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Monday, November 26, 2007

Update: Discovery Institute on the Purloined Video

posted by on November 26 at 17:00 PM

(Initial post below.)

Discovery Institute senior fellow William Dembski is defending himself from plagiarism charges on his blog:

Back in September of 2006 I announced at my blog UncommonDescent that a “breathtaking video” titled “The Inner Life of Cell” had just come out [….] The video was so good that I wanted to use it in some of my public presentations, but when I tried to purchase a DVD of it (I sent several emails to relevant parties), I was informed it wasn’t ready. Moreover, at the time, the video did not have a voiceover explaining the biology of what was being shown.

A few months later I found on the Internet a version of the video that did have a voiceover and was in a format that allowed me to incorporate it into my PowerPoint presentations. I used the video a handful of times, including at a talk in Oklahoma this September. In consequence, some biologist(s) in the audience contacted the makers of the video, falsely suggesting to them and on the web:

(1) That I myself had modified the video and given it a new soundtrack.
(2) That I had stripped it of its copyright information.
(3) That I had retitled it “The Cell as an Automated City.”

Each of these allegations is false. Regarding (1), I took a version of the video that I found on the Internet, one with a voiceover that I thought would have the best educational value for my listeners. The version I used took the original soundtrack, which simply had some music, and added a voice. The voice, just to be clear, is not mine. I had nothing to do with modifying or recrafting the video. I received it, as it were, “off the shelf.”

Regarding (2), the version I used omitted the opening credits (a fact about which I became aware only in the last few days), beginning instead with the actual animation; however, at the end of the video that I showed, there is the following copyright notice:

Conception and Scientific Content
by Alain Viel and Robert A. Lue
Animations by John Liebler / XVIVO
Supported by the Howard Hughest Medical Institute
Copyright (c) 2006. The President and Fellows of Harvard College

[…]

Finally, regarding (3), the phrase “The Cell as an Automated City” was simply a caption for the video as it appeared in my PowerPoint presentation (a caption I used in context with the preceding slide). It was never meant to be a retitling of the video. Indeed, that caption never bled into the actual video but was always separate from it in my PowerPoint presentation.

I continue to this day to think that “The Inner Life of the Cell” is the best animation illustrating cellular activity. But there are other videos that make the same point. From now on, I will no longer use it and instead go back to using a clip from “Unlocking the Mystery of Life” [a Discovery Institute video].

Interesting. I’m not sure I buy that Dembski/the DI had nothing to do with the alternate soundtrack—can anybody find a copy of the DI version on the internet from September or before? Moreover, according to the XVIVO website, the full-length version with narration was available for educational use as of October 26, 2006. But Dembski does correct some of the sloppier blog reporting out there—Slashdot was under the impression that the narration had been stripped off the long version, which was then reedited by the DI, when in fact a shortened version with no narration had been made available as well.

But Dembski’s claim about the final copyright notice? It certainly isn’t apparent on the video of the presentation. (Start watching around 4:25.) In any case, the “scientific content” of the DI version of the video was obviously not supplied by Harvard’s Viel and Lue. It was written by Dembski’s mystery internet friend, or something.

Also, how did I miss that Mercer Island’s own Michael Medved had become a Discovery Institute fellow?

actual photo from DI press release

RSS icon Comments

1

Plagiarism?

No.

Theft.

use the big words when dealing with big frauds.

Posted by Will in Seattle | November 26, 2007 5:22 PM
2

I am a biology student at the University of Victoria, and watched/forwarded/used several versions of this video over the summer. I have never seen the version used in the DI presentation, despite being familiar with (likely) dozens of different cuts.

Posted by kmonkey | November 26, 2007 6:02 PM
3

whaaa? medved came from mercer island? sad.

Posted by Cale | November 26, 2007 8:01 PM
4

Medved is a fucking moron. I hate him so much it hurts.

Posted by Mr. Poe | November 26, 2007 8:02 PM
5

I'll hate them alot more after they get with Slade Gorton and destroy sound transit.

Posted by Andrew | November 26, 2007 10:09 PM
6

"I didn't steal it; I found it on the internet" isn't a very good excuse. Stuff you find on the internet doesn't become yours.

Posted by Fnarf | November 27, 2007 8:32 AM
7

@3

Medved just currently lives on Mercer Island; he came from Southern California.

Posted by Peter | November 27, 2007 8:42 AM
8

medved looks like a zombie in that jpg.

Posted by max solomon | November 27, 2007 9:02 AM
9

He kinda looks like Violet Beauregard's father.

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10

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11

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