Blogger Says Long Island Press Ripped Off His Work, Then Taunted Him Over It
Blogger Ian Miller was amused by the idea of a “Petite Lap Giraffe” (come on, who isn’t?) and wrote a post about it for his blog — but on Tuesday, he apparently discovered that the Long Island Press had lifted details from his post for their own piece without providing a link. He also says that he found that someone from longislandpress.com visited his site minutes before they published the article in question.
It appears that the Long Island Press has since taken down the article, but here is a cached version of the piece. Miller wrote a comment under the piece calling them out over it:
I’m disappointed you didn’t cite my March 23 blog post, where I actually conducted the research you are taking credit for. Specifically, I uncovered the link to the Grey Group, and I also discovered the “hot tub” stock image. At a minimum, you should provide attribution.
Instead of adding in a link, the Press, according to Miller, rewrote the article and refused to publish his comment, holding it for moderation. Then, after 4:23 PM yesterday, the article included this needlessly mocking note:
A quick domain name lookup…which is free and public information…will give you those details, which we acquired–you know, being a newspaper with research capabilities and all–of our own accord (although some are trying to claim this information as their own “discovery” as a way to promote their own personal website! But enough of that…)
Ouch!
Because the Press has removed the article from their site, we can’t verify all the details, although we have reached out the Press. We will update if we hear back from them. But it seems suspicious that the article was taken down, and that Miller apparently found by checking the logs of his site that someone from the Press‘s domain had visited his website prior to publishing the piece.
Once Miller’s post was linked to by Slashdot, many commentators came to his defense. He, like a nice guy, added the following update: “I really don’t want anyone to get fired over this. Come on: it’s a freaking mythical creature called the ‘Petite Lap Giraffe.’ It’s fun, it’s stupid, etc… relax, everybody!”
