This is a good example of why we need a Wikipedia:Plagiarism page and policy. Since the 1911 Encyclopedia is in the public domain it may simply be copied as it is not a copyright violation to do so. But should I consult the current Britannica regarding, say Liebnitz, I may find some important information which is not in the 1911 edition. For the sake of an example, suppose it is his theory of comedy... If I then write something in the Wikipedia article about Liebnitz's theory of comedy I should credit Encyclopaedia Britannica. (Although more likely I would take the info in Britannica as a clue to do some independent research, the results of which I would then cite.) Even with an article using material from the 1911 edition, if it is not cited as the source, there is plagiarism. This confabulation of plagiarism and copyright violation is why we need a page which clearly explains plagiarism and our policy regarding it.
Fred
On Jul 18, 2005, at 7:21 PM, SCO Estmort wrote:
About the plagiarism issue, there's nothing wrong with taking information wholesale if 1) it's not copyvio 2) it's encylopedic and suits the encylopedic context. I personally think that if anyone finds their text on Wikipedia and it was freely licensed or public domain, they wouldn't mind anyway, as long as it was being used well (that's why they released it under free license/public domain, no?), the only problem would be quality and copyediting for language, which can be fixed easily. After all, we do take things wholesale (with copyediting here and there) from the 1911 Encylopedia Britannica....and no doubt the article will evolve after that. If anything, it seems all the policies are sufficient. Copyright, manual of style, reference to sources, and being encylopedic. There's no need for a "plagiarism" guideline. If anything, any problems with plagiarism violates one these issues. If they don't (ie. like 1911 Britannica), then I see no problem.
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