Poster plagiarism problems pester Purrington persistently

One of the best websites for conference poster advice was created by Colin Purrington. At the end of last month, he tweeted:

I accuse company of plagiarizing. They respond by suing me. Retweet if you think they are bullies.

I will let Colin pick up the story from there on his own blog.

Of course, the (poster advice) page is on the Internet so people plagiarize me. ... I got the ultimate response, from The Consortium for Plant Biotechnology Research, Inc. in Georgia (I’ll paraphrase): ”No, we won’t comply…and instead we will accuse you of plagiarizing us.”

Retraction Watch is also covering the story, with this editorial comment:

(W)e’re troubled by the heavy-handed approach here. Setting aside the question of who has true ownership of the words and ideas, is it really necessary to involve the services of an expensive attorney, who probably billed his client some bucks simply to ignore our two voice mail messages, to work this thing out?

For the record, while it can be hard to find, this blog has a Creative Commons license. Use anything here you want as long as you give me credit, and don’t sell it.

Update: Purrington has no heard feelings, and wants to become the company’s next CEO.

External links

The Consortium for Plant Biotechnology Research, Inc.
Plagiarism spat over scientific poster prep advice escalates to legal threats