Plagiarism in the Public Defender’s Race
March 20, 2012
<Click Here for a PDF of the Full Document with Attachments>
The Ken Rhoden for Public Defender website has been up since May of 2011. Ken Rhoden wrote every word of the web site including the sections titled, “What is the Role of the Public Defender?” and “Reform for an office in need.”
Now Mr. Rhoden’s original work has been stolen, slightly altered, and reposted on another website under the title, “Information About Constitutional Basis for the Public Defender.”
The first, second, and third paragraphs of the thief’s article are lifted almost verbatim from Mr. Rhoden’s “What is the Role of the Public Defender?”. And the fourth through eighth paragraphs are almost verbatim from Mr. Rhoden’s “Reform for an Office in Need”.
The stolen work was published March 14, 2012 with the author listed anonymously as “admin.” The website is titled Ormatias Law Center and appears to be an article farm based in Jakarta, Indonesia. Overseas article farm sites are often used to conceal internet mischief. Posting on this site costs money in addition to the time and effort involved which shows the thief acted with purpose.
Printed copies of all the applicable pages from the thief’s website and Ken Rhoden’s original work from his website are attached to the hard copy of this document. For the web version of Mr. Rhoden’s original work, see his website at www.kenrhoden.com. Every click on the plagiarized posting drives up its ranking value and degrades Mr. Rhoden’s website so please visit only once if you must. The thief’s posting is available at: http://www.ormatias.com/information-about-constitutional-basis-for-the-public-defender/#more-332.
When you read the plagiarized article you will see it is a slightly distorted mirror image of the original work. It is not intended to be read by the public but its sole purpose is to dilute Mr. Rhoden’s original work and degrade his web site.
Mr. Rhoden’s original work was highly rated by search engines such as Google so anyone doing a web search for information about the Public Defender’s race would likely be directed to Mr. Rhoden’s web site.
Prior to the thief posting the plagiarized article Mr. Rhoden’s website, due to its quality and original work, consistently appeared in the top Google search results. Now Mr. Rhoden’s site is ranking lower. The only person who benefits from this attack is Mr. Rhoden’s opponent whose web site ranking is comparatively improved.
Dirty tricks in a political campaign are nothing new but stealing a man’s work then using it against him mark a new low. Despite the continued personal and unethical attacks, Mr. Rhoden will continue to conduct his campaign with a high-degree of integrity.