Plagiarism...

[Cool Egg Sandwich]

Hello moderation staff.

A case of blatant plagiarism has recently come to my attention in the General Assembly Forums. Several weeks ago, I began drafting a replacement draft for the WA Environmental Council [recently re-titled "Environmental Information Act"]. A couple days ago, another nation named Sagatagan put forth a draft that is essentially a regurgitation of my draft, complete with nearly identical format and precise language.

In this case, the entire draft is plagiarized from my initial draft - a situation that is most unacceptable. This nation must be compelled to entirely and substantially change his/her current draft. This is complete and utter plagiarism of my intellectual property, and I will not stand for it.

Links to the drafts can be found below >>>>

Sagatagan's Draft

My Earlier Draft


The evidence speaks for itself.

EDIT: It appears the author has resolved the bulk of the issue; however, I would still take a look as it appears the basic structure and ideas are still similar.


Rgds.,

[Ardchoille]

Checking it out.

EDIT: OK, this was discussed at some length last night. We have had cases of proposals on the same subject, independently arrived at but nonetheless very similar, turning up in the approvals list. In those cases it's always been left to the WA members to decide by their endorsements which one would go to vote.

In this case there is something to decide about, too. Though the proposals are on the same subject, they're demonstrably different in a crucial respect: yours requires the complainants to agree to arbitration, his allows arbitration without agreement. And each proposal, with some adjustment, can be made legal. That was the argument for letting the proposals battle it out in the list together.

But, in the long run, Sagatagan's is based on your work, as he himself admits in the thread. If the salient phrases hadn't been removed, his would have been nuked for ... well, copying. It was clearly done without the personal malice or suggestion of cheating or concealment that plagiarism implies, but it was copied.

So: when you submit yours it will be allowed a free run, without competition from his, for delegates to decide if they want to bring it to vote and whether they support it. If Sagatagan submits his before that's done, it will be removed.

We did feel that the idea of having an international environmental oversight organisation couldn't reasonably be seen as permanently reserved for any one player. Therefore, If yours fails to gain enough endorsements, or is voted down, Sagatagan may submit his.

Not, however, in its present condition; nor should you submit yours immediately. Both proposals have legality flaws, which I'll post about in their respective threads.

GENERALISED WARNING to the pair of you: No biting, kicking, gouging or hitting below the belt. No flaming or trolling and, particularly, no gloating. We don't expect your respective RPd ambassadors to be all sweetness and light, but keep it strictly IC. Mods get to be quite good at knowing when IC is verging into OOC comments on the player himself, and when we're in any doubt, experience has taught us to assume the worst.