Lifted info from Plant Files???

While doing some research on banana plants, I ran across this site. It looks like they lifted info directly from PlantFiles and put it in their catalogue.May just be my imagination, but it sure looks like DG style.

http://www.tropicalfruitandpalmtrees.com/bananaplantsinfo.htm

This happens elsewhere, too. Example: http://www.elephantearsplants.com/elephantearsgrowing.htm

Is this imitation (which would be flattering), proper citation, or theft? Terry, what do you think about this?

While I agree that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I somehow see this more as plagerism than flattery...it benefits from another's work product.

I agree, it looks like they've taken it word for word from PF without changing the style/format etc.

I have in the past run across "familiar formats" but with subtle differences. The zone info here is an exact copy....why bother to set up your own when the perfect format is already out there? grin

Not surprising at all. I have come across websites selling plants that used my photos from PF.

This gets into a very gray area: on one hand, the data itself is not copyright-protected. We don't know where it came from; it may have well come from reference books or other websites.

And things like the USDA zones are not ours, even if we wanted to exert some ownership over the format we present the information

And can an argument be made for "fair use"? It certainly can't be argued it is a non-commercial use, and I'd say it doesn't fall under fair use protection, but that doesn't mean these website owners will agree.

As Dave probably recalls, the owner of backyardgardening.com flat-out stole our Botanary database a few years ago. For a long time, I had a link to the ad where he was opening advertising for someone to scrape our site and copy it for him. But we haven't been successful in getting him to remove the obviously plagiarized work.

Would we be more successful with these vendors? I don't know. We can sure try, but it's anyone's guess as to whether they will acquiesce to our demands.

Victor, i believe we were able to successfully argue for your photo copyrights, yes? Photos are actually easier to exert copyright claims to, because it's much easier to prove it was copied. Copying entire paragraphs of work is also fairly easy to prove. But snippets of data...argh.

Yes, Terry. Some removed it when I asked. For others I notified you. Thanks.

If I might add something...

On the flip side, this is also the reason why it's not a good idea to copy and paste information from another website into a PlantFile comment. Any information learned from another website should be put entirely into your own words when leaving a PlantFile comment.

Very good point, Joan. We have fielded our share of complaints from people unhappy to find their words lifted and reprinted without their permission.

Once we confirm that the comment posted on our site does not belong to the poster (we do attempt to ascertain that first, since there is the possibility the complaint is without merit), we remove it and apologize.

A point of correction for Terry, the plagiarizing site is backyardgardener.com (not backyardgardening.com).

Maybe they stole that too?

Ooops. My bad. You'd think I'd have that name seared into my brain ;o)

Who cares about the correct name of that site?

The ONLY authentic, pleasant, family oriented gardening site on the web IS Dave's Garden. Find us at www.davesgarden.com. ^_^

Hear Hear! Lin. Couldn't have said it better myself....grin. More than just copying data, these folks copied data arrangement and format....is that something to become litiginous over? Only you guys can decide if it is worth the time and expense. I thought it was worth mentioning for your consideration....ya just never know what 's happening out there in cyber-world....grin