Portfolio Samples -- Yours, Mine and Ours

[EMMY_ARICIOGLU -at- HP-ROSEVILLE-OM3 -dot- OM -dot- HP -dot- COM]

     The current thread on portfolio samples has given me new perspective
     on a situation we have in our group. And gives rise to some serious
     questions concerning ethics within the writing community. I'm going to
     have to word this carefully (to protect you know whom) and you'll have
     to read "between" the lines, so bear with me.

     *Background

     A few months ago, some members of the tech writing staff were
     approached by a senior member (let's call him Bubba) of the tech
     writing staff. Bubba wanted information on one of the products (let's
     call it CardX). Bubba asked the tech writers who owned the CardX
     project to give him their doc files. Which they did because we have a
     very open organization. The tech writers then learned that Bubba was
     planning to write a book on the technology (not proprietary) behind
     CardX. This was surprising because Bubba had not worked on the CardX
     project and was not known to be any kind of SME on CardX.

     Several months passed and, lo and behold, Bubba's book was published
     (by a major publisher). What was really interesting to the tech
     writers was that the book contained verbatim paragraphs from the
     manuals and articles they had written and shared with Bubba. Upon
     closer examination, it appeared that the entire book was a compilation
     of (unedited) sections of documents the other tech writers had
     written. Interestingly, Bubba had expressed his thanks (in the book's
     foreword section) to some of the tech writers whom he had (ahem)
     "leveraged." However, the main leveragee's name had been mispelled
     (mentioned twice, in fact, and mispelled (differently) twice).

     *Question

     Does the concept of "plagiarism" still exist? In my past experience,
     plagiarism was considered very bad form. However, in our current,
     hurry-up-just-get-it-done work climate, is it now OK to just lift
     entire sentences, paragraphs, sections from another writer's work and
     put your name on it -- because you, the writer, don't own the work, the
     company does, and we all work for the same company, so it can't be
     plagiarism, it's called leveraging?

     In fact,should the leveragee get extra credit for saving the company
     money through the leveraging of previously written material? How much
     ownership does any paid writer have?

     Let's say that it is OK to leverage. Then, to carry this out to its
     logical conclusion, couldn't a writer could take any other company
     manual, put it into her/his portfolio, and represent it as hers/his?
     Let's also throw in a little Big Bubba (a la Bill Clinton) logic and
     ask what is meant by "my" writing (I am the company and the company is
     me).

     Now, I'm an old fogie who's admitting that the rules seem to have
     changed. I genuinely want to know if the (old) ethics of writing have
     changed. Do we have a new ethic when it comes to the ownership of
     writing? Also, what is the politically correct way to acknowledge
     Bubba's authorship? And should the rest of us "lock up the silver" the
     next time Bubba comes a calling?

     DISCLAIMER: I NEVER intend to personally do what I have presented
     here. I am only putting this out to get your opinions. I have my own
     personal opinion on the matter.

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