The ethics of deliberate misattribution

In My Humble Opinion
1

I watched this meme explode out of the womb over the past day and this quip popped into my head. I did a bit of cursory searching for its origin because, well, you know, there is nothing new under the sun. It is witty and has interesting nuances, so I liked it and wanted to make sure someone (no, you did not come up with it, sorry) would not get a hair up if I used it. So, to CMA, I decided to attach an obvious misattribution thusly:

The Internet: faster than the speed of thought – Oscar Wilde

I mean, it honestly could be mine, every few years I hit a patch of creative wit, but I have no particular desire to own IP, as it were. What are the ethical implications of sullying the name of a dead guy (who might well have made a similar comment in the modern age) with words he clearly never could have uttered?

2

Let’s move this over to IMHO.

Colibri
General Questions Moderator

3

Given he clearly could never had said it, the attribution isn’t an attribution, it forms part of the wit of the entire quip. So there is no ethical issue with respect to Oscar Wilde.

So with attribution it becomes:

*The Internet: faster than the speed of thought – **Oscar Wilde*** - For You

Now, if you knew who came up with the initial quote, and deliberately avoided attribution, it is harder. Adding Oscar Wilde makes it funnier. So it is a derivative work. But if you attributed it to John Doe, you are deliberately mis-attributing it to avoid credit being given to the originator - and that isn’t ethical.

4

Won’t stop it from showing up on Snopes.

5

Sylvia Plath seems to be the target of these.
“The trouble with quotes on the Internet is that you can never know if they are genuine.”

  • Abraham Lincoln
6

These are jokes and not subject to the ethical aspects of misattribution. More to the point is Fox News which fabricates quotes, takes existing ones out of context, selectively edits them to make a point, or takes real ones an attributes them to the wrong person. This is done deliberately and willfully, and with the intent to decieve.

7

A better misattribution for the original came to me.

The Internet: faster than the speed of thought. - Al Gore.

Much more fun for the possibilities of ethical problems.

8

First: Oscar Wilde quotes? Someone’s been reading Uncyclopedia! Oscar Wilde is King there.

Second: I think Winston Churchill wins otherwise for false attributions. Either that or Mark Twain. Voltaire may have mainly one falsie, but it’s misattributed a lot.

9

I’ll bet God has the most false attributions.

10

False attributions are the bane of legitimate discourse. - Winston Smith

11

Wasn’t that Will Smith?

12

Aw, hell no! - Will Smith

13

Paul Harvey is way up there, too, especially with patriotic glurge.

14

That’s the one that was immediately brought to mind by the OP.

15

PlainJain:

You’re not gonna fool any of the people any of the time with that one.

16

No need to attribute anything to Oscar Wilde. It’s implied.

“If, with the literate, I am
Impelled to try an epigram,
I never seek to take the credit;
We all assume that Oscar said it.”

– Dorothy Parker

17

Beats me.

18

There is a fun variation where you take a famous quote, attribute it to the wrong person (but from a related media), and then put it on a picture of another different person (again from a related media)

For example: “Do, or Do Not. There is no Try.” – James T. Kirk, superimposed over a photo of Gandalf.

19

“I never said most of the things I said.”
-Yogi Berra

20

Bravo! I really like that.