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Tuesday, August 25, 2009

SmartHouse plagiarizer does it again

"It is NOT PLAGIARISM to rewrite a story that has appeared elsewhere. ..."
- David Richards, "journalist"

I've never taken a journalism class but I'm pretty sure that David Richards is quite mistaken in this claim.

The faux journalist of Australia-based SmartHouse and ChannelNews used this line to justify stealing -- er, "rewriting" -- my story about Lutron's lawsuit against Crestron.

Granted, his ENTIRE story isn't lifted from mine verbatim. He has a few typos and he Australianised some words. The last time SmartHouse plagiarized us (and TWICE and others), David claimed that a rogue former employee hacked into the computer system and inserted the stories onto his server. (View the video -- priceless!)

But this excuse is even more priceless.

"Firstly this is not your story just because you wrote it first. ... My story is a total rewrite of a similar story that you had. ..."

My story
David's "story"

He thinks he's not plagiarizing because the original story -- mine -- "was poorly written, boring and contained a lot of irrelivent "

Yeah, the guy can't spell either, or end a sentence.

Just for grins, do a Wikipedia search for David W. Richards.

4 comments:

39 Cent Stamp said...

I am going to register the domain www.smarthouseau.com and rewrite Davids stories. I am sure he wont have a problem when my clone site ranks right a long with his at search engines.

Journalism is Dead said...

Julie sounds bitter and shrill. This was clearly a rip-off of her "story". The problem is that the original was misleading, inflammatory and not worth ripping off. I'm sure Lutron's lawyers did not consult CEP before filing, so all she knows is that there is a suit. But reporting that without the David & Goliath spin is not as exciting, is it? Report what you know, Julie, & let the courts decide the merits of the case.

Julie Jacobson said...

Totally baffled by this comment. This posting was about a silly little plagiarist in Australia, nothing to do with the case. I have no biases about the case. The only opinion I expressed in my "real" article on CEPro.com had to do with the dealers who were caught up in the fray. I believe I expressed some pity for them. Otherwise, yes, that was a very bland article that I wrote.

39 Cent Stamp said...

Its bitter and shrill to report when some jack@ss is stealing your work?

Not sure how the news of a lawsuit where Lutron is including dealers in their case against Crestron is misleading.

Whats misleading about a manufacturer using legal trickery in an attempt to dictate the outcome of their case? Lets not forget the dealers and what this joke of a lawsuit will cost them in legal fees.

The story was about the lawsuit being filed. Thats the whole story. Not sure how you missed that but it may explain your confusion.