Plagarism of some LDShops "thoughts on Online Shopping" pages

[diverdan214]

I have very limited experience with different agencies however I came across something fishy (pun intended) the other day and the agency is the only common thread I can find.

I was lookng at another shops online buying page which was similar to my original shop and I though...oh that's neat I guess they encourage that kind of personal addressing of the issue in a nice and friendly way. For those not familiar with the type of page I'm talking about it begins:

A lot of dive retailers have a rather negative, knee-jerk reaction to people shopping on the web. You'll hear stuff like:

"Just wait till you have to buy air over the net when people like you drive me out of business!"
or

"Just wait till you have a problem and find out you don't have warranty coverage."
or
"!!####%%!!!%$#@!#$#!$@!#".....!

At Nu Horizons, our reaction is kind of different:

"Good for you! You're shopping for dive gear! Diving is a great sport. Divers are good people. You're going to love having your own gear."

It may sound familiar to you.

It then goes on to talk about the value the LDS adds to products and other services. At the end it includes dated "updates" relating funny stories of people that had bad online buying experiences and how the shop helped them out. At the bottom it is 'signed' by the dive shop owner, let's call him Baba Ganush.

Fair enough if you go for that sort of thing, don't really want to get into it here. What struck me though was that the "personal address from dive shop owner" was exactly the same except for the shop and owner's names.

This kind of bothers me, I don't know who's plagarized who but at least one of them is but not knowing who is I will speak of them anonymously for now.

Does this kind of falseness bother anyone else or am I over-reacting? Anyone else at least find it weird? Anyone know what's going on here?

Disclaimers: I've tried searching the boards about this but couldn't find anything recent on it. Also I have done all my training with said agency and have been very pleased with it, as well as my treatment by the stores affiliated with them. I am not trying to start a online vs. LDS thread either.

I am not trying to bash an agency and am not interested in a agency X sucks/is better type of thread so if that's your comment on this take it to one of the other 500 of those threads.

 

[Fish_Whisperer]

Hrmmm... It's not exactly the Great American Novel, so if they've found the basic philosophy and a very good way of stating things in another place, and it accurately conveys their own philosophy, why not use it? It would be courteous of them to approach the original author and ask for permission to use their material, but I don't think it would be worth turning it into a federal case if, in fact, they didn't receive permission from the orginal author.

 

[diverdan214]

I guess its not the plagarism per se that bothers me just the fact that they're being disengenuous. Certainly its a decent approach and if you took something as a template or inspiration that's one thing. But this is the same down to the "personal updates" on different dates. I wouldn't have a problem if this just said: this is our policy on buying online, and was taken directly. Instead though its written in a more personal style. I like the idea of giving things a personal touch...but not when its a canned personal touch, it seems kinda pathetic.

 

[Fish_Whisperer]

I agree. Were I putting the site together, especially something as vital as a personal philosophy/business model, even if I used someone else's basic idea or format, I would still put it in my own words. I agree with you: It is tacky. (Then again, this is the Scuba world... "Tacky" seems to be par for the course!) LOL

 

[redacted]

Does this kind of falseness bother anyone else or am I over-reacting? Anyone else at least find it weird? Anyone know what's going on here?
.

A dive shop attempting to employ "falseness" and deception to its advantage!!! Please say it isn't so.:11doh:

Actually, I find the attitude expressed by that page quite refreshing. It would be a good thing if all shops copied it.

 

[Taxgeek]

Awhile ago I ran google searches for paragraphs of language from my LDS's webpage. Turns out that like 6 other dive shops around the nation had plagiarized various parts of the site, ranging from whole pages to "blurbs" (without permission). I don't know the rules about webpages, and whether they are copyrightable and such, but like somebody said above, it's tacky.

 

[Flatliner]

The owner of my lds made the statement in both of his classes that I have attended, "Never buy your gear over the internet. You can't get a warrinty if you buy online no matter what they tell you."

I was offended enough I went out and bought a bunch of gear from Scubatoys...

Flatliner
aka Robert

 

[ReefHound]

It doesn't surprise me at all. More and more divers, with independent access to the dive community through boards like Scubaboard, are refusing to drink the dive shop Koolaid. When the LDS trots out it's scare tactics about the dangers of buying "life support" over the internet, divers are starting to demand supporting evidence. Faced with the lack of such evidence, it's no surprise that LDS owners resort to just making it up.

As for copyrights, web material absolutely is subject to copyright. All original expressions are automatically covered by copyright. But unless it's a registered copyright, you cannot collect punitive damages, only real economic damages. And it would be hard for a LDS in one town to make a case that they were economically harmed because an LDS in another town copied from their website. That's if the originating LDS even wanted to defend copyright.

 

[RAD Diver]

Baba Ganush, thats great.

 

[Leejnd]

I'm a freelance writer, and right now the majority of my business is online content. I can tell you that many companies do not do their own writing for their websites -- they use freelance writers like me. That's how I make my living. They tell the writer what they want to convey, and the writer puts it into words.

I can also tell you that I know that LOTS of writers who do this type of writing do much of their research by looking at similar websites. And it is very common for writers to "lift" bits and pieces, and sometimes entire paragraphs, off other websites. This is not right -- yes this is plagiarism. But it's also true that there is virtually no enforcement of it, especially on the web. I personally do not practice plagiarism, but I know lots of writers whose ethics are not so strong.

So don't immediately jump to the conclusion that the LDS is being disingenous. They may have no idea that their writer lifted much of the page from another website! They may have simply told the writer what they wanted, and then writer may have come to them and shown them this great piece he/she wrote for their site, and the LDS thought it was terriffic, without any knowledge of where it came from.

Also, keep in mind it's entirely possible that the OTHER LDS lifted their stuff from THIS page. Unless you know who the original author is, you just don't know.

So there ya have it, from the writer's perspective. Plagiarism is wrong, but on the web, it's rampant.

Editing to add: the baba ganush thing cracked me up too. I LOVE baba ganuosh, and made a huge batch of it this weekend. It's sitting in my fridge right now.