Here is an article I found (altho anyone can find many others on the web, this is just offered as an example) about copying and copyright and important information for anyone who copies other people's work. My posts above were meant to be helpful information to all, although I have received criticism in private for trying to be helpful.

The penalties are extremely hefty if you copy someone's work beyond "fair use" and if you excerpt their work without giving them credit. I hope my caution and this general information will protect people.

So here is a general (although probably not definitive) information source for more information if anyone wants to make sure they don't get into trouble by posting someone else's information.

http://www.umuc.edu/library/copy.shtml

Cherie, due to the fact that most of my nursing instructors were pretty old. I really expected you to be much older. You are a lovely young lady! I hope your husband appreciates you!!!!!

Thanks Doydie. He does. He's younger than I but almost looks like he could be my dad. Oh...I graduated from college the first time in 73 so have been a nurse for 33 years. And a social worker for 7. And an MS Certified nurse for 3. And a published author for .....well, the first piece was 1968 and the most recent this year. So I know all about copywrite laws and courtesies.

Cherie, it appears you copied this material, exactly (including spelling errors), from the mult-sclerosis website. That is Paul Jones' website. Your copy DOES contain "original intact sentences" since it is copied EXACTLY, save for your inability to copy the graphs and diagrams he has.

See: http://www.mult-sclerosis.org/whatisms.html

Cherie I understand you are a professional as you made clear in your PM to me outlining your extensive background. This website (BT2) could get into big trouble and you could be fined heavily for copying & pasting someone else's material and then claiming you somehow changed it so that "few original intact sentences" remain when this is simply not true. You copied the text as it was, Paul Jones' work, then gave an inaccurate source when asked to give credit to the original author who worked hard to compile and write this information. You then claimed you somehow altered the original to a point where it was your own. It looks to me that you copied it exactly from his work and you didn't change it but tried to take the credit for his work.

I think Paul Jones deserves the credit for writing what he did and it is very important to give a link to your source and acknowledge his authorship. I don't even think you're allowed to copy such a large segment of someone else's work, but that's for you to determine.

This is just a really good example of why it is important to know your source, to provide it (even if it is just a journal publication citation), and to make sure you don't take credit for someone else's hard work. Paul Jones has given so much of himself to the MS community, he deserves recognition for his work and not someone passing it off as their own.

You have just given credit to one who I did not realize should get credit. Thank you.

wannabe, I agree with you. I just read the website you posted and the information the 1st Cherie provided on here, and it is exactly verbatum. I am a CNM originally from the UK, and trained here in the states. During my training here in the states we were told never to cite anyone's references without giving the source.

Is this commonplace? It seems to me that it would be illegal. I would suggest to anyone who is citing anyone's sources to please acknowledge the author. I think there are copyright infringement laws, aren't there?

The other question I have for the nurse Cherie is if you've only been a Nurse for 33 years, how were you able to professionally publish 38 years ago? Something isn't right here. Thanks for clarifying any possible mistakes.

Chris

I never said I was asked to publish PROFESSIONALLY 8 years ago. My publishing was done in "Young America Sings" an anthology of poetry and essays.

And, because "Understanding MS" was something I got via email and later saw in Brain Talk...not cited in either place, I did some digging and discovered that it was taken from the NMSS site (which gives permission for copying materials for educational purposes.).

I haven't yet found it on the NMSS Website but am still looking. I see that Paul Jones didn't give any source either when he quoted the material. In fact, it may be by Paul Jones, for all anyone knows.

When I saw the material here in clinical1's post, I assumed she wrote it. I think most people would assume that unless a source is given.

I don't think anyone knows "all about copyright," especially now that the Internet has created new situations in terms of copyright law.

However, there is another very good reason for always including a source for a quotation, and that is that your readers may want to look at the source, to see what else it might say, to see the context where the quotation occurs.

Sometimes it's a simple matter of noticing a misprint or something that seems to have been omitted in the quotation and wanting to check the original source....

Copying and pasting doesn't guarantee that your quoted material is going to be reproduced in its original form.

I hope I'm not just adding fuel to a fire here, but I for one do feel strongly about the need to cite sources and to make sure that somebody else's words are clearly separated from your own words.

Hi Cherie,

Thanks for posting all of this helpful info. I wonder if this is going to be the new BT home? Looks like a nice clean slate here.

Hmmmm, Cherie would you send me a Pm please I see that you dont accept PM's