Models Stealing Quantum Notes Leads To Science!

A YouTube video featuring Australian models talking quantum physics turned out to have plagiarized Scott Aaronson's lecture on "Quantum Computing Since Democritus," and he has reached a settlement over this usage.

In October 2007, Aaronson picked up global notice after

Unlike most of our fast-draw litigation society here in America, the MIT-based assistant professor took a more measured approach to resolving the issue, even though under Australian law he could have tossed Ricoh's ad agency, Love Communications, onto the proverbial blog post:

Disregarding the pleas of my relatives — who at this point were begging me to sue — I instead wrote to Love Communications directly, proposing a settlement to be donated (for example) to a mutually-agreed-upon Australian science outreach organization. We eventually agreed to a settlement of AUS$5,000. Joel (Gilmore, BrisScience’s current director) proposed that we donate $2,000 of the settlement to BrisScience and $3,000 to the Physics Demo Troupe, the latter supporting a visit to the Torres Strait Islands in North Queensland. I agreed, and Love Communications agreed as well.

So ends the "sordid southern-hemisphere tale of sex, plagiarism, quantum mechanics, and printers" for Aaronson, who summarized the experience in brief: "That's interesting." Science receives the benefits, and no court dockets were harmed in the reaching of the settlement.

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