Here is what I wrote:
Not just another year by the bay
Two years since I came to Mumbai and it has been:
2 years of fun
2 years of hard work
2 years of sheer learning
2 years of growth
2 years of being independent
2 years of being professional
2 years of survival
2 years of madness
2 years of happiness
2 years of Capgemini
2 years of Mumbai
2 years of life...
and this guy (I am not giving the link to his blog as I don't want to send traffic to his blog and why should I?)
This is sheer stealing. When I contacted this guy, who by the way was also one of volunteers at Blogcamp Mumbai he said::Not just another year by the bay
Posted by XXX on Sep 13, 2008 in Uncategorized
One year since I came to Mumbai and it has been:
1 year of fun
1 year of hard work
1 year of sheer learning
1 year of growth
1 year of being independent
1 year of being professional
1 year of survival
1 year of madness
1 year of happiness
1 year of MBA
1 year of projects
1 year of presentations
1 year of friends
1 year of Chetana
1 year of local trains
1 year of Mumbai
1 year of life…
The post is about my one year in Mumbai. I know the post is similar to your post about 2 years with capgemini. But if you look at the contents, its totally about my one year with Chetanas.. So I did not get the fact that you call this as "copied post"What "contents" is he talking about, the whole post is picked up including the title (just changing 2 to 1 and adding a few lines does not make it your content). This is not only against the ethics of Blogging but is also a clear infringement of Copyrights. My content (that includes all text, pictures, videos, presentations created by me and posted on my blog or elsewhere) is mine and no one has the right to publish as their own. If you desire to publish something created by me on your blog or elsewhere you need my prior permission for the same.
Updated on 24th September 2008:
Interesting turn of events: The blogger has updated the post and now it says:
The post is inspired by a similar post by Tarun. If you notice, even the title is the same. When I visited his blog, the post and the title clicked me immidiately. And I thought why not use similar thing for my 1 year in Mumbai..!!! However, the idea of mentioning original author did not clicked me somehow. Maybe I could not understand the efforts Tarun had put in his post.
However, when I recieved communication from Tarun, the need to mention the name of initiator of idea clicked me. But the wrodpress thing as usual did not respond when it was supposed to. So there happened a delay of couple of days in updating.
Anyways, sorry Tarun for whatever misunderstanding that happened on the issue. And thanks a lot for the post.
Good that the idea clicked finally. The odd part is that the blog that shows in Google Search is on blogger (not on wordpress), and he also made a post on it during the whole scene. I guess it's just the pressure from more than 30 (super supportive) bloggers that forced this change. It is still a plagiarized post adding my name at the end will not make the content his. I can't keep running behind this guy so I will leave it to his intellect.
The sad part of the whole incident is that a lot people believe content on internet is for free and they can copy whatever they want. The lack of awareness about copyright violation is another disturbing fact. If you have created any content you reserve all copyrights unless you state otherwise. So unless my blog says that I am ok with you copying my content you will have to ask before copying and that is true with whole of blogosphere and with whole of internet. The number of bloggers and website owners who have faced a similar situation is staggering high. Most of them get similar response from the copier, why are you crying over content that is free on internet? Maybe it is the time to raise the voice that CONTENT ON INTERNET IS NOT FREE TO COPY!
Tarun Chandel
You just can't copy everything because it is online!
42 comments:
Tarun
All it requires a little Googling to find this guy out. I thought he was a good friend of yours but shame that he copied your post.
Its clear from both the post that second one is copied and added a few more lines to make it seem original:)
Though not a crime, but its a shameless act. One should always acknowledge the original source of "inspiration"
happens dude... its all abt perspective...
let such rotten ppl rot!
This is Shameful!!
At least give the credit to original author..
Hit him where it hurts the most when you get a chance to meet him again..
Let me be the first to say I totally agree with you. And I know how passionate you are about blogging and your blog. So I wish you all the best with getting the point across.
This seems to be a problem on the increase. Many of the foodie blogs had taken this issue up too with a site which was picking up and posting their posts word to word picture to picture.
But for one blogger to copy something from a fellow blogger is really sad. More so when the person refuses to even acknowledge his mistake.
I do understand your point of not wanting to direct traffic to the other blog but I honestly feel people should atleast know who the perpetrator is. Awareness would increase.
This is the worst kind of Copy Paste. How can one copy from someone who is having your blog on his blogroll? Stupid stupid stupid.
Tarun, I completely agree with you that a) this is indeed plagiarism, and b) it is shameful. I also think that you should put his name (without a link) up here (and possibly also twitter where he seems to be quite active) for everybody to see and ridicule.
But other than that, I don't think you should waste your mental energy on this person or issue. It is not really worthwhile. Copy-cats will always be there. Continue to focus on positive creative activities, and in general, the world is pretty good at "doodh ka doodh and paani ka paani" processing.
What's more shameful?
That he copied.
That he refuses to accept that he has cheated.
That he was someone you knew enough/liked enough to have on your blogroll...
Each issue must progressively hurt and infuriate...
I think you should name him without linking to him. People who volunteer at blogcamps should be even more responsible because they are representatives of bloggers. He didn't even remove the 'another' in the title even though this is his first year!!!
Originality is certainly something that this 1 year by the bay has not given this guy!
Hi Tarun,
Shocking... But its not right that you pushed the guy off your blogroll... Let his link be here... And we'd know anyways... Taking the light off plagiarism would only make you look like a loser in front of your readers.
Link him, mention what he's done and let it pass... Time will kill his readership... Once he's been noted, his credibility will naturally come down...
You get back to your track of blogging... All the best... and yeah, once again... Let it pass!
Chao.
TheCruisemaniac
Hey! Take it easy ... just copying one post of your won't make this guy a good blogger - neither does it make ur post any less imp.
Your blog has consistently given good posts - and his blog is only a plagiarised blog - no original posts. Anyone visiting his blog will understand that.
for some copying is part of life... that's how they move ahead...
anyways keep writing so that many more can copy you... ;)
Tarun,
What this guy did is sad and a sample of widely available problem that exists in today's society. (Be it US or India) but what is more important is, his claim about his blog. Anyway let alone his blog, I am sure you would not waste time pursuing this because I feel it is just no good, There might be someone else tomorrow, who might repeat the same but I think such people will eventually filter out of the system by the virtue of good people sticking together. But, that said I do understand your pain about the copy that this person has done, and strongly condemn such an act.
Atul.
Copy-Paste doesn't work when it comes to blogging ! The ideas and the experience should be your own to be penned down, and if at all one gets "inspired" by reading something, he has to take permission or atleast acknowledge the person b4 doing it.
Anywayz keep in mind that ppl copy all good bloggers. labnol, brijeshwar's articles were copied word2word..take a chill pill..not worth spending your time n energy on..
Tarun, even after all this. the guy should just link back to you and state that he was inspired by you!!!!
Hey! Look at the bright side... you got plagiarised... how many guys in the world can lay stake to that claim. Don’t you think it’s cool that the guy who copied your content thought it was so good that he should modify it a little and call it his own? I would be happy with that notion, Tarun :)
Having said that, what was done was indeed wrong and it is commendable that you did not link back to the guy and kept his anonymity inspite of all that has happened. Persuade him to at least link back to your post as the source, if nothing else. If he still doesn’t listen, then you’d rather not deal with the person anyways! Take care (and grab a beer while you are at it).
Best,
Asfaq Tapia.
Tarun,
This is shocking.And you did a right thing by not linking him--I am not even going to google and find out who wrote the post.The very least this person could have done is acknowledge the source.
I am with you on this.
Preeti
to err is human.. to forgive - Divine..
be the bigger man and forgive him his sins, for he knows not what he does!
but then all said and done, he should have at least thanked you for the inspiration..
anyway... let bygones be bygones - say bye to him and be gone with his memory :)
be safe and live happy!
Tarun, I have faced the same problem twice. First was a blogger who lifted not one but a number of my articles and posted them with just a change of title!
The second case was limited to one article, again with the title changed.
Like you, I put up a post on my site both times. But, unlike you, I also gave the link of the plagiarist.
Once the desired result was achieved,and the copied posts were deleted by the 'authors', I removed my posts too because it is not necessary to hang someone in perpetuity.
Don't worry about the traffic. Expose the guy publicly. Let people go to his site and tell him what you did. Soon he will either accept his action manfully or quietly remove the post. Then you should remove this one too.
Thanks Tarun for bringing this to light and talking about blogging ethics.
1. You should have linked to the guy's post. So that he could be shamed-out by the lots comments.
2. You need to send him a concise letter: add a link to your post that says "inspired by Tarun Chandel" - or else...
3. The or else part is:
i. Getting people to bog him down by saying how he should not plagiarize and how he should link to you.
ii. If he neither links to you or takes the post down, then the next step is contacting his host. And letting them know that he is scrapping content.
There will always be some original's and there will always be some 'duplicates' ... In this age of self publishing .. some dont want to be left behind and will beg, borrow or simply steal to be a part of the race.
They wont go far since a single good post will not give them much mileage. One needs to be consistent in the quality to become a good blogger.
So you dont have to worry about him copying from you. BUT He definitely needs to worry about his credibility which he will lose when people around him reading his blog relaise that he is a 'copy'writer' :)
This is hilarious.
That guy might be a dumbo who want to write something but feeling at lost of words so copied it directly from your site.
Seriously, we cant even think of stopping down to such low levels of whatever......
Its not even worth asking him for a explanation....
"....also a clear infringement of Copyrights"
What this guy has done is without doubt unethical and possibly Plagiarism , but it might not be copyright infringment. There is difference betwene two.I think you should clearly display "copyright policy notice" on your blog if you dont want readers to pick and use your content and if you really care about it so much.
In this bad land of blogosphere where all of us are eatimg, munching, chewing, recycling each others ideas,phots,videos, copyright laws are not very clear, But I find this entery very good .http://lorelle.wordpress.com/2006/04/10/what-do-you-do-when-someone-steals-your-content/ . Read it, It explains what you should do if someone steals your content when material was copyrighted.
You need not publicise (as some people suggested above) that someone has stolen your "copyrighted content".
"Defacing someone’s website, targeted spamming, and even publicizing the copyright violation can lead to criminal and legal action being taken against you" (from link above).
Human Knowledge belongs to World , some one said!! Pardon this guy.
Tarun, this is a very bad of plagiarism, ppl don't understand that it's o.k. to copy, but you should give credit to the original author...
very unethical indeed and should be slammed by blogosphere.
But man, as they say plagiarism is the best form of ……
I find it interesting. People who are saying shame him, show him here, tell us his name..... they are demanding online lynching.
This use to happen in early civilisations (or some parts of current Bihar) where a thief would be lynched by a mob in village or town. Instant justice.
BTW Lunch means: To inflict punishment upon, especially death, without the forms of law, as when a mob captures and hangs a suspected person
There is just one way to see is.. He came across your blog. liked your post. Thought to change it.express it in his way. but he did not link. what do you do. copying is a best form of flattery. warn him. again warn him. doesnt listen. screw his readership. Serious readers mind it. Search traffic doesnt. Does it matter. Enjoy your readers. Garner support. God bless. :)
Hi Tarun,
This is the main problem with online content, people copy the stuff without thinking anything.
I have faced this problem MANY times but unfortunately there is no way out.. this will continue to happen all the time.
In 2006, we redesigned our company site, added lot more fresh content.. the site got featured in almost all CSS galleries.. and within a month.. a Chinese company copied the whole site, even the logo...
Soon after that, some guy in US copied the whole site with content.. he didnt even bother to change my company name in some of the pages.
And then.. the copy paste era started.. some guy, running company in Mumbai, copied my site's content.. I called him up.. he said.. he will surely take it off... but that never happened....
I tried to contact the hosting company of the earlier mentioned cases (site design copy) but nothing happened..
So, I decided to let it go as I was spending more time in fixing those things rather than doing new things.. so I was actually wasting my time on the things..
I am not saying that we should not try to get those guys down.. but smart guys will always survive.. (they can always host the site on some odd hosting companies etc..)
My movie reviews are copied within 5 minutes after posting on the site.. but now, I have stopped bothering..
Whatever happened.. is not right but there is no such rule which can stop these kind of things and I do not see any possibilities of such rule in near future too.
Just my 2 cents though...
Regards,
Deep
Copyright protection as far as text is concerned is not really my thing. With photographs, I am ruthlessly protective. Might I suggest suitable copyright tags and rights of use notice on each photograph posted online? Another way of safeguarding photographs is to upload low res versions and if you are using photoshop you can encode copyright data within the snap itself.
If you have any doubts or questions related to safeguarding of photos online let me know, you know where to find me.
@Tarun: Seems that the situation became better. The blogger in question linked back to your post.
@Gaurav: You don't need to paste the copyright notice on the web. "Everything" you create is automatically copyrighted to you - unless you say otherwise.
Also - we aren't demanding online lynching. We're not thinking of *hurting* the blogger in question. We're just talking about putting peer pressure on him - and making him realize that what he did is frowned upon.
There is a whole world of difference between peer pressure and lynching.
This is one of the most immoral things to happen in blogging community ...the copycat should accept his fault and write a public apology blog for this ...
Tarun,
This has become very common. People copy the idea from other blogs and make it unique. They see to it that it passes through copyscape.com to see to it that the blog content remains unique.
Technically, bigger Indian bloggers (no names though) do the same thing but they back link.. what that guy could've done is given you a back link..
Definitely, if someone copies your ideas, you feel sick of that person coz then that person does not have any originality and that is what makes people suck a lot. Everyone likes their originality, ownership and individuality.
Now, if someone copies your ideas, that means your ideas are influential and worth accepting.
In fact this is a compliment. Rather than hating him you can thank him for giving you confidence coz he has actually proved that you have some authority because you hold great ideas with a clear creative expression. Now isn't that cool?
I truly believe you do have clarity. And that is something that most people do not have.
Why condemn someone publicly (that is not a great thing you would do to someone neither is a great thing to do) when everyone makes mistakes.. at least he did not copy word to word.. he made it unique.. "hating someone will lead to more hatred.." FORGIVE him.. you will feel so MUCH BETTER then ever coz you now feel you have released the negative ideas you have developed about him.. tell him no one likes to be copied.. especially on the blogosphere..
If the person says I've unknowingly done this, you can definitely end this waste of time..
You might have already made him realize what he did. And quarrellings and fighting has no end to it.. it's a never ending loop..
I liked what Partha commented..
Imagine you doing the same thing instead of him..
FORGIVE and let go ..
I had give you a quote I love very much:
Life is to Live,
Love is to Give,
Power is to Forgive
Look, what he did wasn't good either neither bad either.. People aren't good or bad, they just make mistakes just like you do. Even I do make lots and lots of mistakes.. that doesn't mean I'm bad or good either..
MAKE LIFE LIGHTER, NOT HEAVIER
BUILD A RELATIONSHIP RATHER THAN BREAKING RELATIONSHIPS
POWERFUL PEOPLE CAN ONLY FORGIVE
It's often said:
"There is no better alternative to peace, as PEACE and not pieces - is the only strength."
Create peace, not pieces. My two cents.
And I do think that person needs to contact you personally and speak about this.. he needs to accept his mistake and you need to forgive him.
You require to discuss this personally and end the whole show.
Don't both of you make a ambani bros or paes-bhupathi style BLOGGER wrestling bout here.. resolve the situation. And dude, don't break the relationship over a petty issue like this. My two cents.
The thing is definitely of importance for learning purposes and defining individuality, once you've learned it is done. Then leave it and let go.
God Bless.
Tarun, in final analysis some day you will see that it was much ado about nothing. As Ronak Shah said above.. why condemn someone publicaly.
Internet age has anyway made a mockery of existing copyrights and stuff. As someone said internet is one big copier machine. You felt angry that a person has lifted some lines from your blog, but just think how many of us here can say that, at some point or the other,we have never used pirated CDs,digital books,downloaded MP3s, movies from net , all when their owners weren't compensated for all this......remember napster!....
This is a sad thing. A blogger stealing content from another blogger is really bad. Especially when the cases of media stealing content from bloggers is on rise, the last thing we need is bloggers getting such activities. It is a wrong thing and needs to be condemned. As pointed out by Tarun the lack of awareness about content copyrights is really low, people assume that content on internet is free to be copied.
Other sad part is how some of the bloggers who commented here are not aware of their copyrights and also some are talking about letting it go. I say Tarun was right in raising his voice as that will make sure that many more people become aware of this. I would suggest him to go even further and talk about it to as many people as possible (esp in his camps for bloggers).
You handled the situation well, not making it public before mailing him and getting response. The better part is not making his name public at all.
@raj Funny Part. "when the cases of media stealing content from bloggers is on rise...."
Ah there we go again...Sounds like a perfect conventional wisdom to me.
I come across many and increasing bloggers stealing content from so called traditonal media. In fact some of blogging networks even facilitate that in guise of citizen journalism. So I guess it is not that blogosphere is made of some pious people devoid of sin and wrats.
"lack of awareness about content copyrights is really low"...."
Before this I guess I have never used and read copyright word so often....phew..Digital media has only made it easier to steal and copy others copyrighted material and distribute it when it is not permitted by orginal author's copyright. Music and Movie industry has been fighting it for long time. And as I said all of us at some point downloaded those Mp3s....How many of us, really think of copyrights while downloading movies, songs and many other things. Go to any xeros shop, near any college, and you will see students taking copies of a book s which one of them have bought. Copyright..huh!
The issue here, in this instance,is not so much of copyright, but of ethics (the guy was on tarun's blogroll and also knew him personally from what I gather).It is akin to your friend having access to you diary and liking a poem. Later he changes few things , albeit not very creatively and put it in his own diary...... perhaps just trying to impress his girl....so what do you do?
Tarun, I suggest you look for a suitable Creative Commons License, or any other license, which you may feel appropriate for your blog. You can check out their website. It's a quick 5 minutes work without any monetary efforts. It doesn't restrict the user, but at least he's warned about it. It is just a step, and not the solution to the problem. I've had one, from the time I started blogging. Mine is a bit older one, you can get a new one - with some amount of localization too.
Probably, in the upcoming blog camp, you (or someone else) could speak about licensing on the blogs, and yeah, people from Creative Commons could also help a lot for the sessions. Just try, you may never know what comes out.
Isn't there something that can be done to protect content written by the creator of the content?
I don't remember if it was you or someone else I was telling about my photos that I upload. They all have a line inserted in the middle because I am worried that someone will just pick up my photos and use them for whatever purpose they like.
It's a shame that such things keep happening even if you try your level best to protect your work!
And worst is that when the originals contact the copiers they always try to turn the tables on us.
I have been through this. A friend had copied my poem to dad and make it into a love poem, just by changing "him" to "her" and erasing the word dad. I wrote a post on plagiarism and I still have it in my sidebar.
I know it hurts.
Take care
GBU
Arti
"make it into a love poem" please read it as made it into a love poem.
If you read the comment section of my post you'll come across a guy who works on online plagiarism.
Take care
GBU
Arti
I HAVE TAGGED YOU
well.. came around after ages...
and this is what i read.. well tarun, am really sad for this!! this is so very unethical...
so, did u find a way to safeguard your texts??
Post a Comment