This post is basically a little in-house housekeeping.  Well, that didn’t work, so now I decided to go a little public with the matter, after about two months after a simple request wasn’t honored; rather than do the right thing the first time, or the second — phone tag, a flurry of emails, when simply what it called for was a little honesty — a link, and acknowledge the source.

So, this post is just a matter of principle among the ranks (?) of people wishing that the family courts were honest, and active in blogging/writing about it. and among people who actually speak up, look up, and have anything original about the AFCC, which is a far smaller segment.

I see it as a form of “housekeeping” and do not appreciate having to spend even three minutes on this topic for the three minutes blogger didn’t take.  This is regrettable, but simple.  I obviously blog AFCC — a lot — and some of the people I deal with, know that, and also deal with others who, apparently saw fit to steal a segment of my post.  And, for that matter, at least twice, (in the same manner) several paragraphs of someone else’s, without link or acknowledgement.

3,418 words is basically a full post (even if it may be about one-third of some of mine).

And those who are upset about government breaking protocol and stealing children (admittedly a worse problem) shouldn’t be reblogging others’ work (over 3,000 words of it, verbatim, unlinked) without acknowledgment or link (which is stealing, too).

http://www.plagiarism.org/plag_article_what_is_plagiarism.html

According to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, to “plagiarize” means

• to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one’s own
• to use (another’s production) without crediting the source
• to commit literary theft
• to present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source.

In other words, plagiarism is an act of fraud. It involves both stealing someone else’s work and lying about it afterward.

But can words and ideas really be stolen?

According to U.S. law, the answer is yes. The expression of original ideas is considered intellectual property, and is protected by copyright laws, just like original inventions. Almost all forms of expression fall under copyright protection as long as they are recorded in some way (such as a book or a computer file).

In that post, where I was addressing a situation in Wayne County, MI (county seat is Detroit), not Carver County, MN, I began with a review of the AFCC (setting context).   I was fairly surprised then to find the midsections had been lifted wholesale and posted on the other blog, with links to twitter, email, diggit, press it, facebook it (etc.) and not a hint of whose work it was — mine.  This blog’s.  Do I do that here?

I know at least one contributor to other pages, and understand that person doesn’t care about her name on the work (and has a reason for it not to be, as I understand it), but that’s between them.  I was a complete stranger to this person when she grabbed my material without linking to it.

It disturbs me in the sense of, ‘what was going through the blogger’s thinking, or what wasn’t?

(You want a post, but no time to write it?  So you’re going to take someone else’s instead?  No problem — you highlight (included some scrolling down in this case I’m sure), you hit “copy,” you switch windows to your blog, new post or page, you hit “Paste” and then you go BACK, grab the URL (link) and you put that link on the post where it belongs, not to mention name the blog you got it from might be nice, assuming we are all in this business together…..  

• highlight (select)
• CTRL-C
• change windows, position cursor on blank page/post
• CTRL-V (maybe CTRL-S, “Save”)
• GO BACK to where you got it from, click on url address.
• CTRL-A (select it all) / CTRL-C
• RETURN TO YOUR PAGE
• HIGHLIGHT TITLE, perhaps, or even just paste the raw link on the page
• CTRL-C
• Type in “from Let’s Get Honest” or “from FamilyCourtMatters” or perhaps a five-word acknowledgement that might take 10 seconds to one minute to dream up, and type in.
• EXTRA CREDIT — would be to mention to me (comment on the blog) that you got my post now.

This was not a few paragraphs posted to make a point, and connected by some original comments by the blog author. It was large section of my (humongous) post, simply taken and reposted under the other site.  To correct it — all that was needed would’ve been a link, and maybe a sentence or two of intro, why’s it up there, how she personally responded to it what it’s doing there (anything to indicate there are two writers involved there:  the one you copied, and the one on your wordpress masterpiece corruption-busting blog.  Or, a very simple pointing to where it came from.

There were some private back and forths about two months ago — I was quite surprised at the response (posted below, the gist of it).   The wordpress blog it shows up on is called:

CARVER COUNTY CORRUPTION:  “Carver County Minnesota nears lead position of counties flagged in U.S. showing signs of corruption.” 

(flagged by whom?)

And has titles such as:

• All CCC Posts
• Articles for Banken vs Banken
• Christopher Banas, Banas Family Law
• Fraud and Corruption
• Judge Perkins Orders CCC Blog Down
• Mindy Mitnick – A Toxic Force
• Minnesota`s `Penn State` Scandal
• Signs of Safety Carver County, MN

The purpose of the post is advocacy in specific cases, it seems.  I admire the formatting, it looks good, and the information is accessible.  However:

My post

is (still) at:  https://familycourtmatters.wordpress.com/2011/07/03/my-response-to-wayne-county-mi-issues-behind-many-issues-is-often-an-afcc-judge-and-what-afcc-entails/

and reads (title/beginnning):

My response to Wayne County, MI issues: Behind many issues is often an AFCC judge…. (and what “AFCC” entails)

with 2 comments

By saying “I” (I can’t think of any field . . . . ) — this is appropriate on my blog, which has one author.  It’s not appropriate (without quotes) on someone else’s — because it’s not their thinking, or speech.  This is (I thought) common sense.  A little blurred boundaries here….

The plagiarized post

is (still, unlinked) at  http://carvercountycorruption.wordpress.com/afcc-hhs-pedophile-ringfather-manifesto-groups-2/whowhat-is-the-afcc/

and reads/is titled:

(not using my title, but a good chunk of the contents) from My July 3, 2011 post (herein) with a different title:

Who/What is the AFCC?

At the bottom of this post — which is ALL my writing and handiwork, including my selecting quotes from other pages (notice links to them) and connecting narrative, a concluding statement using the first person, “I” — misplaced to a different blog, different blog author, attributes the statement (in its new context) to someone else — not Let’s Get Honest:

It can be seen from the wordpress blog archives that this blog only began in July, 2011 — my post is dated July 2011, blog begun in 2009.

It can be also seen that its primarily (though not only) advocacy for two local cases (Carolyn Rice and Lea Banken) from this segment (date range Sept. 2011 through Feb 2012) under the heading JUDGE ORDERS CCC BLOG TAKEN DOWN.  I’ve copied all 20 posts under that tag here.  The January 3, 2012 one “In a Nutshell (lined with Snake Oil)“ starts out apparently blogger writing, and within the first sentence, goes right into direct quotes from NAFCJ.net (liz Richards) blog, without acknowledging her, either.

Recognizing immediately the writing and material (I’ve worked with Ms. Richards and often quote her work)  I submitted a comment immediately, saying why don’t you link and quote?  Then I saw my own work treated the same way.   To this date at least, she has neither linked, nor acknowledged that January 3, 2012  writing  — except for the first half sentence, a specific  (Banken) case — is not her own.  I’d call that a plagiarism habit formed by now.  See post below.

From my email lookups, attempts at contact by phone (responding to my first messages & some phone tag) started about 1/10-13/2012.  By 1/16/2012 they were over with (to my recall).

Per emails (looked up just now), it was  1/10-16th/2012 I was contacted because of my comments, and some attempt made (both ways) for phone contact. Here’s the basic response about that time, from the copy-and-paste other people’s stuff–minus-the-links court-corruption-stopper:

You need to simmer down… seriously. 

I took the post of pending review – BECAUSE I emailed you waiting to hear back. 

Good grief XXXX… Really? There is no harm meant. 

I am in the middle of a busy day too… we all are. Why you are freaking out about this is simply blowing my mind. 

What would you suggest I do with the post? Leave it off? Put a link to your blog on there? What would you like? Your wish is my command. This is ridiculous. You are wasting your time boasting about this… we have better things to worry about, right? 

As nothing was forwarded or quoted to me, (what I allegedly said or emailed) I don’t know which comments consisted of “freaking out” or represented a “need to simmer down,” and take it as simply blowing off the straightforward request to straighten up — cite, when you quote.  I also don’t know why it would “blow her mind” to actually have contact with someone whose work she’d just nabbed and requested it be acknowledged.   Try that in a retail shop  — take something, whether valuable, or in your eyes, “nothing” and then criticize the shopkeeper “No harm meant, what’s your problem?”  It’s still shoplifting.  Written work, from a blog, posted as your own, it’s plagiarism.

I didn’t feel like there’s a whole lot to discuss til this was corrected (stick up a link!), and responded (after some phone tag and emails around the phone tag) simply, and pretty promptly:

Yes, that was me.

 

It’s real simple — when you use someone else’s material, you stick up at least a link to it, and say where it’s from.   It’s the right thing to do, and I don’t think needs a lot more explanation.

A few weeks (the next month) later, a third person, court-reform advocate, and a good one, gets involved and while railing about some other matter, sandbagged this issue into it, accused me of some wild things re: this situation, including that I threatened to sue this person, and then attributing my (imagined) intent to sue to my jealousy of (said third person).  This is one reason I don’t do many on-line groups any more — there’s enough volatility dealing with one’s ex-abuser, and all the chaos introduced into one’s life surrounding custody, child support, and attempts to retain a safe distance knowing that there is no legal remedy to do so.

Somehow I don’t have any email I sent threatening to sue her, would be crazy to undertake this (we all have open cases); don’t remember saying it —  I just don’t like seeing my stuff lifted, and believe that if “we’re all in this together” (which is a frequent theme among mothers, whether or not it’s true), that a courtesy link could be added — and why resist that, simply say “oops,” put it up there and move on — and quit doing the same thing to others, also!

So, in blogging and saving the world, or a certain County within the world, if you’re too rushed to post a simple link, or type a quotation mark, you’re too rushed to open your mouth.  Can we (mothers, noncustodial or otherwise, and/or grandmothers if this applies) stick to that please?  

It’s a shame because as I recall, same blog, someone had actually written off for invoices on access/visitation expenditures (the literal payment history) and stuck it up on line!  Apparently this, or similar reporting, helped get a mother out of jail that was in there improperly, i.e., the county’s (or court’s) bluff was called.

Well, that’s terrific — but a separate matter.  Still, I feel it appropriate to call someone’s bluff — post your own work, or link to what you copy.  PERIOD.  I don’t care if people think I’m a pompous ass for requesting this — it’s simply right, failing to do so is simply fraudulent.  I have not joined a communist society with other women where “all things are common” and “what’s mine is yours and vice versa.”  What I do is —  for FREE — put my investigative reporting and handiwork up here, and participate, as it comes up, in on-line forums on relevant issues.   I have less blogging skills (am learning) and began this blog when flat-broke, stuck (as to pressing forward for contact with my kids and other matters) and unable to do much more than sit and look things up.  I did it from the concern in my heart about what was hidden from me because not enough people took the time to blog it.

In other words, I put the work in — you didn’t.  So don’t steal — whether small, or large.  People are paying attention.

I hope this is sufficiently embarrassing, but have been around enough to know that some people just don’t embarrass; it requires a consciousness of right and wrong in the matter at hand.  I have no intention of starting a girl-gang war (although it may happen) over this matter, but it bugs me, and people that want to fix something so major as the courts should be able to figure this out simply.  Put up the damn link:  when you copy, go back and add the link!  no matter whose work you are copying.

If you have personally digested some material and are capable of talking about it to strangers or friends, and do so in your own words, based on having read others’ work, that’s an entirely (!) different matter; it has become your own material.  This is why books have forwards and acknowledgement pages — get it (cracked one recently?)

Wonder if Liz Richards, Cindy Ross’s and my work (none of which are identical) as CarverCountyCorruption’s is going around facebook, too.  

NOTE– this copy & paste (unacknowledged) of Liz Richards’ work happened not once, but twice in the thread — see Sept. 4, 2011 also.  I’ll mark it Purple.

FROM CarverCountyCorruption, under Label JUDGE ORDERS CCC BLOG TAKEN DOWN:

<><><>

The blog author has still not linked to my work.  It’s just one post — but the process of requesting, being told to “simmer down” and then no correcting it — has gone by, plus another month or so.

It was simply slapped up there (copy a large portion of it, paste into a wordpress post (I think, or page) and published.  As the post then enables people to LIKE (facebook), Twit, etc. it — without a single acknowledgment to source, and if people are doing this, then it’s potentially being broadcast around the net bringing attention to that blog, not this one.  My blog is not all about my case — it was designed for use in various states.  I am not using this blog to affect a certain court case, and pulling people in to my circle for the purpose of affecting one or two cases only.  That was a different group of people’s style, which was unfair to the larger scope of the nation, by not systematically teaching and posting, what’s happening, who caused it, how you might stop it.

Moreover, someone had been searching my blog consistently (any statcounter owner knows we can see who’s visiting — public can see less than we can) searching for “Mindy Mitnick” comments — and I was assured this wasn’t the blog author.  It may not have been, but somehow the AFCC information was posted up there right next to a post on Mindy Mitnick and AFCC (I’d simply noticed, earlier, Ms. Mitnick was on the Board of AFCC).

Volunteer Blogging is important — our viewpoint has not been “funded” and so censored according to HHS or other policy.  We are simply telling what we see, like it is, best we can.  To undercut other bloggers who do this by plagiarizing is really bad form, and to continue in it without remedy when all I asked for with a link is questionable.  FYI, one way women’s groups control each other’s behaviors (without stating what the limits or principles are) is that we have to “all get along” and anyone who doesn’t (like, confronts, or points out a wrongdoing, or disagrees with a strategy, if it’s that kind of group) is personality-profiled (based on exaggerated interpretation of statements, and/or fantasy; due process is thrown out the window) — which is exactly what abusers do to women, in derailing their complaints and points.   I don’t appreciate that, and will generally (if there’s a reason to stick around, or need to follow up on a matter) confront it head-on.

Possibly there is some semi-legitimate explanation now (there wasn’t for not fixing it right when I brought it up), but either way, I posted this on a nearby page (as no opportunity to put it on the plagiarized page was available on the blog):

“Leave a Comment on “AFCC and Mindy Mitnick, Custody Evaluator”  “

1. 
   Let’s Get Honest Says: Your comment is awaiting moderation.
   March 15, 2012 at 2:11 pmLook, Lea, I’m getting tired of this. I have open cases, am no less busy or less of an advocate than you are — and yet it only takes a minute to put up a link. Athena has gotten angry with me (privately) for actually asking you to simply acknowledge your sources! If you can insert a youtube link (above), if you can quote a fathers’ rights guy (Stephen Baskerville) right underneath the link to Crisis in the Courts (Lord knows why — the crisis in the courts is in good part due to fatherhood funding….), then you can put in THIS link: https://familycourtmatters.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=2947&action=edit
   to MY post on Wayne County MI (not on Carver County, MN) titled:/ / / / / / / / / / / / /
   “My response to Wayne County, MI issues: Behind many issues is often an AFCC judge…. (and what “AFCC” entails)”
   \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \. . .from which you have simply cut & pasted (not adding anything, or mentioning the name of my blog, or linking to it, at all) a segment, and stuck up for others to twit, email, facebook (etc.) without linking back to it source, as we see here:http://carvercountycorruption.wordpress.com/afcc-hhs-pedophile-ringfather-manifesto-groups-2/whowhat-is-the-afcc/
   under the title (see above, top right of your blog here, drop-down underneath the AFCC Chart:
   _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
   “Who/What is the AFCC?
   Review Time – who/what is the “AFCC”?:“AFCC JUDGE” — Briefly, by this, it means all that AFCC believes, entails and habitually DOES.What is AFCC?
   AFCC is the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts – an interdisciplinary and international association of professionals dedicated to the resolution of family conflict. . . ._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _You’re complaining about corruption in the state, but this just plain dishonest (I won’t go so far as to say “corrupt”) on your part, and a reflection on your character, and by association, noncustodial mothers. It’s a form of stealing.I have been asked to correct honest mistakes on my blog, and done so the minute I became aware of it.I asked you courteously, but firmly, by private email, and rather than acknowledge and fix it, you blown me off (aren’t we all in this together? response), and continued to fail to do anything about it — are you incarcerated, sick or what’s the VALID excuse? If there is one, contact me on blog.I have begun to twitter this plagiarism, because it’s simply wrong to steal other people’s writing. I put time into it. I don’t do plagiarize and you shouldn’t either. And I seriously doubt Carver county is the most corrupt county around, as you declare. Wayne County, MI (which I was posting on back in July 2011) has had a mother stand off a SWAT team and CPS, she fired shots to stand off illegal home invasion with intent to kidnap and drug her 13 yr old disabled girl. see “Justice4maryanne” or “Godboldo” on-line.Although your case is local, the forces you are dealing with are NOT local, of which AFCC is one part, not the only nationwide nonprofit association.In all the years I’ve been dealing with the family courts (over 10) and blogging (about three, consistently) I have only run across 3 people who did this [**] — and you are one of them. Congratulations. Fix it now, please. Just add a link – – and a dated comment apologizing for its omission near the top. Shame on you! despite what looks otherwise like a fine blog. I will be protecting myself from defamation by posting this comment on my blog also. What a waste of valuable time. Please don’t do it to others either, good grief….Do your own GD work, or, when you use others’ (which we all do), acknowledge the source — so if visitors actually like it, they have another resource, which is the intent of my blog.Reply[[END OF COMMENT I SUBMITTED TODAY]]
   (I posted the “dashboard” version of the link, and have to go correct it: https://familycourtmatters.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=2947&action=edit   should be obviously more normal-looking https://familycourtmatters.wordpress.com/2011/07/03/my-response-to-wayne-county-mi-issues-behind-many-issues-is-often-an-afcc-judge-and-what-afcc-entails/

   We’ll see if this comment is posted.  It’s not been the first one.  I also did the same for some of Liz Richard’s (uncited) work on another post before seeing (with some shock) my own.[**the other one was Ms. Dombrowski, a long time ago (we were blogging each other’s stuff a lot), and the other a noncustodial mother from FL, who I’d done a lot of personal lookups for in her case, a few days’ worth, before finding out she was posting my stuff without so much as a hat-tip.  That was perhaps a little more understandable, as she’d been sucked into the “PMA” alliance (Lundy Bancroft by way of Janice Levinson) and was apparently under pressure to recruit, like good cults insist be done.

   Guess if it was worth stealing, it wasn’t too bad a post. (I see I provided the “admin” version of a link, but anyone can look up the post by date or title, and copy the right URL into it).

   THIS comment was put up under the 9/3/11 nab of an NAFCJ post, I think it was from there….

   About ncpp

   ncpp: National Coalition for Protective Parents Exposing Corruption in Carver County Minnesota Family Court/CPS and Foster Care System. Government Abuse IS Child Abuse for Profit. We The People… are no longer tolerating; TAXPAYER dollars (billions) used to separate, and financially demolish families.
   I am wondering who this coalition is, or what it is.  The words “Coalition” is borrowed from a number of places (often “National coalition against domestic violence” types) and the phrase “protective parents” is well-known, pretty well associated with California Protective Parents Association (which has hooked up with Center for Judicial Excellence, and helping promote one of the videos seen on this blog, i.e., the Crisis in the Courts one, interviewing various parents (mostly women) who lost their kids to molesters).   the CADVs and CPPA are actually nonprofits, as is CJE.
   I looked in In MINNESOTA (Search string) under this name — nothing found.  I looked under “National Coalition” and got three hits:

   National Coalition For Purity Business Status: Active Business Type: Nonprofit Corporation (Domestic) Name Type: Minnesota Business Name	Details
   National Coalition of Free Men, Twin Cities Chapter Business Status: Active Business Type: Assumed Name Name Type: Minnesota Business Name	Details
   National Coalition of Survivors For Violence Prevention Business Status: Active Business Type: Nonprofit Corporation (Foreign) Name Type: Minnesota Business Name

   I looked under “Protective Parents” (active and inactive both, and “Contains”) and came up blank
   I googled the entire name “National Coalition of Protective Parents” and (apart from this blog) found some similar — but not the same — groups.  I presume this is one that will be incorporated one of these days (doesn’t cost much, does it?) assuming it’s going to be cited to lend credibility (nationwide, no less) on the blog and in personal mails.  There may be other places to look, but I expect this is kind of like attempting to look larger or more established than one is — which is a known habit of AFCC folk, and not that commendable.  However, to each their own.
   TWEETED IT:
   Let’s Get Honest ‏ @LetUsGetHonest

   •  Reply 
   •  Delete 
   •  Favorite 
   • · Open

   “A Matter of Priorities”@http://wp.me/psBXH-12Y: Re: MyNabbedPost@http://carvercountycorruption.wordpress.com/afcc-hhs-pedophile-ringfather-manifesto-groups-2/whowhat-is-the-afcc (my work, no link & http://NAFCJ.net‘s, 2x)

    View media

   8hLet’s Get Honest ‏ @LetUsGetHonest

   •  Reply 
   •  Delete 
   •  Favorite 
   • · Open

   LeaBanken,myFamilyCourtMatters.wordpress is NAT’L scope, has resources.. (http://carvercountycorruption.wordpress.com/afcc-hhs-pedophile-ringfather-manifesto-groups-2/whowhat-is-the-afcc/..)to Quote Me Verbatim Take Credit for it=??

    View media

   8hLet’s Get Honest ‏ @LetUsGetHonest

   •  Reply 
   •  Delete 
   •  Favorite 
   • · Open

   http://www.plagiarism.org/plag_article_what_is_plagiarism.html. LetsGetHonest requests LeaBanken (having asked 1st privately) get HONEST about source of Who/What is AFCC post, NOW!

   9hLet’s Get Honest ‏ @LetUsGetHonest

   •  Reply 
   •  Delete 
   •  Favorite 
   • · Open

   CARVERCOUNTYCORRUPTION (http://wp.me/P1FLm8-c8) still plagiarizes MY 7/3/11 post (http://wp.me/psBXH-Lx.). You link to others, why not my blog?

    View media

   9hLet’s Get Honest ‏ @LetUsGetHonest

   •  Reply 
   •  Delete 
   •  Favorite 
   • · Open

   Who/What is the AFCC? http://wp.me/P1FLm8-c8 via@wordpressdotcom This is MY 7/3/11 research and writing, fromhttp://wp.me/psBXH-Lx. Link Pls!

    View media