In his post, The Conference Board of Canada's Deceptive, Plagiarized Digital Economy Report, Michael Geist points out how much of a recent Conference Board of Canada report appears to be plagiarized from the International Intellectual Property Alliance (the primary movie, music, and software lobby in the U.S.).
Michael asks the following questions:
For Anne Golden, the President and CEO of the Conference Board of Canada:
- Is
a deceptive, plagiarized report drawn from a U.S. lobby group
consistent with an organization that claims that it is non-partisan and
that does not lobby? - How much was the Conference Board of Canada paid to produce this report?
- Does the Conference Board of Canada stand by the report in light of these findings?
- Will the Conference Board of Canada retract the report and the inaccurate press release that accompanied it?
For Stephen Toope, President of UBC, and Indira V. Samarasekera, President of the University of Alberta, both members of the Conference Board of Canada board:
- Do they condone or support the use of plagiarism in this report?
- Will they ask the Conference Board of Canada to review this report and to retract it?
Perhaps most importantly, for Minister of Research and Innovation John Wilkinson:
- How much public money was spent in support of this report?
- Does the government support the use of public money for a report that simply repeats the language of a U.S. lobby group?
- Will the Minister ask the Conference Board of Canada to refund the public money spent on this report?
- Will the Minister publicly disassociate himself from the report in light of these findings?
Update May 28, 2009: The Conference Board of Canada has just posted the following statement:
The Conference Board of Canada has recalled three reports: Intellectual Property Rights in the Digital Economy; National Innovation Performance and Intellectual Property Rights: A Comparative Analysis; and Intellectual Property Rights—Creating Value and Stimulating Investment. An internal review has determined that these reports did not follow the high quality research standards of The Conference Board of Canada.
