An Excellent Resource for Plagiarized Content

Here at SFist Labs, we love it when readers suggest stuff for us to investigate/write about/inquire of/look askance at. Not only that, but we love it when readers show off stuff that they've created -- sure, we're happy to help you brag about something cool that you did. It's just that, well, if you do ask us to show off something cool that you did, don't have it be really obviously plagiarized.

We got this email: "In case you have any interest in commuter related information, our website, www.CommuterResource.com was designed to assist commuters in finding better ways to get to work." Fair enough; we checked it out. (Even though the press releases that it came with were in goddamn Word format. It's not as bad as PDF, but still. Put your press releases in the body of the email, people!) Some of the material is original, but an awful lot of it is pasted together from other websites. "Congestion delayed travelers 79 million more hours," says a blurb on the front page, and by unbelievable coincidence, so does an article on MSNBC. Gas saving tips are cribbed verbatim from the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence, among other sources. Info on carsharing, teleworking, and a commute-cost calculator come from a DC-based carsharing site. Info on commuter programs originated on a municipal San Mateo-based website. Even the logo looks vaguely familiar, perhaps from a royalty-free clip-art collection we we thumbing through awhile back. Anyway, you get the idea.

So why would someone go through the trouble of compiling other peoples' work and then ask us to help advertise it? And who would do something like that?