Blogbharti

In a call I made personally to protest against the widespread plagiarism by the media, a lot of bloggers have expressed their solidarity with the victims. First up, Kalabaaz wrote a scathing piece about the Thieves of India:

This elixir of journalistic integrity is stuffed with examples galore of petty theft being reported by more and more blogger photographers who are vigilant and through chance encounters find their work within the pages of this otherwise porn tabloid passing off as news. These reports are only from a few bloggers who’ve been able to spot it in India …

Clueso had this to say:

Using someone else’s work without even acknowledging the source is quite a despicable thing for a major newspaper to do and the bloggers mentioned above are calling for a blogathon (I believe thats what it is called) on Oct 2 against plagiarism. …  Some public defamation should make the likes of TOI think twice in the future before they try to copy blatantly from the internet.

Adithya cites the practices in the US universities where plagiarism is regarded and considered a lifelong stain on academic integrity:

With Web 2.0 and the ease of access to information, people take things for granted. Here in my university and other such institutions, plagiarism is dealt with serious consequences and academic integrity of highest standards is expected from every student. And when it comes to newspapers and big brand names doing the same, it is quite pathetic. I am not sure if they believe they are impervious and can get away with it, or they are simply not aware. Something that indicates serious lack of professionalism.

Update: Just noticed two more interesting posts regarding the issue:

Hari outlines general practices which all bloggers should adapt so that they don’t even inadvertently plagiarize others’ content:

1. Always attribute third party images you might use on your own blogs and set an example first. If possible, write to the original copyright holder and ask for permission courteously. If by chance the original image copyright holder still asks you to remove their image, even if attributed, apologize and comply with their request.
2. Never upload your own hi-resolution photographs to the internet directly. Always scale it down to a size where it will look horrible in print. Also keep the DPI resolution low (like 72 dpi or lower). Experiment with watermarking images so that the watermarks will be visible in print.

Shrinidhi chronicles his numerous efforts trying to reach the Times of India office after our link to his post about theft by the media:

2. Starting now, any photo I may have to upload to my blog, which I see a potential of TOI stealing, I’ll be adding a watermark “Times Of India, Please do not copy this image” as a symbol of protest. This will at least keep the fact alive in the minds of readers.

There are a lot of others who had responded to the call and written about it as well. On every blogger’s behalf, thank you!

This entry was posted on Friday, October 3rd, 2008 at 10:20 am and is filed under Blogging, Media, Photography. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.