Monday, May 07, 2007

Searched out... but why?

So, I admit that every now and then I look at the search terms that drive people here. Stop laughing! I can define "now and then" however I'd like, thank you very much. Mostly I do this for amusement and education. But there's ego gratification, too, as I get a lot of folks searching for specific poems of mine along with my name. However, this weekend got me something different entirely:

Someone entered a complete poem of mine in Google. Not my itty, bitty Pluto one, either. Nope, this was a longer one, and they entered the whole text. So the question is... why?

My first reaction is cynical -- it was a teacher who had a student turn this poem in as their own and decided "Hmmm. This has rather sophisticated wordplay. I wonder...." Does anyone else share this idea? Teacher-readers o' mine... does this happen?

Now, it's also possible someone had copied the poem and couldn't remember where they'd gotten it and wanted to see from whence such witty or putrid verse came. Or they wanted to give me fair attribution in a report/paper/email. Or... well, I'm open to other reasons.

Anyone got any? Curious, indeed, at least to me....

7 comments:

Kelly said...

I'm guessing a teacher. I am guessing your poem was turned in as an assignment somewhere. I google phrases from student papers all the time :)

Anonymous said...

Kelly, do you ever catch anybody?

Anonymous said...

As said before in our private emails:
Watch out for your intellectual property.
Especially online.

Get a fee for that usage.

My book art and words were plagerized by my very published long term colleague. With NO remorse from said colleague when I let her know her she was nabbed.

Not everyone in this biz is nice. When one steals, they are stale. Period.

Remaining anon, but you know who I am.

Greg Pincus said...

Thanks, Kelly. That's my guess, too. And yes, anon, I do worry some about intellectual property, but when I post my poetry online, I accept that risk. I also have a time and date stamp as well as hundreds of readers who'll vouch for me about a poem AND I don't worry too much about one poem being used by someone else in a way that ruins its value to me.

It is true that folks steal, but I would still bet that this was a kid passing off work as his/her own. Bad... but not for my work.

Anonymous said...

You are lucky that it was just an alleged student.

My words go out to all who post original writings online. This is a subject matter that needs to be addressed in our business. It is becoming easier and more common to "lift" than to do the heavy lifting which is thinking for oneself and coming up with "original" ideas.

Been hearing about this all too often these days.
Scary.

your friend, anon

Suzanne said...

yes, absolutely it happens.

yes, I catch them too often.

Andromeda Jazmon said...

I think about this a lot too. I wonder if you will ever find out.