Editorial
Plagiarism in Diaspora
- Maharaj Krishen Raina
Milchar Sept-Oct 2011
Plagiarism is
the process to re-produce or pass off thoughts, writings etc. of other persons
in print or any other media and to show it as one’s own. If one copies
material from a web forum and pastes it on another without giving proper
credits, it is Plagiarism. A plagiarist may or may not necessarily portray
him/herself as the author of the material. He/she may only conceal the facts by
not giving credits to the real authors, thus allowing the readers to presume
that the material really belonged to them. Plagiarism is so rampant in the
present-day world that it has really become a serious matter - our websites and
our journals being no exception.
Some time back,
I got in my mail box a Kashmiri audio titled 'Hillarious Kashmiri Audio
Havaliheth'. The mail was redirected to me by one of my friends in US, who had
got it from someone in India. The original mail was circulated by one Mr. Kapil
Bhat. I was so elated to see people circulating Kashmiri audios presumably to
further the cause of Kashmiri language. In the heart of hearts, I paid great
tribute to the originator, though slightly irritated for using the same title as
that of my story in 'tsok-modur' collection. "But how does it matter if the
intent is to put one's creations in Kashmiri on net for benefit of the
people", I rediculed myself. Busy going through my mail box to finish the
day's job, I did not have the time (or courtesy) to listen to the audio
immediately. During my surfing and in the same session, I got two more mails one
after the other on the same subject, from Sunil Fotedar and Dalip Langoo,
describing the audio as one copied from my internet files (it was the same story
I had written years back) and lodging protest with the mail originator. I
immediately played the clip and was taken aback. It was of course my own story
and in my own voice. The protests (not against circulation but for not giving
the author's name in the mail) from various quarters mattered little as the
audio continued to be in circulation without any explanation or an amendment
from the sender.
Last month, I
came across a photo of Royal Spring Golf Course, Cheshma Shahi, on net. It was a
fantastic colour photo which I wanted to reproduce on the cover of Milchar. I
sent a mail to the photographer requesting for permission to re-produce it. I
got the reply immediately, saying that it was not his photo but one copied
somewhere from net. The noble man sent me another photograph of a Sadhu
(ascetic) preparing for pilgrimage to Amar Nath, this time mentioning that the
photo was downloaded from a Pakistani newspaper site. I thanked him. in a couple
of days, same photograph was circulating on net, without mentioning its source.
Those who forwarded the mail to other recipients cleared the trailing chain,
with a view to give notion that the photograph was theirs.
Now-a-days there
are numerous internet sites, facebook pages, group portals etc. which have
really become part of our life. Every day, scores of photographs, at times
descriptive materials, are exhibited without mentioning their source. The idea
only seems to get one's name registered as provider of quality material on net,
without bothering how it hurts a person who must have spent days and weeks to
click such photographs or write the texts. At times, many of our journals just
pick up the material, print it and don't care to mention the original source or
site.
The position
with regard to re-production of news is also not so good. We tend to re-produce
a news item in our journals (only to take lead over others) without quoting the
source, thus pretending to be the original source ourselves. How it negates the
efforts of those who feed the internet sites with news in good faith and without
any emoluments, can only be imagined.
It is right time
we start giving credit to those who it belongs to and not abuse the intellectual
property rights in the guise of reaching people at large.
Contact
editor at : editormilchar@yahoo.co.in
Source: Milchar
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