Plagiarism

Doug Gordon in Lindenhurst, New York

Gallery 35 Comments

Where do I begin?

Back in June, it was discovered that Doug Gordon, yes, THAT Doug Gordon, had numerous posts on his workshop blog page that were not his original works.  Around 10 or so blogs were “outed” as not his own and they were quietly taken down before anyone thought to screen capture the proof.  

This week I decided to look up Doug and see if he’d cleaned up his act and if there was anything remaining on his website that was not his original works.  I was honestly surprised to find out how MANY blogs were left that were not his original works.  I then posted about it to my Facebook Page after debating on whether or not to post a page here and ultimately deciding against it since it was not images that were stolen.  Those blogs were quickly taken down but luckily this time, I screen captured.

I wasn’t going to make a post but in the end I decided to when I found out that his bio pages on Facebook were not his own words either.  It is the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back so to say.

Update 7/18:  I found a couple of the removed blogs on his personal Facebook page in the notes section.

I also have been told, many times, how his quips on Facebook are also not his own words so some of those are included as well.

Update 7/18:  Doug’s apology is now up.  Take it as you will but if you’ve been around Photo Stealers for any amount of time you will see that there is a pattern when it comes to being outed.

  1. Ignore
  2. Blame others
  3. Play the victim

I’ve been all over Doug’s Workshop AND personal Facebook pages today researching the statuses, notes and other things and never once saw a single negative comment on any of the pictures of his family. The only comment that was on a picture was his recent picture from a baseball game which had a link to this page.  Nothing offensive in that, my guess was it was a fan trying to get to the bottom of the story.

Also, the plagiarism was brought to Doug’s attention in June, back when the initial blog posts were discovered.  Back then, it didn’t create enough of a buzz to capture most people’s attention so the blogs that were outed were deleted and nothing more came of it until I decided to investigate further and discovered even more blogs were not completely original works.  If I were running a business and had hired someone who wrote all of my social media verbiage for me and discovered they were plagiarizing, I would be going over EVERYTHING with a fine toothed comb because the threat of a lawsuit for this kind of thing is very real and that’s beyond losing credibility with the people you depend on to make a living.  So the fact the blog and posts remained and further statuses, posts and so forth were posted that were not his original works makes me question this whole “the web designer/writer/intern” did it excuse.  Read some of the blogs below and ask yourself if a hired hand would have “ad libbed” what they did to change up the original pieces to fit into Doug’s blog.  It sure doesn’t sound professionally written to me, especially the ad-libbed bits in “A note about being myself” which is the last blog on this page which was one of the original blogs taken down in June but was still on one of his personal pages on Facebook.

Update 7/21

While this is not illegal, it certainly is underhanded and after debating on it, I decided to bring it to light.  There were quite a few comments in Doug’s apology stating that he has been caught using Black Hat SEO tactics and how he’d blown people off who had approached him about it in the past.  I did some digging around and what I found was pretty interesting and sad.  Scroll to the bottom for this.

Personal FB Page “About”

Personal Page II “About”

Workshop Page “About”

While the bio is quite witty and fun, it is not Doug’s original words.  They are actually Kevin A. Gilwa’s original words, which appeared on his lawfirm’s website.  Article about this bio with the bio included here.

Now onto his blog.  The blog is currently completely down.  Originally just the outed posts were taken down but now the whole thing is gone. However, there are screen captures. 🙂  Keep in mind that even if you change out words here and there to update the text to current times or to make it pertain to you, it still is plagiarism.

Originally located: http://douggordonworkshops.bigfolioblog.com/weblog/post/172065

Source: http://www.revolutionapparelblog.is/2011/01/03/how-to-realize-your-uniqueness-and-carve-a-niche/

Originally located: http://douggordonworkshops.bigfolioblog.com/weblog/post/155852

Source: http://www.canadaone.com/ezine/nov06/effective_decision_making.html

Originally located: http://douggordonworkshops.bigfolioblog.com/weblog/post/171936

Source: http://motivationaldiary.com/quotes/making-of-memory/

Originally located: http://douggordonworkshops.bigfolioblog.com/weblog/post/172045

Source: http://losetheexcuses.blogspot.com/2011/09/life-lessons-you-dont-know-so-dont.html

Originally located: http://douggordonworkshops.bigfolioblog.com/weblog/post/171978

Source:  http://uncomfortablesoul.com/post/15395291015/life-is-going-to-throw-you-so-many-obstacles-to

Originally located: http://douggordonworkshops.bigfolioblog.com/weblog/post/172063

Source: http://www.lensdiaries.com/photo-tips/every-photographer-needs-a-facebook-fan-page/

Originally located: http://douggordonworkshops.bigfolioblog.com/weblog/post/171921

Source: http://www.inspirationalstories.com/0/14.html

Originally located: http://douggordonworkshops.bigfolioblog.com/weblog/post/171932

Source: http://www.appleseeds.org/vip_quiz.htm

Originally located: http://douggordonworkshops.bigfolioblog.com/weblog/post/156707

Source:  http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/smallbusiness/columnist/edmunds/2005-04-20-opinions_x.htm

Originally located: http://douggordonworkshops.bigfolioblog.com/page/5

Facebook location: https://www.facebook.com/notes/doug-gordon/the-best-day-ever/10150094033089517

Source:  http://angryafrican.net/2008/09/15/how-i-love-my-wife/

Originally located: http://douggordonworkshops.bigfolioblog.com/weblog/post/155588

Source:  http://www.motivateus.com/stories/pursue-your-destiny.htm

Originally located: http://douggordonworkshops.bigfolioblog.com/weblog/post/155198

Facebook location: https://www.facebook.com/notes/doug-gordon/back-to-school-and-work/497374299516

Source: http://www.life360.com/blog/reasons-to-be-sad-about-back-to-school/

Originally located:  http://douggordonworkshops.bigfolioblog.com/weblog/post/154949

Source:  http://www.lifeoptimizer.org/2008/03/19/finding-happiness-20-ways-to-achieve-happiness-in-life/

Originally located:  http://douggordonworkshops.bigfolioblog.com/weblog/post/154626

Source:  http://www.trueinsights.com/inspirational/162

This one was part of the first batch of blogs that were discovered back in June, it is on his secondary FB account that he created to be friends with more photographers. 

Facebook location:  https://www.facebook.com/notes/doug-gordon-part-ii/a-note-about-being-myself/280739951939082

Source: http://www.oprah.com/spirit/Learning-to-Live-Week-1-Being-Honest-with-Yourself

I’m not saying that copying the Facebook statuses are as big of a deal as the blog content, but it further supports that this isn’t an accident, a whoops or some hired hand that should be ashamed of themselves.  It’s a repetitive pattern that has been going on.

Location: https://www.facebook.com/doug.gordon.549/posts/10151653800713415 

Source: http://www.funnystatus.com/statuses/post/i-used-to-think-i-was-good-at-multi-tasking.-turns-3208

image

Location: https://www.facebook.com/doug.gordon.549/posts/10151280805373415

Source: http://www.funnystatus.com/statuses/post/i-just-found-a-whip-a-mask-and-handcuffs-in-my-moms-0209

There’s more but I think you’ve got the picture?

This was the source code for his old workshop website (he got a new one yesterday).  Take note of the keywords he had (they have changed since I posted about this on the Facebook Page).

image

Yesterday Doug got himself a new workshop page and I bopped around it a bit.  I landed on his product page and decided to hit “All Products” because I honestly had no idea what he even sold beyond the light everyone’s talking about being marked up from $150 to $500.

Here’s the page I landed on: http://douggordonworkshops.myshopify.com/collections/all-products

Notice all of those tags on the right? They are tags on his products.  All of his products.

I never knew he was selling Jasmine Star.  Interesting.

Here is all of the keywords he’s using.  It’s a long one and I’ve got screen captures but copy and paste is a bit easier.