Plagiarism in Whitepapers, what do you think?

[vanhuy]

Damn it is not good at all. That proves that the founder or organization is not enthusiastic about their project. I think I should stay away

[yoseph]

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. 

This is basically because they know that people don't normally read the whitepapers of these ICOs and i wouldn't really trust any ICO if they are able to plagiarize the work of another ICO.

[jonajek]

I do see whitepaper that seems content on it are from another content. It is not really plagiarism because if you can review the whitepaper, at the end, they are mentioning their resources to come up with a nice and decent whitepaper to attract investors and bounty hunters..

[bravehearth0319]

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?

Plagiarism nowadays was very trending in most of the ico project they've just changed or add something to make it not same with the other ico.

I just noticed that several times in different ico bounty campaign actually. However in my idea this is a kind of violation or offense in my way of

thinking only.

[infoprener]

For a weak team, copying the white paper of another project looks very tempting. To create the original requires a lot of creativity and a thorough approach. But on the other hand this makes it possible, when choosing an ICO for the bounty campaign, to properly evaluate the team. Although this will not say anything about the product or value of the service that the project represents

[KevinHD]

Well, plagiarism is a common thing in making a whitepaper for a company's ICO Project. They commonly copies some on their WP from other failed projects, and some really owned it, failed, and changed the idea and tried another one. Some you might think it is copied, yet due to a lot of ICO projects with the same idea and theme, instances of having the same thought on their whitepapers is highly not doubtful.

Yet with this cases, find an ICO who's whitepaper is original. So you can absolutely feel safe, yet cannot be comfortable that it would be a success.

[hunterWood]

I think it's great because it exposes that the team should not be trusted. Only in that sense. It's not great that they're doing that, just great that they can easily get exposed. Though I heard Tron plagiarized and it's doing good.

[siekeheros]

When the developers take shortcuts on suck basic things as a whitepaper, it should be a major red flag to anyone considering to invest. Even if sources are mentioned i consider plagiarism anywhere to reflect the work to come in any project. I don't like it, condone it or invest in it.

[Strufmbae]

If a developer is plagiarizing other projects content then the product is not unique and the possibility outcome would turn into scam. Means only Noob investor will fall into that trap.

[varun bee]

i think recently DADI was caught plagiarizing but that has become a sort of industry norm in crazy ICO bull run which gave birth to never heard of blockchain experts. TRON had a very bad rep regarding its whitepaper. But contrary to popular belief it helped many projects in making $$ even though the plagiarizing news was in public domain. it will take time to amend these shortcomings, untill the situation changing.

[josephdd1]

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. 

This is basically because they know that people don't normally read the whitepapers of these ICOs and i wouldn't really trust any ICO if they are able to plagiarize the work of another ICO.

This is a very bad reputation for those people out there part-taking in such practices. Though, my view on this is that if the team is not serious enough about their idea that's when they may try to fall into this, otherwise if the team has a brilliant idea they would WANT to explain in the whitepaper why is that so, and so the good ICOs won't want the shortcut others might take.

[Papcio77]

Usually those project copied or had some plagiarize content in any if their writen information such whitepaper. Big sign of the team will be runaway after getting a huge amount of money through fake ICO sales, scam. After realizing the truth about the project just leave and find some better most. We dont need to do further research and its already clear what indication sbowed up

[sergiokkl]

If you find some thought being copied. You don't need to continue searching for deep information. Already said it just waste project and maybe it is scam. No one great project do plagiarism so no doubt that's is a shit project. Stay away, there are a lot which good valued token can worth

[clip123]

I think Plagiarism is the new norm to scam people for quick buck. It is challenging to identify good projects - something like Neo, OMG or Startis etc.

[beej]

If plagiarism is clearly that noticeable then it's contents can be questionable.
The whole package and project itself might as well be suspected as a scam.
Maybe we can put this as an early immediate indication of fraud. If it applies
to all ICO whitepapers that have practice copying and editing materials. 

[merj99]

As a writer (and former student) any kind of plagiarism bothers me. 

I don't care if it's the same group writing for multiple projects, they need to present unique content. That's not to say they can't get guidance from an outline but definitely use your own words and convey the true voice behind the company!

I like what beej said too:

If plagiarism is clearly that noticeable then it's contents can be questionable.
The whole package and project itself might as well be suspected as a scam.

It would make me think twice about investing in them because if they're cutting corners with a fundamental piece of information, what else are they being cheap with?

[prechi]

So many ongoing and upcoming ICOs find it really difficult to have a unique product thereby end up copying others and surely there will be plagiarism when the product is not originally their idea.

[gabrielkings]

This is so inevitable because many projects are just copy and paste... with everyone claiming to be best and sometimes first. Hardly new projects coming with unique products again.

[Docnaster]

A lot of ICOs just pay random idiots on websites like fiverrr.com and freelancer to write their whitepaper, these people don't understand the depths and intricacies of the project, leading them to search for this information online. Unfortuntately there isn't much information available online, meaning the less creative writers will start to plagiarize the little material they have.

Here's a lesson guys, write your own damn whitepaper, or actually take the time to fully brief the guys on the project.

[jeron31]

If a project copypasted its whitepaper, then for me it is scam. Whitepaper is the most important thing for me when i analyze projects.