Plagiarism Isn't a Word You Throw Around

I've mostly tried to stay out of the whole Demo v. TechCrunch50 feud. I have friends on both sides and I think both events have done a lot for startups. But Demo needs to publicly weigh in on this immediately. I think anyone who knows Jason knows he wouldn't outright plagiarize something on a topic like this. Even people who loathe Calacanis will tell you he's a shrewd business man, and you'd have to be a dolt to truly lift almost every word from a piece. Other detractors will tell you Jason is an egomaniac. Would an egomaniac take thoughts from what he deems a lesser conference? No, he'd assume he had something better to say.

I happen to think -- behind his occasional performance art-like obnoxiousness-- Jason is a good person too. He and Michael Arrington genuinely want to help entrepreneurs and that's what TC50 is about, fireworks about taking down Demo aside.

The real egomaniac here appears to be Deb McAlister. I don't know her, but it's awfully haughty to think you're the only person who could have come up with things like "Show your product in the first 60 seconds." Not to take anything away from Jason or, I'm assuming Deb as I haven't seen the article she wrote, because these are great tips for an entrepreneur. But anyone who's had to sit through a large number of startup pitches would probably tell you some variation on a lot of this. It's hardly patentable material.

I recently heard Charlene Li speak at a Girls in Tech author chat and a lot of the advice she has for companies in monetizing Web 2.0 is very similar to what I've been saying in interviews and speaking gigs. I don't think either of us would shriek plagiarism, because some of it is just common sense if you've spent a lot of time on social media sites. You see what works and what doesn't. Also because Charlene and I are friends, and both genuinely want to help companies get better at this. Does it matter which one of us they hear it from? Not to me. We both had Web 2.0 books come out within a month of each other. I'll be the first to admit Charlene's is selling better than mine, and I couldn't be more happy for her. If you're truly coming from the point of view of doing something you believe in, (ie- helping entrepreneurs) these things aren't zero sum.

I think TechCrunch is right to demand an apology or the article. You don't toss out an accusation like this and then go radio silent. Even if the Demo side thinks the TC50 camp has been cutthroat in this feud before, now would be the time to take the high road.