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Chris Anderson responds to plagiarism allegations around "Free"
Boing Boing —
... (in a few cases I missed it entirely, such as that short Catholic church usury example, which was a total oversight). This was sloppy and inexcusable, but the part I feel worst about is that in our failure to find a good way to cite Wikipedia as the source we ended up not crediting it at all. That is, among other things, an injustice to the authors of the Wikipedia entry who had done such fine research in the first place, and I'd like to extend a special apology to them.
Corrections in the digital editions of Free (longtail.com)
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Chris Anderson responds to plagiarism blog-storm over "Free"
Boing Boing —
... (in a few cases I missed it entirely, such as that short Catholic church usury example, which was a total oversight). This was sloppy and inexcusable, but the part I feel worst about is that in our failure to find a good way to cite Wikipedia as the source we ended up not crediting it at all. That is, among other things, an injustice to the authors of the Wikipedia entry who had done such fine research in the first place, and I'd like to extend a special apology to them.
Corrections in the digital editions of Free (longtail.com)
“Free” Isn’t Worth Reading, But It’s Worth Discussing
Technology Liberation Front —
... As if all of this wasn’t enough, Anderson’s attempt to explain away the unattributed Wikipedia quotations in his book not only call into question his ethics, but also his understanding of how to properly work with information found on the web, which in turn calls into question any claim of authority on the subject matter of the book. ...
Chris Anderson’s ‘Free’ Contains Numerous Uncredited Passages From Wikipedia
Daring Fireball —
... $26.99), for a review in an upcoming issue of VQR, we have discovered almost a dozen passages that are reproduced nearly verbatim from uncredited sources. These instances were identified after a cursory investigation, after I checked by hand several dozen suspect passages in the whole of the 274-page book.
Jaquith includes half a dozen incriminating examples. Plagiarism is a strong word, but there’s no other way to describe some of these passages.
Anderson has responded, acknowledging it as a “screwup”, on his Long Tail ...
Chris Anderson, Malcolm Gladwell And A Look At Free
Techdirt —
... in the book. Chris has admitted to the basics of the charges, and explained it as sloppy editing in an effort to deal with concerns about how to cite online content. I have to admit that sloppy editing seems like a weak excuse here, and a bit disappointing. It seems a bit lazy. ...
What’s Right and Wrong with Media Now
TechCrunch —
... Look at what happened with the plagiarism scandal around Chris Anderson’s new book. Anderson says it was a mistake around a change in how they were going to use citations, and I take him at his word. But it’s safe to say any author who’d considered borrowing heavily from Wikipedia won’t now. We like to think that we act virtuously because of personal or professional pride, but nothing enforces those ethics like the real possibility of getting caught and hugely embarrassed. ...
Chris Anderson’s Free Is Available For Free On The Kindle
TechCrunch —
... Naturally, you have to have a Kindle to get it (it’s delivered over the Amazon Whispernet network to your device), but you can also grab it and read it on your iPhone or iPod touch if you have the Kindle app. Sure, there may have been a few plagiarism issues with the book recently (maybe that’s why we’re seeing it for free in digital form, with corrections), but it’s hard to argue with the price. ...
