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Steve Smith, a law student at the University of New Brunswick and a member of Wikipedia’s Arbitration Committee (Arbcom), made the following acknowledgment on his Wikipedia Talk Page on May 10, 2010:

[[Image:SteveSmithShirtless.jpg|thumb|300px|Steve Smith (left) with friend.]]

'''Steve Smith''', a law student at the University of New Brunswick and a member of Wikipedia’s Arbitration Committee (Arbcom), made the following acknowledgment on his Wikipedia Talk Page on May 10, 2010:

“Some time ago, I learned that my article work, along with that of other arbitrators, was becoming the subject of scrutiny. In my case, this scrutiny apparently took the form of an automated comparison of some of my articles to the online sources they cited. This analysis was prone to false positives, and indeed the article of mine that it highlighted as a concern - Ken Allred - was one. However, this prompted me to look at some of other early article work, much of it consisting of biographies of municipal councillors of dubious notability, usually for the first time in years. I was shocked by what I found: I had engaged in rampant plagirarism, and in a few cases had even copied content so exactly that I believe that I was violating the source's copyright….

“Some time ago, I learned that my article work, along with that of other arbitrators, was becoming the subject of scrutiny. In my case, this scrutiny apparently took the form of an automated comparison of some of my articles to the online sources they cited. This analysis was prone to false positives, and indeed the article of mine that it highlighted as a concern - Ken Allred - was one. However, this prompted me to look at some of other early article work, much of it consisting of biographies of municipal councillors of dubious notability, usually for the first time in years. I was shocked by what I found: I had engaged in rampant plagirarism, and in a few cases had even copied content so exactly that I believe that I was violating the source's copyright….