We don't normally give publicity to the status quo group,
but we will make an exception this time. They have a new web site at www.KeepManager.org
to
help convince you of their honorable and noble intentions. It has a few
problems...
FACT: If you click their button labeled "Manager"
it brings up a page named "Frequently Asked Questions, City Manager's Office, | The City of Santa Ana"!
Yes, you read it here first! With all of the problems our schools
face with plagiarism from students copying work from the Internet and
claiming it as their own, "Residents for Council-Manager
Government" has copied a page from the web site for Santa Ana, CA and posted it
as their own work! What innovation! What creativity!
What a wonderful example for the children of Brunswick to follow!
FLASH UPDATE! As
of 10:00 PM on October 23, 2002 the page title has been changed to just
read "Manager Faq". It still
displayed Santa Ana a few hours ago. They also added a statement that
the information was "obtained" from the Santa Ana web
site and their site is designed to "provide information and
present a political viewpoint." Hmmm, still no notice on
their Questions and Comparison pages that they
"obtained" the information from the web site of
Citizens for the Right to Elect.
|
In case they have read this web page and
changed it, click here for a
screen capture image of their site taken at 4:55 PM on October 20,
2002. Note what the title bar at the top of the image says: "Frequently Asked Questions, City Manager's Office, | The City of Santa Ana".
Click here for the actual page they copied: http://www.santa-ana.org/departments/cm/FAQ.htm
They didn't even bother to change the typeface or color, much less the name on the
title of the page!
FACT: Federal copyright laws protect the expression of an idea.
Written works are automatically protected by
federal copyright laws at the instant they are published. Copying
or modifying written works without the permission of the copyright owner
is a federal offense.
For a second time "Residents for Council-Manager Government"
has
plagiarized the works of others and presented it as their own. In case
they have modified their page by the time you read this, you can click
here for a screen capture image of their "Questions" page
taken at 5:15 PM on October 20, 2002 and compare it to the way we
expressed our ideas on our page here: https://righttoelect.tripod.com/proposed_charter_amendment_quest.htm
And yes, three times is the charm! In case they have modified their
page by the time you read this, you can click
here for a screen capture image of their "Comparison" page
taken at 5:18 PM on October 20, 2002 and compare it to the way we
expressed our ideas on our page here: https://righttoelect.tripod.com/charter_sidebyside_comparison.htm
"Residents for Council-Manager Government" blatantly
copied two of our pages and put them on their web site with a few
wording changes and presented them as their own work. Under federal
copyright law, these are known as "derivative works" and must
have the approval of the original copyright holder, Citizens for the
Right to Elect. They did not contact us for permission to use our
copyrighted works and we would never grant it.
We even have a
copyright notice on each page and they still stole our work!
Enforcement of our rights via the legal system is currently being
explored.
And finally, if you click their "Charter"
button, you will be able to click a link titled "Current City
Charter". Of course, it is not really the current city charter, it
is the 1996 version of the Brunswick Charter. The current version,
2001, can be read
here courtesy of Citizens for a Better Brunswick.
