The IT Skeptic - Comments for "APMG accredited ITIL examination institute Peoplecert copying intellectual property?"

Websphere links safely removed

Nikos Vasilakos — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 17:15:39 +0000

Hi Chris,

All links to ServiceSphere were safely removed.

Blogroll ServiceSphere link removed as well.

Nikos Vasilakos
vasilakos at gmail
http://www.nikosvasilakos.gr

mashup model

skeptic — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 19:05:18 +0000

I completely agree but the Webworld has adopted the mashup model, where a clipping of the first bit followed by a link is considered acceptable use (because it can be automated). I can live with that because it acts in the original owner's favour by generating traffic not siphoning it away

Fair Use principle

Matthew — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 09:16:23 +0000

Skep

Actually I don't think the principle of fair use is being followed. My understanding of Fair Use, from publishing industry guidelines is that fair use allows for the copying of small amounts of material 'for the purpose of criticism or review'. Just copying a bit of a blog post and directing people to the original source is hardly 'criticism or review'.

two questions

skeptic — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 20:34:15 +0000

One by one the copied posts are being replaced by the first third of the post followed by a link to the original.

No value add. Nothing original to say. No indication of any knowledge of ITSM at all, let alone thought leadership. Not even an opinion on the original post. Just a mashup of the first bit. But at least the principle of fair use is being broadly followed and the original source acknowledged.

This leaves me with two questions in mind, to which I have no evidence or answer:

1) if APMG "work closely with our accredited organizations to ensure that services are delivered consistently, professionally, competitively and to a constantly high standard" clearly they didn't work closely enough with Peoplecert. I raised the issue initially of whether APMG could cope with an ever-increasing number of EIs to govern and whether they should be accrediting EIs in "murkier" parts of the world. Does this blatant abuse of intellectual property by an accredited EI point to APMG's inability to cope with the burgeoning ITIL industry?

2) Given Peoplecert's contempt of other people's intellectual property, I wonder where their courseware comes from?

Theft is the new black

ServiceSphere — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 14:30:00 +0000

Nikos,
I represent the ServiceSphere organization. I can understand your need to have content on your site. It is tough in these times to jump start your business. Unfortunately you did not ask permission for any of the videos, articles or podcast that you are showing on your site from us.

We wish to have all of our content removed immediately. This includes the blog roll.

Finally your use of our IP in your multiple Facebook fanpages without credit of any type is not only illegal but I find it to be deplorable.

You have 72 hours to remove all ServiceSphere content from your:
1. Multiple Blogs
2. Multiple Facebook Fan pages
3. Multiple twitter accounts

I have contacted Facebook and filed IP infringements against your fanpages.

In 72 hours we will "Jump Start" legal process.

Chris

itil-itsm-peoplecert.com

Nikos Vasilakos — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 10:41:16 +0000

Hi Vinod,

I personally reviewed and fulfilled your requests, one hour approx. after you posted them yesterday. Feel free to check them yourself.

Nikos Vasilakos
vasilakos at gmail

Progress

vinodka — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 05:14:46 +0000

Dear Nikos,

An organization (that too an accredited EI) - should not have chosen to 'jump start' and 'progress' by using other's contents.
I was unpleasantly surprised to see my blog contents copied word-by-word.

Now, we see some disclaimer posted on your site regarding the content belonging to original authors.
That is not enough, if you want to respect the copyright of the original authors.

Copying ENTIRE CONTENT and posting it as if your blog post is not acceptable.

You can review other's contents and refer to the original posts if you wish. You can even put a portion of the blog in your site with link to the original post for further reading.

Since you have given an email ID to report (as an aftertought in your 'work in progress') - I have sent a separate, formal mail on to that.

Hope some appropriate action happens there...

Vinod Agrasala
www.itserviceview.com
www.wings2i.com

work in progress

skeptic — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 20:09:00 +0000

I didn't review it - it was drawn to my attention by one of your irate victims. Perhaps it would be better described as an "other-people's-work in progress". You've jump started alright, by jumping on the backs of others.

Given the heavy letters that TSO send out to anyone who encroaches on your intellectual-property-based business monopoly, it is a bit rich when you leverage everyone else's hard work to build a commercial site that has so far contributed precisely nothing to the ITIL community.

This is either legal or moral copyright infringement. EIs have to do better than this if the community is going to tolerate your stranglehold on ITIL intellectual property. Your only honourable course of action is to take down any content you don't have permission to use, and to properly attribute that which you do have permission for.

Or - now here's a radical concept - perhaps you could make some intellectual effort to write about the other article, quoting portions of it appropriately to show you have something original to say and actually know something about ITSM

www.itil-itsm-peoplecert.com

Nikos Vasilakos — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 05:54:19 +0000

Hi, thanks for taking the time reviewing Peoplecert new external corporate blog http://www.itil-itsm-peoplecert.com.

This blog has just jump started (October 2010), so as it's a work in progress all issues will be resolved and addressed properly.

Somebody please educate the accreditors

skeptic — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 19:12:33 +0000

For those who follow the comment RSS of this blog, I just posted the following update to this post:

Somebody please educate the accreditors of the ITIL training industry on how copyright works. After this post went out yesterday, suddenlly all the ripped-off sites appear on the "blogroll". As if that makes it alright.

Yesterday's blogroll:

Today's blogroll:

lest we forget

skeptic — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 22:39:00 +0000

readers are reminded of how Acend Corporate Learning of Toronto indulged in exactly the same practice some time ago. [Actually worse: Acend pretend it is their own content - they plagiarise. Only when challenged by me did they add links to some of the articles. But as you see here, they still lie through their teeth about the origins of content]

Guess what? they're still at it. Check out this post

Finding the perfect gift for techies is no easy matter. After all, by definition, geeks are steeped in the latest and greatest tech gadgets, and it's just as difficult to find a tech-based subject they don't already think they know everything about. To help you find the perfect gift for the techie in your life -- or to steer a loved one toward something you'd really like - Acend has uncovered 10 seriously cool new gadgets that will appeal to the geek in all of us.

and this post

Finding the perfect gift for techies is no easy matter. After all, by definition, geeks are steeped in the latest and greatest of tech gadgets, and it's just as difficult to find a tech-based subject they don’t already think they know everything about.

To help you find the perfect gift for the techie in your life -- or to steer a loved one toward something you'd really like -- InfoWorld.com has looked beyond the obvious to uncover 10 seriously cool new gadgets and 24 must-read tech books that will appeal to the geek in all of us.

I doubt they were that careful

skeptic — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 21:52:00 +0000

I doubt they were that careful. This is a product of sloppiness and ignorance, not guile. it's forgivable to some extent in a newbie personal blog. it's not forgivable in an EI, who are themselves accreditation agents.

fear

Visitor — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 21:43:07 +0000

They were probably too afraid of copying from your site.... They also didn't copy (according to your list that is) from the ITS Portal, another original content site.

the mysterious William Gill

skeptic — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 21:33:07 +0000

Soem of this content also shows up on a greek BlogSpot site of a mysterious "William Gill" which links to PeopleCert