There is some discussion uproar as regards a case of ongoing plagiarism within the SQL community. You can find out all the details at http://www.brentozar.com/archive/2010/03/plagiarism-inspiration-and-john-dunleavy and http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/sql-server/plagiarism-inspiration-and-john-dunleavy/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+techtarget%2FwIpw+%28SQL+Server+with+Mr.+Denny+-+SQL%29

This is not something new. Brent Ozar (blog | twitter) has brought this up on previously with the invidual in question. John Dunleavy (blog | twitter) has been caught time and again using other peoples content, and has in fact been caught posting carte blanche Microsoft White Paper articles including the copyright notices.

Brent Ozar and Denny Cherry (blog | twitter) have been absolutely right in calling out John for his plagiarism.  Sure it’s very easy to copy someone elses work (even just pieces) that does not make it right however. That’s part of why I don’t post much, or often, I’m busy trying to come up with something of my own. While a concept of what I am saying might have been posted out elsewhere I’m actively looking to put my own spin on it and make it my own. Heck, most of what I read is way above my level, so there’s nothing good I can add, as such I just leave it alone.

I’m not looking to aggregate other peoples content, that doesn’t make much sense to me. There are plenty of aggregators out there, and that’s hardly going to be my voice. That’s what all these blogs should be about, someones voice. What comes out of my blog is mine, I stand behind what I say, I even hope that some of it is useful to people.

People like Brent, Denny, Jonathan Kehayias (blog | twitter), Jorge Segarra (blog | twitter), Paul Randal (blog | twitter) and many many others dedicate a great deal of their time and energy in giving to the community. They blog, they tweet, they answer forum questions, they don’t get paid for it (Denny might break even as he has stated on his blog, however he’s hardly attempting to make a living off it). Why do they do it? I don’t know, you’ll have to ask them, however I believe that these people just have a passion for what they do. They enjoy it, they have a huge enthusiasm for it and they just want to share that with the world at large. 

One of the most amazing things about SQL Server is the community. If you have a question or problem there are so many places that you can turn to for answers. A post on twitter with the #SQLHELP tag, for example, will generally get you an answer inside of 30 minutes, and usually includes a link to a blog post or article somewhere on the web where you’ll find in depth information and it doesn’t cost you a dime. There are all the free training resources available that I’ve linked in a my “Ehance Your Skills For Free” post, all based around the community.

When someone like John Dunleavy plagiarizes others, aside from it being just wrong, it hurts the community. It makes people less likely to post stuff; makes folks less likely to help others; it makes people like me write poorly constructed blog posts because they are miffed.

I think the final note on this comes from the movie Downfall and a translation provided by Chuck Boyce Jr (twitter) which can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DWR3zdUsQA