French Quarter : --- SMN News is oldest news website on St. Maarten. Even though the Daily Herald, and other news agencies have their websites, we are the only news agency who chose to operate solely on the internet. While we do have solid reasons that we remain solely online, we also know that technology is moving fast and sooner rather than later newspapers around the globe would be wiped out of business.
Over the past months we at SMN News are faced with a situation where a reporter and editor from the Today Newspaper have been stealing our contents without giving credit to his source. We managed to find out that the managing editor of the Today does not value our work and has on a number of occasions warned his staff not to use our content. However, the newly appointed editor of the Today Alex Holder believes he is more cunning than his boss Hilbert Haar. Holder has decided that he would continue to steal our content and instead of giving credit he would say the information was contributed. One example, is the photograph taken exclusively by SMN News on Tuesday when detecive Carlton Philips met with leader of the Democratic Party. The photograph was published in our Wednesday’s online news edition and appeared in Thursday’s edition of the Today.
When we contacted the newspaper we were told by the editor Mr. Holder that someone emailed the photograph to the newspaper. Even the content of the story was also published as a contributer to the Today. We asked Mr. Holder to provide the email and the name of the person who sent him the information. It was then we are told that our content is online for everyone. On Friday another article published exclusively by SMN News regarding the financial status of the Collectivity of St. Martin appeared in the Today Newspaper.
While SMN News are taking legal steps to have Mr. Alex Holder and the Today Newspaper respect our work, we believe it is important to teach this young man what is plagiarism.
Taken off the internet at www.plagiarism.org it states the following about plagiarism.
What is Plagiarism?
Many people think of plagiarism as copying another's work, or borrowing someone else's original ideas. But terms like "copying" and "borrowing" can disguise the seriousness of the offense:
According to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, to "plagiarize" means
• to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own
• to use (another's production) without crediting the source
• to commit literary theft
• to present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source.
In other words, plagiarism is an act of fraud. It involves both stealing someone else's work and lying about it afterward.
But can words and ideas really be stolen?
According to U.S. law, the answer is yes. The expression of original ideas is considered intellectual property, and is protected by copyright laws, just like original inventions. Almost all forms of expression fall under copyright protection as long as they are recorded in some way (such as a book or a computer file).
All of the following are considered plagiarism:
• turning in someone else's work as your own
• copying words or ideas from someone else without giving credit
• failing to put a quotation in quotation marks
• giving incorrect information about the source of a quotation
• changing words but copying the sentence structure of a source without giving credit
• copying so many words or ideas from a source that it makes up the majority of your work, whether you give credit or not (see our section on "fair use" rules)
Most cases of plagiarism can be avoided, however, by citing sources. Simply acknowledging that certain material has been borrowed, and providing your audience with the information necessary to find that source, is usually enough to prevent plagiarism.
While we know that the Today Newspaper is understaffed, we have never refused to assist the Today Newspaper. On the contrary we told the editor if needed anything he can contact us and if we can assist we would. The editor did contact us for recordings and we sent it to him but it seems as if the editor does not want to write the news, he preferes to steal it.
Sometime ago the managing editor of the Today Newspaper Hilbert Haar wrote a number of articles on the publisher of Enviro News Stephane dje Robert who copied information from the internet and published it in his magazine. The Today Newspaper made sure they published a number of articles on Dje Robert exposing his wrong doing. However, it is clear that while Haar condemned Dje Robert his staff is guilty of the same crime and so far he has not taken actions to stop the theft.
