Somebody should warn Doris Kearns Goodwin not to take any of this guy’s material. . . .
2 thoughts on “Intellectual property”
This raises an interesting question.
It's been my casual observation that every sentence more than seven words long or longer is "Google unique". By that I mean that Google will come up with only one hit, or that multiple hits means multiple copies of the same original saying.
For example, I just now, before posting this, Googled "multiple hits means multiple copies". Google result? no hits. After I post it? Let's wait and see.
I've used this technique to find those who have copied material from my web site.
Is there any formal analysis of this phenomena? Can it be generalized to say that every sentence over seven (or eight or nine or ten) words long is historically and universally unique?
Mark,
I remember a slate article on this topic years ago.
And I think some academics controversially proved the author of an anonymous historical literary work (The Night Before Christmas?) using that type technique.
I think Prof. Gelman has posted about this before, too.
This raises an interesting question.
It's been my casual observation that every sentence more than seven words long or longer is "Google unique". By that I mean that Google will come up with only one hit, or that multiple hits means multiple copies of the same original saying.
For example, I just now, before posting this, Googled "multiple hits means multiple copies". Google result? no hits. After I post it? Let's wait and see.
I've used this technique to find those who have copied material from my web site.
Is there any formal analysis of this phenomena? Can it be generalized to say that every sentence over seven (or eight or nine or ten) words long is historically and universally unique?
Mark,
I remember a slate article on this topic years ago.
And I think some academics controversially proved the author of an anonymous historical literary work (The Night Before Christmas?) using that type technique.
I think Prof. Gelman has posted about this before, too.