@rebeccabe

Theft of intellectual property is such a big issue - along with plagiarism. Both are serious no-nos and, I think, the people that do it have no ethics. About 20-odd years ago, I developed and used to run a basic fundraising workshop. I wrote the materials, the assessments, everything, and it was incorporated into a course for development workers that was being rolled out all over South Africa. Having run a few in the province where I then lived, the senior consultant had to run the course in her province. Without a "by your leave" the entire workshop - materials, assessments, the lot were copied and put into a new cover and run by someone else. I found out - I can't remember how - but was never told nor was the IP acknowledged.

The agreement had been that I developed the course and would, in exchange, run it for each course. For which, of course, I was paid. When the budget ran out, it was cheaper to use a local (less qualified) - his/her fees were lower and because there were no flight and accommodation costs. Should I have made a stink? Probably, as that manuscript was intended to have been a published book. And it was, for a few years what I did - fundraising/development consulting, and I had been part of the team that developed the first university-based fundraising course in the country. I had a seriously vested interest in that material and associated IP.

Anyhow, I walked away. As it turns out, not a bad decision because I'm very happy that I left that sector behind.

Going back to Steemit: I suspect that there are people here who plagiarise with impunity and they need to be taken to task. Others, I think, don't know that they're doing it - and they need to be shown what they're doing and allowed at least once, how to make it right. Only if one had been in academe - even at a junior level - does one have a sense of how serious it is, and the implications of plagiarism.

It really irks me how people fail to understand that ideas have value. Ideas take time to brew. Time is money, right? That brings me to another beef: accountants, lawyers, doctors sell their time (effectively), but get paid a whack more than those of us who also sell our time writing, designing, editing, etc., and people haggle over what we charge. Do they do the same with accountants, lawyers and doctors?

Not so much!

Thank you for allowing me to vent my spleeen!

Fiona