More Shenanigans From Kevin Fischer

As first reported by Cindy over at Fairly Conservative, our old friend Kevin Fischer seems to be up to some old tricks. Apparently Kevin, the crack journalist that he is, can't seem to understand - or just doesn't care - that cutting and pasting large portions of works written by other authors is a violation of the Fair Use doctrine, as outlined by the U.S. Copyright Office:

The 1961 Report of the Register of Copyrights on the General Revision of the U.S. Copyright Law cites examples of activities that courts have regarded as fair use: "quotation of excerpts in a review or criticism for purposes of illustration or comment; quotation of short passages in a scholarly or technical work, for illustration or clarification of the author's observations; use in a parody of some of the content of the work parodied; summary of an address or article, with brief quotations, in a news report; reproduction by a library of a portion of a work to replace part of a damaged copy; reproduction by a teacher or student of a small part of a work to illustrate a lesson; reproduction of a work in legislative or judicial proceedings or reports; incidental and fortuitous reproduction, in a newsreel or broadcast, of a work located in the scene of an event being reported."

Now I'm not a journalist, but even I know that the kind of wholesale plagiarism shown by Kevin Fischer is simply unethical for someone who does claim to be a journalist. Further, the fact that Kevin Fischer feels he needs to resort to ripping off the writing of others shows just how lazy and intellectually bankrupt he really is. Then again, given his propensity for spouting whatever the conservative talking points happen to be at that time he writes his entries, I'm not entirely shocked he's chosen to take shortcuts.

Well, at least we don't have to worry about Kevin winning a Pulitzer Prize anytime soon.

EDIT: Here's the response I got from Mark Maley, the NOW Online Editor, when I asked if he was okay with Fischer's Fair Use violations:

Zachary:
You'll have to take this up with Kevin Fischer, who is responsible for the content of his own blog.

I'll send him a copy of your email and my response.


Mark Maley
NOW Online Editor