The Sincerest Form of Flattery?

Imitation is said to be the sincerest form of flattery, but I think that outright theft is even better―it is, after all, imitation pushed to its logical utmost. Well, I was a very flattered man yesterday, upon discovering that a self-described “Canadian Legal Directory,” legalfinder.ca, had published verbatim two of my recent posts (the one about H.L.A. Hart and the one about mass incarceration, the originals being here and here respectively)―without asking me of course. My name does appear under the republished posts, along with the bizarre title “IPlogue Editor,” which I do not bear.

Unfortunately, this website contains no information about who stands behind it, or about how they might be contacted. Nor do they seem to have a social network presence. Indeed they barely show up in Google search results.

So. If you know the people behind that website, please let me know how to get in touch with them. And you actually are somehow related to that website, do get in touch―with an apology―and do take down your copies of my posts. You are certainly welcome to link to them, or to make fair use of them―but an integral reproduction does not qualify.

I’m glad that my writing is good enough to be stolen. But I’m not amused at its actually being stolen.

Author: Leonid Sirota

Law nerd. I teach public law at the University of Reading, in the United Kingdom. I studied law at McGill, clerked at the Federal Court of Canada, and did graduate work at the NYU School of Law. I then taught in New Zealand before taking up my current position at Reading. View all posts by Leonid Sirota