Evidence Photographs

I find it ironic that debaters do not think it is theft when we steal other people’s work and often we do not always use the evidence the way that the author would prefer it be used.

On top of that, are they afraid that someone might use their card because it is good? Really? The best feeling I had as a debater was when 3 schools were running my natives Aff at nationals. Sure they tweaked it a bit, but they were still using my files.

To me, if someone does not allow a competitor/judge to take down the cite, electronically or otherwise, I think it shows a lack of conviction in their evidence. As in, they are afraid someone will make sure they are being truthful.
It is not like someone will fabricate evidence or tweak it a little to much for their benefit (cough cough HS TOC a couple years ago).

While I think that some rules in NFA are a bit lame, I am 100% behind the rules of ethical citation of scholarly/not quite so scholarly research on the cards (not so hot on having to read the long names that people give their articles, le sigh).

We need to have accountability for each other and this is something that if the scholars can do it and survive, so can we.

Hint: imagine that you’ve just written and turned in an academic paper, with MLA citations (author’s last name and page number) where appropriate. When your professor asks for your “Works Cited” page with a full list of complete sources, and you refuse, what grade would you reasonably expect to receive on the paper?

Information exists to be shared, not monopolized.

I’ve only encountered this problem once (But know others have multiple times) and was confused because I was allowed to write down the citations, just not take pictures. I tend to think that individuals who don’t allow this are only running from debate or feel that the lack of their evidence/citations being public knowledge will give them some sort of advantage. I also think the same argument applies to the NFA caselist. Just compare the postings, cases, plantexts and overall lackthereof of this year to the past year. Or compare it to the CEDA caselist if you want something radically different. (and don’t even bring up the laughable “wikispec”). Unfortunately, I’d imagine the individuals who are against sharing information/citations are the same ones who will probably not be joining this discussion nor will they be utilizing the caselist anytime soon.