This eBay-meme (is there such a thing? I guess there is now!) was caused by the German politician Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, the current Minister of Defense in Germany. Earlier in February 2011, he was accused of plagiarism in regard to his doctoral dissertation at the University of Bayreuth. Being accused of using several excerpts from previously published works, Guttenberg has already admitted mistakes in his list of references and sources, but still denies the allegations of plagiarism. Until the case has been fully investigated, he is discarding his doctorial title.
Anyway, as the media and news are having a feast at this, meanwhile the German "blogosphere" has started listing eBay auctions of keyboards missing all keys besides those required for copy/paste functions. These keyboards are always listed as "Guttenberg Layout Special keyboard" or in some cases "Googleberg Keyboard", being a further pun on his name. By now I have probably seen over 50 of them all over eBay Germany.
For good measure, here are two translated auction descriptions of those with a few thousand views on eBay:
eBay Seller wrote: You are bidding on a keyboard with the so-called "Guttenberg Keyboard Layout". With this you can comfortably work on all types of doctoral theses with just two fingers. Experienced writers will be able to work with a single hand in no time!
You know the problem: Having to navigate through submenus like "mark all", "copy" and "paste" is taking up hours of work, massively slowing you down on your plagiarism. No need for that!
We are now offering this incredibly keyboard to YOU! With the highly optimized layout, you will be able to learn how to copy an entire chapter in no time at all! Now, and just now, we offer an incredibly bonus! The new feature: HOW TO CITE CORRECTLY! Never again have your career going downhill just for forgetting a few quotes! Unlike all competing Guttenberg keyboards on the market, we now offer you this special model INCLUDING QUOTE KEYS!
eBay Seller 2 wrote: Up for sale is one original-plagiarism keyboard with the common "zuGuttenberg-Layout", optimized for the plagiarism of doctoral theses. This is a one of a kind keyboard!
Just now in this new version we have added the [Insert] and [Pause/Break] keys. Thanks to this, you can work comfortably with just two fingers. Experienced writers will be able to plagiarize with just a single hand in no time. Of course, this keyboard has always been taken care of very well (fed with coffee and cake, see picture).
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Bid now! Bidding is almost winning!
On 19.02.2011 the seller has added the following information:
An eBay member suggested to donate the entire profit of this auction to a student of computer science, so that they can pay their tuition fees. I will follow this advice and donate the entire amount.
On 19.02.2011 the seller has added the following information:
Just to clarify, that student is going to be me. Believe me, I am really desperate for money to be selling this keyboard. Thank you for bidding.
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Personally I hope this meme will soon die out, because I'm getting sick of seeing these appear in my daily eBay alerts. What is there to learn from this? That you should always cite your sources and that we Germans still have a pretty dry humor.
