Nine tenths of the law?

////////////ADDENDUM 29 Aug 2009: this is what I posted on Thursday. Since then I received an email from somebody named Laurentiu Pop(possible link) who said it was an error and that their post was removed, and it has been removed. Although I am probably entitled to some of the (ill-gotten) revenue they got from the ads they posted on MY WORK, I recognize it's probably unrealistic to pursue it, in terms of cost/benefit, so I'm not planning to do so. //////////////////////////// ///////////

Somebody named Elizabeth(link) at a web site called Human Trend decided to nab my entire "Sanford an the Son" post from earlier this summer, which I posted at Hugo Zoom, here, and at Dead Horse, here.
I left a comment as follows:

Elizabeth, if that is your name,
please tell me why you decided to steal my post(from Hugo Zoom and Dead Horse), but did not feel you needed to give me proper attribution. This isn’t an excerpt, but the entire post, even my photo-editing work.

Perhaps ironically, my comment is awaiting moderation as I write this. I don't know if she thought that leaving the "cross-posted at Dead Horse" bit at the bottom constitutes sufficient attribution, or she just meant to steal this cleanly and forgot to lop off the bottom. For the record, No, I DON'T think it's sufficient attribution. Although I'm not necessarily against someone posting an entire post of mine(with attribution, which also means a link back to the source) IF it's a really short one, say under 50 words. But this wasn't a short post, and I wasn't asked or mentioned.

For longer posts I'd think any time you're venturing over 50 per cent of the original you're definitely going over the line, maybe even sooner if the excerpt is really long in itself. And I always give attribution. So should you, Elizabeth.

Sleep well, knowing Rummy's still rich

There are many things I want to discuss in the next few days, still including the events in Gaza and Kucinich's withdrawal from the race, as well as that of John Edwards. And, some additional thoughts on the SOTU and the recession which we can't call a recession yet, given how relentlessly sunny we are supposed to be. Of course if you're not feeling relentlessly sunny, take a pill or something.

1.Xymphora (2006):"it's a small world, anthrax edition"

• Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld owns a considerable number of shares in a corporation called Gilead Sciences;
• Gilead owns the intellectual property rights to Tamiflu;
• Tamiflu is a pharmaceutical touted by the Bush Administration as a remedy for anthrax (although in fact it is not indicated for anthrax);
• the anthrax attacks on the United States vastly increased the demand for Tamiflu, and thus increased the value of Gilead, and thus made Rumsfeld a lot of money;
• the anthrax for the attacks almost certainly came from an American military laboratory at Fort Detrick;
• one of the named suspects at the lab is Philip Zack, a man who left the lab in 1991 after being involved in a racist attack against a fellow scientist of Arab origin, and a man who was observed having unauthorized access to the area of the lab containing the Ames strain of anthrax used in the attacks, around the time that some of the anthrax went missing.
• Philip Zack, as neatly described here (found via here), went on to work for Gilead (identified from a scientific paper published in December 2000).

and 2.(2008) in which X takes note of this Doctors without borders bulletin:

Patent revoked on Tenofovir
US patent office’s move to revoke patents on key HIV/AIDS drug could mean increased access in developing world

In a move that could have major implications on access to a cornerstone HIV/AIDS medicine across the developing world, the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office on January 23, 2008 revoked four key patents held by the pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences on the drug tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF).

The public interest group Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT), which challenged the patents in the US, submitted evidence that TDF was already a known substance at the time of Gilead’s application for the patents, and therefore a patent should not have been granted. The evidence used in the patent office’s ruling may have an impact on whether the drug will be granted patents in other countries, such as India and Brazil.

3. Rob Payne calls my attention to this item by Dennis Perrin, "pre-soaking your sane"(and says some unwarranted nice things about me.)

4.Speaking of copyrights, here's a story from London to Lubbock.

this n' that

stylin' in Montevideo. photo: cardomain.com

via groovy Avedon:

Piracy not raiding CD sales" The enforcement arm of the Australian music industry has dismissed damaging overseas research that found illegal music sharing actually increased CD sales. The study, conducted by two researchers at the University of London for the Canadian Government, found people downloaded songs illegally because they wanted to hear them before buying or because they were not available in stores."

and, 3/7ths of a Paul Goyette post:

2. Some interesting analysis of a couple of the presidential candidates' speech patterns by Mark Liberman.

4. A style guide for citing blogs, from the National Library of Medicine.

7. And I wanted to mention, before we get too far along into the month, that it's National Novel Writing Month again. If you have that great idea, you should get started now...

(you still have 21 days and 4 minutes;PG mentioned this on the 2nd, unlike slothful me. If you don't read locussolus regularly, how is that my fault? Anyway, get to work!)