Plagiarism
In an internet age, plagiarism is even more easily accomplished. It is so simple to copy someone’s work and past it off as your own on your web site. Yesterday, one of the readers in our community notified me that my work is being used by another site without any indication that it came from me and without any references to At God’s Table. While I am glad that others recognize the value of my efforts, it distresses me to see people steal the ideas, for that’s what plagiarism really is. Only a very few sites have asked permission to use Today’s Word (and it has always been granted). So, as you cruise the pages of the internet, if you happen to come across things that you know belong to At God’s Table or Today’s Word and there is no reference to the source, please let me know and I will politely ask the offender to stop.
Skip-
I’ll keep my eyes open. We also occasionally use this site to check for duplicate content: http://www.copyscape.com/.
Greg
Thanks Greg. And I apologize for the misspelled title.
Good day Skip. I must own up as I have used a sentence here and there but have put S.Moen beside it. The other day when I was so blessed with what you said about it not being so much of the position but the direction , I put it up on my cite . I added more to it but the essence of it or the heart of it was that truth. So PLEASE forgive me Skip and please allow me the opportunity to share tid-bits here and there as I try to get the doors open to many concerning the Hebrew way of thinking. Again, my apologies on this.
Your use of the Today’s Word material is perfectly fine and appropriate. The reason I raised this issue is that a newspaper has been printing my material without any acknowledgement, implying that the editor wrote it all. Everyone is free to use all of this, just acknowledge where it came from.
Dear brother Skip…I’M reading your comments at “Today’s Word” for about 2 years and I personally think they are really powerful, The G’d of Avraham, Isaac and Jacob are given You a deep inside and wisdom in His Word, with all my respect and humility I want to express my disagreement with your request to make the community a “secret service” to investigate any possible use of the material of your web. I personal believe that’s very, very Greek thinking, whatever we have or accomplish is for the Grace of G’d, and nothing is our, we are just administrator of His Grace for the Kingdom. My brother I hope you receive my words as an opinion of pastor who believed the great contribution you do to the Kingdom, a person who has the privilege to understand the original languages and share with the rest of the body, like you notice my English is very limited, and I hope my words don’t sound inappropriate, I enjoy every day in my prayer time read the word that Go’d gave me thru your ministry, but remember the recognition and the reward come front her Lord.
Shalom Aleyjem
I appreciate your reply, but I want to make this point. I am more than happy to have people spread the word, but I believe that if you are going to use someone’s material, you need to acknowledge the source, not present it as your own. This is a matter of ethical integrity. Those who violate this trust need to be reminded. That’s all. I have never refused to allow anyone to use what I write, but I expect to be asked.
Imagine paying your son’s school fees through to the College and at his graduation, he chose to ignore you and praise himself as the source of his success! This is what plagiarism is all about, it is not Greek thinking, it is a matter of integrity and right attitude. We preach it, we should practice it. Acknowledge those who offered you help in accomplishing your goal. It is PRIDE, ROBBERY and ARROGANCE to own what does not belong to you. It is like quoting John 3:16 and declaring that you are the original author. I preach Skip’s teachings, and I have never failed telling people that Dr Skip is the man God has used to explode my knowledge of the Scriptures. Christians; of all group of people must never permit plagiarism.
In my humble opinion.
I don’t say that is right what they did; my point is that wherever we do for the Kingdom belong to the King, we are just tool in the hand of the Master, and wherever we produce, is for His Grace, so I just tell brother Skip that G’d will be recompense every one according with the way we act in this life. By the way if we pay for the education of our children, we just did what we suppose to do, is our responsibility, not the child. I strongly believe in integrity.
Luke 17:7-10 “But which of you, having a slave plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come immediately and sit down to eat’? 8 “But will he not say to him, ‘Prepare something for me to eat, and properly clothe yourself and serve me until I have eaten and drunk; and afterward you will eat and drink’? 9 “He does not thank the slave because he did the things which were commanded, does he? 10 “So you too, when you do all the things which are commanded you, say, ‘We are unworthy slaves; we have done only that which we ought to have done.'”
NAS
Shalom Aleyjem
Shalom Juvenny,
I understand your basic premise and agree that all that we do for HIS good pleasure and glory … is HIS!
Now for the reality of the matter. What if a person utilizes Skip’s teaching or mine … or yours for that matter, and they use it out of context to support a theological position that is not representative of the truth? What if Skip’s material is being utilized to promote principles and other teachings that Skip may vehemently disagree with?
Or …. on the other hand a person such as Skip (a teacher) has been blessed with a ministry that enables him to do G_D’s work and supplies him with his necessary sustenance (as an example)? Would you think it fair that others freely and pridefully just presume to take what they want? Oh you may couch this as just one other person’s desire to serve the body … but is that really a valid presumption?
I regret to say Juvenny … in your desire to see all benefit from Skip’s teachings you would overlook the very Torah which the Lord promotes as a way of life. And frankly it is not even a matter of Skip not allowing use of the work in question … it is the complete and blatant absconding of the materials … without question … without concern by others … this is the question.
I believe you are arguing a point based upon emotion instead of biblical and spiritual principles. In fact we know that the Lord acts with purpose … all the time. How could we even safely declare that what Skip produces is even meant for anyone outside of TW? Oh I know this might be a difficult question – but answer me this … do you, or anyone else, presume to know G_D’s ways? Do you believe that the only way G_D could get Skip’s work out to non-TW folks is to have someone corrupt His Torah to achieve this?
I know this commentary may come off as a bit harsh but I think your position is incorrect and your objection to Skip’s behavior is unwarranted. We can’t refute the basic principles of righteousness and truth to justify what we consider to be a greater objective. In my humble opinion. So please just think about the issue and consider the basic principles of Torah.
This cuts to the core of a huge issue in our “Church,” where we tend to believe it´s finders keepers. I decided to stop translating to Spanish because less than 15 people signed up at the site but the material was being re-distributed to over 6,000 emails without authorization.
It´s not about who writes it or who owns it, God is Lord over everyone and everything, it´s about FRUIT. If we call ourselves followers of the Word and really incorporate Scripture into our lives and actions, we will NEVER take anything that doesn´t belong to us and pass it as ours. God has blessed Skip with an understanding of Scripture that he shares with us. All anyone has to do is say just that and reprint. Thievery is not a fruit of the Spirit, wether it´s intellectual or physical.
So when things like this happen, it makes us wonder (it made me wonder), IS ANYONE OUT THERE REALLY LISTENING?
The Bible says, Epistle of Mark, Luke, John, Paul´s letters, etc. We all know they are God´s words. We should do the same and recognize who God gave the Word to, the teachers God chose to give His Word to, and not pose as one of them when He didn´t assign that task (or gift) to us.
Makes me ill to see the condition of the church today. People doing this are believers! What if they pretend to be prophets, healers, etc etc?
It’s measure for measure, isn’t it? The Church is responsible for a lot of this. We taught the deserving poor that they did not have to provide for themselves. We taught them that we would provide, over and over. We taught them that it was all “free,” “free” grace accompanied by free everything else. It WAS NOT free, never. God paid. We paid. We made a huge mistake by committing ourselves to a theology of grace without a theology of acts. So, now we reap our mistake. I was so sorry to see Bessy leave the translation work, but I encouraged her to do so since hardly anyone in her own community was willing to support the effort. She has to live – and God often supplies us through the hands and feet of others, unless of course, we think that it is someone else’s hands and feet.
Thank you, Bessy. I love you. You are an example of real sacrifice.
Actually, the Bible does not say Epistle of Mark, Luke, John, but Gospel…I got excited there! Sorry
Thanks Skip, even though I could hardly call it sacrifice, it was great translating. After over three years it was sad to see the end of that time. You´re right, we have to make a living, and sometimes activities collide. I don´t believe we are sent to beg for our income, but work for it. If there´s no one out there that considers that work necessary and don´t recognize the labor it requires, it´s ok. But don´t steal it!
I think we have societies that provide a positive social sanction on martyrdom, so religious workers believe they must present a poor martyred soul facade to acquire funds. I don´t think that´s what Yeshua did, or had the disciples do, or requires us to do now. We must be fair and provide those who serve us with the proper and just wage for their work. If workers choose to give it away, that´s their choice only and no one elses. Our theology is very, very flawed. Amazing the work Satan does inside the church.
Love you too. You´re a blessing!
It saddens me to read about those within the sphere of the “church” engaged in this activity. Some occurrences may simply be an “oops” without any ill intent or awareness of what they have done. This is, of course, no excuse. Error is error and ignorance, as they say, is no excuse. BUT, the truth is, as stated above, the teaching of perverted grace, has brought many other false doctrines and developed the culture in christianity for doing whatever is considered right in the minds of each person. Since the law was “fulfilled” by Christ and “abolished” by Him, theft, lying, slander, gossipping and other “acceptable” sins run as rampant in those claiming to be “born again” as in the world. Let’s come together to pray for those committing this sin against our brother. Pray for the Holy Spirit’s conviction in the heart’s of the transgressors.
The Hebrew sages believe that it is vitally important, and of great merit, that the source of teaching is identified. May I quote an extract from ‘The Ethics of The Fathers Ch6:6’: “…Torah is acquired with forty-eight qualities. These are… learning in order to teach, learning in order to observe, wising one’s teacher, exactness in conveying a teaching, and saying something in the name of its speaker. Thus we have learned: One who says something in the name of its speaker brings redemption to the world, as is stated (Esther 2:22), “And Esther told the king in the name of Mordechai.”
Thank you, Skip, for what you do, and for allowing the community to take in and give out that which you bring down.
It’s not only easy, it’s smart (and the right thing to do) to link back to the source. This not only helps with indexing by search engines (making the site easier to find and increasing the page rank), it shows the site as being more linked, which also boosts search-ability.
There’s not a reasonable of privacy for public websites, but plagarism does indeed abound. What irked me was finding my quote used in a paid print publication without attribution.
I feel your frustration,
Anthony