Mr Dear,
My name is Brian McNeil, and I am a bureaucrat and community accredited
reporter on the Wikinews (
http://en.wikinews.org <http://en.wikinews.org/> )
website.
Allegations have been made on our well-known sister site, Wikipedia
(
http://en.wikipedia.org <http://en.wikipedia.org/> ) that the UK newspaper,
The Telegraph has plagiarized from Wikipedia in constructing the obituary
for author James Crumley
(
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/3062745/James-Crumley.html).
At the moment, I am in the very early stages of investigating these
allegations. The Wikipedia article on James Crumley is at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Crumley and I am looking in to prior
versions of the article to try to identify which revision may have been
copied from.
The Telegraph obituary does not carry any byline, so the identification of
any single journalist at this point is not possible. However, some
indication from the NUJ as to their position on this issue would be
appreciated. Should there be a spokesperson, or other specific individual it
would be more appropriate for me to discuss this with, I would appreciate
their contact details.
Wikipedia content is licensed under the Gnu Free Documentation License
(GFDL). This is a quite liberal license and many forms of copying and
reproduction are permitted. However, it is a viral license and - as I
understand it - where a work is substantially constructed from GFDL content
said work must inherit the license. At the very least, those who have
created the Wikipedia biography would wish to see some acknowledgement of
the material's origins.
I look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.
Regards,
Brian McNeil
Wikinews Bureaucrat & accredited reporter.
Email: brian.mcneil(a)wikinewsie.org