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Steal a speaker’s data at your peril
By Hamish Johnston in Portland Oregon
I couldn’t resist taking a cheeky snap of this sign in a corridor of the convention centre.
Is this a response to the infamous “physics paparazzi”, who take photos of other people’s data during talks and then go off and write a paper that beats the original researchers into publication?
You may recall the scandal surrounding PAMELA data a few years ago when that very thing happened.
When I asked in the press room I was assured that reputable members of the media such as myself were free to take photos – and a press officer is looking into whether there is a ban on delegates taking photos.
As I only saw one sign in the giant convention centre, a more plausible explanation is that the sign was left over from last week’s event.
It would probably be sufficient if the organizers of an event stated clearly that pictures or videos taken are not allowed to be used without consent of the speaker. People are just taking opportunity of an unclear situation about copyrights.
For Copying and writing articles, prohibiting camera will not stop that. Duplicates can take from thesis or from library or internet getting full article. Definitely from a power point presentation it is not enough to copy and write an article. To take photographs and graphs this new technology,that is video camera is useful. Presenter need not fully reveal the technique or the detailed calculation etc. Instaed of controlling people not to use video camera is not fair.