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Canada's Conference Board Found Plagiarizing Copyright Report
An anonymous reader writes "There is a storm
brewing in Canada as the prestigious Conference Board of Canada has
been caught
plagiarizing US copyright lobby group documents in a report on copyright
reform. The report was funded by the Canadian copyright lobby as
well as by the Ontario government. The Conference Board has acknowledged
some errors, but stands by the report, while the Ontario government admits
spending thousands of dollars and it now wants some answers."
Turnitin.com eh?
Why, plagiarism is highly illegal Cory and Trevor! You shouldn't plagiarize, Cory and Trevor!
Those quotes were stolen from our hardworking corporate lobbyists without acquiring the relevant content licenses and now it's time to exact a settlement from the Canadians.
Once again, the copyright lobbyists are eating themselves like an ouroboros lawyer. Are they going to hire Lars Ulrich to explain us why it's alright to pirate your own work when you've been so adamant about suing the pants off everyone else?
As a Canadian, my first reaction to reading this story on /. was "what is the prestigious Conference Board of Canada?" I mean, I know what the "Ontario government" is and the "US copyright lobby" and "Canadian copyright lobby" are self-explanatory terms, but I'm not familiar with the Conference Board of Canada. When I read it here, I thought maybe it was an agency of the federal government.
Anyway, I little digging turns up that the Conference Board of Canada is basically a non-profit think-tank, that is funded on a per-service basis. So private groups and governments will pay it to research a topic and publish a paper on it. It also holds conferences and does research reports on its own. According to their official website, their areas of expertise are "running conferences", "conducting, publishing, and disseminating research", "economic trends", and "public policy issues". It is affiliated, but legally separate from, the U.S./international "The Conference Board, Inc. of New York".
They state: "Objective and non-partisan. We do not lobby for specific interests."
Atheism is a religion to the same extent that not collecting stamps is a hobby.
Dear Mrs Morissette,
Please pay attention. This is ironic.
Thank you.
"...some of the cited paragraphs closely approximate the wording of a source document."
Closely approximate???!! Hell, they're word-for-word copies right down to the bullet points. They are not in quotations so they aren't really citations.
This really makes me sad because it shows an external corporate influence in Canada's affairs that would have Americans screaming if the reverse was true.
If you don't want to repeat the past, stop living in it.
You didn't expect them to actually work for their money, did you? Here's the way these things work: the government pays a lot of money to an organization for policy "consulting", so they can have a report which recommends doing what the lobbyists wanted them to do in the first place.
The report is a foregone conclusion. The $15,000 is spent to passing the blame, not on any actual work, and for a politician, it's money well spent. You can't really blame the conference board for plagiarizing their report, usually nobody bothers reading those things anyway.
It's great work if you can get it. You get to sit around, getting paid to accept blame for public policy. Except since you're just a private individual, there's no actual responsibility or consequences involved. Meanwhile, the politicians can point at you, defusing any potential scandal by claiming they're just doing as was recommended by the "experts" and if they made a mistake, well it was well intentioned and they did their best.
The requirements to bring charges in Canadian courts do not only rest with the Police and the crown. There is a process by which you can file charges and have them assessed and, potentially prosecuted without police involvement.
This isn't the normal process, and it is heavily discouraged but an incident a few years ago where an individual who was being prosecuted hard a charge of treason brought forward against a judge confirms it. The charge was not pursued as another judge overseas the process and it was without cause; but the point is that police do not have to be involved.
This is the reason why we have to have very close fact-checking standards for legal and academic publishing. It's quite possible that if someone hadn't truly caught this then someone would be quoting this material as reliable information. It's actually quite frightening when you consider how much "reliable" material is out there that truly has basis neither in fact nor reality.
I like losing arguments, it just means that I can take your point and make it my own.
That's redundant. Canadian's ARE American's. They just aren't US American's
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
The summary is incorrect in that at this time, the Ontario Government has yet to seek answers into how the funds it provided were used. The questions posed are by Michael Geist as to what the Minister responsible should be asking.
"...some of the binary files on my hard drive closely approximate the sound of a copyrighted song."
Hey, after all, MP3 is lossy ...
Michael Geist writes: Update (5:15): Brian Jackson of IT Business reports that the Minister's office acknowledges spending $15,000 on the report. It plans to follow up on the issues raised in my post.
davecb@spamcop.net
This is the kind of crap that results from a casual disregard for plagiarism in schools. It's awful here in the states, and I imagine just as bad in Canada. Copying that freshman assignment leads to copying conference reports later on in life. Any form of plagiarism is corrosive to real progress.
It's a problem when a government pays for a report from an uninterested third party, and gets a quickie rewrite of a pressure-group's screed. And a dishonest one at that.
--dave
davecb@spamcop.net
It's usually at this point that I like to remind Americans that Canada is the only country to succesfully attack the White House, and there are still scorch marks on the walls of that hallowed building to commemorate it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_of_Washington
So keep it up skippy. We're a feisty lot. Don't fall for that "Canada is a peace loving country" crap either. Hockey is our national sport.
Skot Nelson music is my saviour / i was maimed by rock and roll
Hockey is our national sport.
Actually, it's Lacrosse.
"We just realized we could produce more content by borrowing from and building on the work of others. Ow! C'mon, guys!"
True, but they felt so bad about it afterwords that they apologized a lot and finally burned down their own Parliament buildings about a hundred years later.
That's one of your national sports, and only for the past fifteen years. Before 1994 Canada's only national sport was Lacrosse, a game loosely based on an old First Nations game in which hundreds of participants would run around a field beating each other with long sticks while ignoring a small ball. Modern Ice Hockey is just a pale, polite shadow of Lacrosse.
Posting anon since I don't want to take the karma hit for flaming.
You sir, are a gigantic flaming asshole. We've lost over 100 soldiers in Afghanistan fighting a war that you started and left for us to clean up. So go fuck yourself sideways with a rake.
Hockey is our national sport.
Actually, it's Lacrosse.
Frankly, the point still stands. Perhaps even better.
Demanding constant attention will only lead to attention.
Contrary to popular Canadian belief....no Canadians were ever involved in the attack on Washington. The members of that attack were all from the British Isles. Stop believing this crap, and we'll stop saying you eat whale blubber and live in igloos all year round.
Semantics. Obviously since Canada didn't exist as an independent country until 1867 and the White House burned in 1814, Canada as it is now could not have been involved.
However, if you think there were no people involved that were born on what is now Canadian soil, then you are mistaken. Yes, it was British soldiers simply because Upper and Lower Canada were British colonies, and not all were sent from Britain itself.
Tesla was a genius. Edison however was a overrated hack who liked to torture puppies.
Additional information has come to light since the original posting. Some interesting blog posts from:
Lets not forget the Blue Dot.... Apparently if Americans take an interest in a sport they must change the rules and add blue dots in order for it to be accepted.
American: "Man this is much easier to watch with a blue dot on the puck"
Canadian: "WTF is this FU@king blue dot, is this a joke. Saddle up the moose we are paying FOX a visit."
The attack was led by Rear Admiral Cockburn. And you had to flee because of rain. Let's just say the whole thing was less than fabulous for your side.
I know what you did last summer. Just kidding, I don't work at the NSA.
> 1. No, you can't deduct the mortgage interest
> on your home.
That wouldn't have anything to do with the massive housing crisis would it? Perhaps people overextending themselves on mortgages, drunk on cheap credit and tax deductible interest.
No...no...I suppose it wouldn't.
> No, you don't have the right to free speech
This is patently untrue. It's explicitly enshrined in the charter of rights and freedoms. Section 2b.
> bare arms
You have the right to bare arms, it's just not recommended in December or January.
You also have the right to bare your breasts in public, should you choose to do so:
http://www.niagarathisweek.com/news/article/112115
If what you meant was "bear arms" you have those rights as well, but there are restrictions. There are restrictions in the United States as well, ours are just more reasonable (unless you consider private ownership of automatic weapons whose sole purpose is the killing of human beings a "right" in which case, I'm kind of glad you're there and I'm here.)
> 4. No, you don't have title to your home in
> Ontario, we maintain a record of your tenancy
> in our government database. You car either.
Also patently untrue, though there are exceptions when houses are built on public lands. You have title to your house.
I do with our constitution more firmly enshrined property rights, but our courts have upheld them well.
As for your car..you have title. Just because you have to register it (and provide proof of insurance) doesn't mean you don't have title. Vehicles are registered in states as well..or do you think those licence plates get handed out on the street at random?
> 5. No, you can't spend your money to save your
> life. Get in line for "free" health care.
People always cite this without the flipside: hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt because you were hit by an uninsured driver? Because you were born with a genetic heart defect?
Our system isn't perfect, but healthcare is a right not a privilege for those who can afford it.
I'll take our system over yours, though I'll work to improve it.
Free healthcare is a myth anyway: most provinces charge a monthly fee, waived for low incomes. In BC it's $52/month.
So no flamebait. If you like it where you are, by all means stay. It's your choice.
I've made mine.