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Ask HN: Can one sue platforms like Reddit or Quora for plagiarizing?

10 points by bdataA ↗ HN
Can one sue and win against platforms like Reddit or Quora for plagiarism and copyright infringement?

Many users of these platforms, blatantly plagiarize ideas or Original work without giving due credit to source.

Example https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-psychological-tricks-that-everyone-should-know/answer/Nikunj-Kothari-1

It was copied from

http://www.esquire.co.uk/culture/article/6300/14-simple-bits-of-psychology-everyone-should-know/

But there was no source link given in the answer, after repeated suggestion user finally added source link. This is just one example. There are many such answers, where users use stories/articles written by others as their own.

8 comments

[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 25.8 ms ] thread
techdog
One can sue anyone at any time for anything. I presume what you're really asking is, can you sue and win? We need a lawyer to chime in here. There's a doctrine of "fair use" to consider, but beyond that there's simply the concept of free exchange of ideas -- do people own ideas?

Plagiarism, in a narrow legal sense, is mostly a matter of copyright violation. But again, I sense that your question is larger than that. Is it?

Perhaps you can cite a well-known example in order to make the discussion more concrete?

Not trying to downplay the legitimacy of your question at all. I think it needs to be discussed.

passepartout
I posted the question on lawyeritis.com with a link here, maybe a lawyer will give us an answer. But an example could definitely help.
kngspook
I'm not a lawyer, but in general, I think the answer is no. The DMCA protects online service providers from being liable for things their users do. Additionally, plagiarism itself is not crime or legal offense; instead you'd be most likely looking at some sort of copyright violation.

It sounds like you have a specific situation and you're looking to sue someone, in which case more information about the issue you're having would be helpful.

tptacek
First, you probably can't sue anyone in the US for plagiarism, because plagiarism isn't a tort.

If all that's been ripped off is an idea, and that idea isn't something like a trade secret they stole from you, you're out of luck.

If Quora is itself actively publishing something that you wrote, which you'd therefore have copyright to, then the DMCA does not necessarily immunize them from suit. DMCA safe harbor applies only if the provider lacks "red-flag knowledge" of infringement. If they themselves infringe, like Kim Schmitz did at MegaUpload, then they are S.O.L.

Of course, you're not going to make any money suing Quora over a single post.

bdataA
I am not looking to make money..... I feel these platforms should inbuilt tools to detect plagiarism, instead of relying on other users to report it.
Gigablah
Yep, and now Youtube has this wonderful technology called Content ID. Thanks a lot.
paulhauggis
Can you do all the hard work and I use whatever it is to make money or get credit? Because this is what happens when you allow plagerism.

the interesting thing is hat if we were talking about gnu license violations, the offender would be called a thief (which has happened numerous times here on HN)

oliwarner
Ignore this plagiarism thing. It's legally irrelevant.

If the content if yours or you represent it or the owners, and it hasn't been licensed appropriately, and it's in an applicable applies jurisdiction, you could file a DMCA takedown notice to the site it is hosted on at their abuse handling contact address. If they ignore this, they lose safe harbour. If they challenge it, you sue them. If they take it down, that's done.

In addition to the DMCA, regardless of how that's handled you can also sue them for copyright infringement to recoup lost earnings. Who knows how far you'll get there.

If the content isn't yours (or represented by you) there are no legal actions you can legally take. You could fraudulently fill out a DMCA but that's going to get you sued. It's probably also a criminal action if done wilfully.

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If however, you're just a Quora user, it's probably against the terms and conditions to copy content wholesale (especially if it's incompatible with their submission license)... You could report the post directly to them so that they can deal with it internally before anything happens externally.