The problem is that New York Times and certain big media sites were recently caught copying / rewriting blogger posts without linking or crediting the source.
Perhaps two odd symbols will solve the problem.
Perhaps two odd symbols will solve the problem.
Despite his throw-out-the-baby-and-bathwater approach, the discussion is worth having instead of dismissing the idea wholesale.
The NYT article he refers to covers the modest goals quite well. It's not a panacea that is just about using "via" and "hat tip" correctly. It's about making attribution clearer and putting in place some guidelines about attributing things to the original source.