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- Last Updated on Saturday, 29 June 2013 20:54
Users | Commercial plagiarism |
Plagiarist Rickly refers to USGS
My letter to USGS:
Dear Sirs,
I have recently discovered that the Rickly Hydrological Company is engaged in plagiarism of my professional publications and is also in violation of US and International copyright and patent laws. I intend to pursue these matters to the full extent of the law.
In their publications and on their website http://www.rickly.com/index.htm , the Rickly Company claims USGS involvement:
"Most of the hydrological equipment presented here has been designed and developed by the United States Geological Survey, Hydrologic Instrumentation Facility which is located at Stennis Space Center, Mississippi. The USGS currently uses this equipment for its continuing hydrological data gathering and water resource investigation projects throughout the U.S.A. The sediment samplers were designed and developed by the Federal Inter-Agency Sedimentation Project, and are used by the USGS and other federal agencies which have the responsibility for taking sediment load and water quality samples."
The Advanced Sand Sedimentation Analyzer that Rickly claims as their instrument (presumably designed and developed by USGS) — http://www.rickly.com/sai/VASTA-01.htm — is, in fact, my own well-documented design and a product of my company, Granometry.
In light of the legal predicament that Rickly may have placed the USGS in, I urge you to:
- demand that Rickly Hydrological Company immediately cease and desist their claim that USGS designed and developed any product for which they have no demonstrated legal rights or license,
- remove any and all Rickly advertisements, endorsements, and articles from all USGS publications (any media) wherein Rickly has claimed undocumented ownership of license of design for itself or USGS,
- publish a disclaimer that neither Rickly Hydrological Company nor USGS designed or developed the Advanced Sand Sedimentation Analyzer, nor does either have license or ownership of any part of the Advanced Sand Sedimentation Analyzer.
The true Advanced Sand Sedimentation Analyzer, as well as my other instruments and software, are clearly documented on my old and new web pages: http://www.grano.de and http://www.granometry.com. Rickly even had the audacity to display a screen shot of an image from my 1999 Operation Manual with my company name visible in the upper right corner (ANALYZ4.jpg). All the text is plagiarism of my specifications, specifically the reference: "For the conversion, the equation for drag coefficient as a function of Reynolds' number and grain shape is utilized." I developed and published the mentioned equation in 1979, see http://www.grano.de/CD_eq.htm .
Rickly presents a horrible example of commercial plagiarism, and I am confident that you will take appropriate action to end this illegal and unprofessional activity. Thank you.
Best wishes,
Jiri Brezina