SLO County political consultant accused of plagiarism

August 2, 2011

Cory Black

By KAREN VELIE

Controversial San Luis Obispo County political consultant Cory Black, who helped Ian Parkinson win the local top cop position, is being accused of plagiarism.

Andrew Russo of Paramount Communications said Black plagiarized the content of his website, reproducing his words in an attempt to garner clients.

“Cory Black of Public Policy Solutions, Inc. is guilty of plagiarism and downright theft, pure and simple,” Russo said.

“Black ‘cut and pasted’ the ‘Campaign Services’ section of our website which has been up since 2008 and placed it on his own website and used that content to garner clients at Paramount’s expense,” Russo added. “This kind of behavior is totally reprehensible and beneath contempt. It shows everyone – from clients to vendors – the true nature and character of Mr. Black and his firm.”

Shortly after Russo exposed Black’s alleged plagiarism, the duplicated information was removed from the web site, but, not before Russo made a screen shot of the alleged theft.

Black, the vice chair of the Democratic Central Committee and the exalted ruler of the Atascadero Elks Lodge, was last year accused of sending out the slate mailers to registered Democrats that recommended Republican Parkinson as “the best choices for San Luis Obispo Democrats,” a move that outraged several members of the Democrat Central Committee.

Black did not return requests for comment.

When asked if he plans on filing a lawsuit, Russo said he is considering his options.


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Maybe the web designer was from China? Do they ever copy anything?


Weak argument. A photo of a human is copyright infringing? Your interpretation of it in an internet world where anybody can publish globally anything to anybody, anywhere means a shutdown of an already controlled media and communication in general.

I’m thinkin’ your a friend, relative or whatever to MR. Black, you know, the guy who plagerized and of which there is proof.


What I find interesting is that sites like this copyright infringe all the time. Oh, I see they don’t steal they “aggregate” stories. I also doubt that a single image on this site (like many others) was created by Karen, David, Stacey, Lisa or anyone else employed by CCN. To be fair, this happens all over the internet but I do find it ironic when “COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT” is screamed.


the ironing is delicious

Linking to a story and extracting text for inclusion in a “news brief” is not copyright infringement; that is a part of how modern community based journalism works .

we welcome your commentary on our stories, our editorial practice not as much.

, Email if you have questions about comment moderation or website issues please.


@avidgonadnote— Read about “Fair Use” (there ain’t no infringement here)


17 U.S.C. § 107


Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 17 U.S.C. § 106 and 17 U.S.C. § 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright.


Thanks for looking that up, Slorider.


In addition, there are quite a few services which offer unlimited use of the images they host. Some charge for it, some do not. Some have one flat fee after which you can download as much as you want.