Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Weisenthal versus Roubini; Decision Roubini

Business Insider's Joe Weisenthal is accusing Nouriel Roubini of plagiarism lite. Weisenthal thumbs:
Roubini rips off @ @: Roubini: "The weather is the last refuge of the scoundrels"
and then thumbs:
Sorry, here's the right link that proves Roubini stole my line on weather being the last refuge of a scoundrel http://read.bi/hCdq3k
It's possible Roubini read Weisenthal's comment and stole it. However, I hope Weisenthal isn't claiming that he came up originally with the phrase " the last refuge of a scoundrel". That dates back way before Weisenthal started walking on this planet and it is quite possible that Roubini grabbed it from common usage the way Weisenthal did.

Decision: Roubini not guilty, based on reasonable doubt.

7 comments:

  1. This is a pretty good example of the absurdity of I.P. in general, actually..

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  2. Roubini does a lot of credit hogging.
    And while the line is old, that's a twist on the original.
    I'm inclined to believe Weisenthal....even though it is really a very teeny-weeny theft. More like shop-lifting.

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  3. @Anonymous

    If IP is so very absurd, why does Roubini put his name on his own writing? Or, for that matter, why doesn't Wenzel write an anonymous blog? Better yet, he can give ME the byline, since there's no such thing..

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  4. @ Lila

    Crediting a creative work to its author is different to exerting "intellectual ownership" over the piece of work, but as this was your first gist of reasoning I shall abstain from further retorts.

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  5. @Anonymoud

    "As this was your first gist of reasoning"...

    Do you always start out with personal attacks...especially when your first post was pretty much an assertion, far more devoid of argument than my first post?

    I believe you're also using "gist" wrongly there, no?

    That aside, by what definition is intellectual property NOT property?

    When any IP socialist can answer me that satisfactorily without resorting to ad hominem, I will pay attention to them.

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  6. Also, I'm very aware that attribution is different from "exerting ownership" - as you put it. But it's surely one FORM of exerting ownership...rest of my opinions on this can be seen at The Daily Bell, where in comments on articles by Kinsella...

    Let's not clutter Wenzel's cyberspace here..

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  7. http://www.thedailybell.com/1441/Copyright-Redux-and-the-Brilliance-of-Kinsella.html

    see comments following this and others in that series

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