt credited)
• http://sillysoft.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=9749&view=next
  (this post acknowledges that the words were "found online.")
• http://www.talkaboutagriculture.com/group/uk.business.agriculture/messages/151534.htm
  (poster acknowledges source! "Newsgroup Ditty - original poster (Australian newsgroup) unknown")
• http://groups.google.com/group/rec.travel.asia/browse_thread/thread/90d69feaaf5f2fa6
• http://sniff.numachi.com/pages/tiNEWSGRP.html
  (another "Tom Holt" credit)
• http://sniff.numachi.com/pages/tiNERDSONG.html
  (without "Tom Holt" credit)
• http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/forums/lofiversion/index.php?t75374.html
  (the poster acknowledges, "This appeared on usenet many, many years ago.")
• http://world.std.com/~mhuben/gsonline
  (Kudos! The poster is open, and curious: "This turned up in my e-mail. If anyone knows of the original source or a site that really hosts this ditty, I'd like to find out. M. Huben")
• http://p70-144.acedsl.com/xywrite/2000/msg01131.htm
  ("Subject: 'Roadkill' Gibson sings Gilbert and Sullivan")
• http://www.talkaboutculture.com/group/soc.culture.thai/messages/506150.html
• http://www.c4vct.com/kym/humor/rns.htm

I ran the last entry, "c4vct," past the free version of Copyscape. The results were interesting: 10 hits, with a promise of more with the paid version of the service.

Related posts on Apathetic Lemming of the North:

• Stealing Intellectual Property Isn't Nice
  (August 29, 2007)
• Mis-Matched and Unattributed: Double Whammy for These Blog Posts
  (August 26, 2007)
• Intellectual Property Rights: A Borderline Post?
  (August 22, 2007)
• Intellectual Property Violation: What to Do
  (August 15, 2007)
• Intellectual Property Violation: This Time With Laughs
  (August 10, 2007)
• Copyright Material Ripped Off? You're not alone.
  (August 9, 2007)
• Plagiarism-Finder Site: Copyscape
  (August 9, 2007)
• Another Abuse of Copyright: If This Isn't Illegal, it Should Be!
  (August 9, 2007)
• Copyright: a List You Shouldn't Myth
  (August 8, 2007)
• Copy, Steal, Rob, Whatever: Another Violation of Intellectual Property Rights
  (August 3, 2007)
• Copyright Infringement, YouTube, and Video Sharing
  (July 28, 2007)
• Sploggers: Intellectual Property Thieves
  (July 28, 2007)

(1) Charles Caleb Colton, "Lacon," volume I, no. 183