Plagiarism in Whitepapers, what do you think?

[lrr]

Today I was reading a whitepaper trying to do a product review, it is one of the most popular projects if you take into account the telegram users... and the whitepaper has a lot of plagiarised content 

As a university student this shocks me, as something similar in academia would result in expulsion from the university.

My short video rant here: https://youtu.be/JmVAyC-XFSA

What are your thoughts on this?

[guybrushthreepwood]

Most ICOs and especially bounty campaigns seem to use plagiarized content in some capacity. I rarely read ICOs so can't comment on that but half of them just rehash the same templates or just copy what somebody has already previously posted on their ANN/Bounty thread. Wouldn't surprise me at all if it was the same group of people behind half of them as well. Probably too good to be true for scammers to resist so they just keep them running constantly. People keep seeming to give them their money for half-baked ideas so I can't see why they would stop creating them. 

[lrr]

Most ICOs and especially bounty campaigns seem to use plagiarized content in some capacity. I rarely read ICOs so can't comment on that but half of them just rehash the same templates or just copy what somebody has already previously posted on their ANN/Bounty thread. Wouldn't surprise me at all if it was the same group of people behind half of them as well. Probably too good to be true for scammers to resist so they just keep them running constantly. People keep seeming to give them their money for half-baked ideas so I can't see why they would stop creating them. 

You're absolutely correct! Although this project that I was reading has a huge user base, so I assumed the whitepaper would've been of good quality.

It's worrying, and I think the way forward is to try and educate people so they don't fall for these scams as easily.

[jhenfelipe]

Most ICOs and especially bounty campaigns seem to use plagiarized content in some capacity. I rarely read ICOs so can't comment on that but half of them just rehash the same templates or just copy what somebody has already previously posted on their ANN/Bounty thread. Wouldn't surprise me at all if it was the same group of people behind half of them as well. Probably too good to be true for scammers to resist so they just keep them running constantly. People keep seeming to give them their money for half-baked ideas so I can't see why they would stop creating them.  

You're absolutely correct! Although this project that I was reading has a huge user base, so I assumed the whitepaper would've been of good quality.

It's worrying, and I think the way forward is to try and educate people so they don't fall for these scams as easily.

Regardless of the user base volume, the white paper should be of good quality and shouldn't be or have a plagiarized content. It will start there right ~ projects with plagiarized white paper + fake images of the team = trying to scam. If they are really serious about the project, why wouldn't they do it in a proper way?

If only all investors read every project's white paper they're into investing, maybe chances of being scammed will be narrowed. It's every individual's responsibility in the first place

[gawer33]

it's fine to plagiarise white paper thus most of the coin's never deliver what inside the white paper perhaps the one who copy it can work it out.

[jhenfelipe]

it's fine to plagiarise white paper thus most of the coin's never deliver what inside the white paper perhaps the one who copy it can work it out.

NO. It will never be fine to plagiarize. It's just like doing a bad thing for a good purpose, it is still bad and you can't use your purpose as an excuse. If they can work the project out, why couldn't they start working on their own white paper and unique presentation? That makes sense right?

Plagiarism in Whitepapers by crappy ICOs/altcoins is common these days. But, it's not really Plagiarism if the author mention other whitepaper as source/reference

True.

[vina.lugtu]

I think this has been happening is one is getting punished. Plagiarism is not a serious crime and most of us will just turn the other cheek around every time we see something like that.  I hate it when an ICO copied a whitepaper including the spelling errors and wrong grammars. I don't speak perfect English but  I know when it sounds different. They should at least hire someone who can do the editing. No wonder there are ICO's who fail and ICO's who sold more than they can offer.

[bzdrv]

I was very worried that my paper was completely different from the rest, I copied it several times, and now I am copying it, now I understand that it is necessary to write as it is and do not try to be like.
Now I'm calm. 

[Maricel2017]

Plagiarism in Whitepapers content is normal as long as they are different project, but much better if the whitepaper of one project is unique to catch more attention of many readers specially those real investors.

[stantpro]

Plagiarism is an indication of scam due to the fact that there is no
originality in the content of the white paper.This singular act if detected
should be a deterrent to subscribing to such platforms they may never mean
well for for innocent prospective subscribers.Hence, desist from such ICOs once
plagiarism is discovered for this is a very awful thing to do.

[paymentbox]

Today I was reading a whitepaper trying to do a product review, it is one of the most popular projects if you take into account the telegram users... and the whitepaper has a lot of plagiarised content 

As a university student this shocks me, as something similar in academia would result in expulsion from the university.

My short video rant here: https://youtu.be/JmVAyC-XFSA

What are your thoughts on this?

I see a lot of ICOs doing this, some which are real projects, but it definitely should raise questions about the project and the team behind it.

[rivkavender]

just dont invest in something then if you think its plagiarized

[DefDope66]

It certainly seems that there is no longer any concern for plagiarism. I saw plenty of it myself when I was a student and had to work with team members. I would catch other members of the team straight up plagiarizing off the internet with no repercussions.

The norm today is to use existing copy - whether a whitepaper or something else - as a template with a few changes made to personalize it. I would certainly say this a giant grey area and crosses over to plagiarism. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be much that can be done about it.

[rayk]

Maybe you can't find plagiarism in many whitepapers but you can easily see most are copy of each other. Some projects even copy the ann thread, graphics etc.

[easemypain]

This is a very wrong act, this is done through the stealing and publication of another author's content creations either visual, writing thereby presenting theses contents as one 's own.

coming to the issue of the whitepaper plagiarism , this should be a unique content presented in a writing form, with technical illustrations of how a specific project is going to execute. It explains how the team behind the project is credible and reliable while they try to convince the individual investors. it is very ok to reference an author's when we write at least no man is an Island.

[DigitalFox]

Today I was reading a whitepaper trying to do a product review, it is one of the most popular projects if you take into account the telegram users... and the whitepaper has a lot of plagiarised content 

As a university student this shocks me, as something similar in academia would result in expulsion from the university.

My short video rant here: https://youtu.be/JmVAyC-XFSA

What are your thoughts on this?

Usually that would be one of scam indicators to me. I'd stay clear of it.

[crypto_nd]

This is one of those reason most government don't like this crypto business. There are no law that govern or punish people who commit such criminal acts thus it will make this kind of crime reocuring which consequencely deter legit investors from investing in legit any good project. plagiarism of white paper is not and never a good thing, and yet check their bounty programs rules you will notice how ridiculous it is.

[jamesndungu1]

Today I was reading a whitepaper trying to do a product review, it is one of the most popular projects if you take into account the telegram users... and the whitepaper has a lot of plagiarised content  

As a university student this shocks me, as something similar in academia would result in expulsion from the university.

My short video rant here: https://youtu.be/JmVAyC-XFSA

What are your thoughts on this?

This is why we need educated people like you to help blockchain projects succeed, Understand this are start-up projects and they may have limited resources to lay out everything to top quality standards, The founders may have quality very bright idea about how to change the world but doesn't have human resources to help in documenting the project - this is where you step in.

SUGGESTION: Contact the project moderators, update them about the error and its implications, tell them your academic qualification and you are willing to correct their plagiarized whitepaper and present it into the required standards in exchange for equity/Utility tokens. (Bounty)

This is what we do during bounty hunting we help blockchain projects succeed.

[JungleBadman]

Plagiarism in a whitepaper is inexcusable in my opinion. How do they expect people to take the project seriously if they cant even take themselves seriously. A half arsed whitepaper makes a half arsed project.

SUGGESTION: Contact the project moderators, update them about the error and its implications, tell them your academic qualification and you are willing to correct their plagiarized whitepaper and present it into the required standards in exchange for equity/Utility tokens. (Bounty)

Atleast this is a constructive way of trying to fix the issue.

[Crypto_circuit]

Plagiarism in whitePaper is a very serious offence it show the team haven't done their due diligence and if they can sit down to determine the purpose and how to achieve a project they definitely not worth investing in. It's very simple.