Re: Plagiarism

> >> Why do you really want to stifle, trample, and restrict my freedom of
> >> communication all just for one five-word sentence that I copy from
> >> your 1,000-sentence article without attribution?
>
>What five-word sentence? Are you suggesting that I would prevail in a
>lawsuit over five words from a 10,000-word article? Or that I would bring
>such an action in the first place?

There actually have been such cases. In the 1950s, the author of a medical textbook sued for copyright infringement when one sentence from the book was used in an advertisement. He won. The ad was for cigarettes, and the quote was used in a way that implied that the author endorsed the cigarettes. I hope that most of us agree that was an appropriate application of copyright law.

Short of an egregious case like that, it's hard to think of situations where there would be an economic or legal basis to sue for use of one sentence. Let's lose the straw men, please.

-- 
John R. Levine, IECC, POB 727, Trumansburg NY 14886 +1 607 387 6869
johnl@iecc.com, Village Trustee and Sewer Commissioner, http://iecc.com/johnl, 
Member, Provisional board, Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail