When Corruption Crusaders infiltrated Plagiarism

28th November 2011. Following the schedule of a normal Monday evening.
Finish office work – Checked.
Personal email – Checked.
Cricket scores – Checked.
Twitter timeline – Checked.
Facebook feed – Check… wait a minute.
*Goes back to twitter timeline*
Confirm that someone copied a tweet without acknowledgment – Checked.
(This Monday evening was no longer a normal one for me now.)

Original tweet that got plagiarised

https://twitter.com/#!/JayHind/status/140986935832363009

While you, dear reader, might assume that it is not a “big deal” for people to lift tweets and posting on their walls/profiles without acknowledgement, take a look at who committed the robbery this time.

The tweet lifter – http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=237655892968030&id=135841329816154

Yes, you read that right. An organization that is supposed to act against corruption, itself indulged in the activity.

I informed the offendors, by posting comments on the wall post. I mentioned them in my comments so that they got notified and my wordings don’t get lost among the hundred plus comments written by other users on the same page.

I didn’t get any response, nor was the post taken down.

I informed the original creators, JayHind! (a web based TV show), who acknowledged that the tweet was theirs. They turned out to be quite sportive on the whole issue, and I must appreciate them for their positive attitude.

https://twitter.com/#!/JayHind/status/141148846192472064

Now, how could have India Against Corruption shared this tweet/status?

1. By using the Share button on Facebook and Retweet on Twitter. It doesn’t take more than 3 clicks in any case.
As I later discovered, JayHind! has a Facebook presence as well , which they’ve maintained diligently, at par with the one on Twitter. Whatever user tweets they retweet on twitter, they share the same on Facebook as well, giving proper credit to the original author with full name.

http://www.facebook.com/jayhindtv/posts/10150375055511179

2. Mention the author’s name in beginning of the post, making use of words like ‘Via’. Kudos to JayHind! for following suit and setting example among their followers.

http://www.facebook.com/jayhindtv/posts/10150375260536179

Original tweet on Twitter

https://twitter.com/#!/rameshsrivats/status/141070954389446657

Interestingly, on front page of today’s Times of India, I saw a twisted version of this tweet with no credit given to the original author.

http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&BaseHref=TOIPU/2011/11/29&PageLabel=1&ForceGif=true&EntityId=Ar00113&ViewMode=HTML

3. In case India Against Corruption got that tweet in the form of an SMS from one of their friends, they could have shared that in the following format –

SMS Forward – ‘Lok Sabha schedule for today: 10 am – entry, 10:15 am – “Baith jaaiye”, 10:30 am – “Pls baith jaaiye”, 10:38 am – “Ghar jaaiye.” ‘

This would have given an impression among their followers that this status wasn’t composed by them.

4. Now that the damage is already done, they can put up another message acknowledging the original author. This’d get JayHind! noticed among their 400,000+ followers, and would definitely increase their reach. As of writing this post, I am still awaiting a revert from the admins at India Against Corruption.

———

I am not a regular follower of JayHind! (http://www.jayhind.tv), though I do wonder how they manage to keep themself going, admist tough competition from normal TV. I doubt if everyone involved on the show works for free, as for some people it’d be a significant part of their earnings. Hence every small recognition for them, does matter.
I have seen few episodes on YouTube and they often get retweeted by the people whom I follow. The plagiarized tweet was also retweeted by a gentleman who followed them – otherwise I might not have read it and the basis of this post wouldn’t have germinated.
Whatever limited episodes I’ve seen, I personally feel the show to be better than most programs telecasted on Indian Television, having bigger budgets and more number of resources.

If you are wondering why am I after India Against Corruption, well, it is not just one organization. Everyday I see people on my Facebook feed, making a celebration over sharing an SMS forward without credit, and when their friends applaud them for penning such a thought (mostly it is guys who say this to young girls), they don’t have the guts to publicly admit that this thought isn’t theirs. It takes one Google search to reveal the source, yet they aren’t deterred. I appreciate celebrities like Rahul Khanna for working genuinely hard in maintaining an original outlook.

I’ve also seen some people who retweet faithfully on twitter, knowing they could get caught, but don’t do so on Facebook, as they know they won’t get caught easily on Facebook and feel it’d get them applauded within their limited circle over an ‘original and brilliant thought’.

When as kids, we were discouraged over copying in exams. The offenders were made to write on black board ‘nakal karna paap hai‘. But as we grew up, most of us developed a ‘chalta hai‘ attitude, citing the system for not punishing the plagiarists. This mentality has to be blamed for many prominent Indian movies being copied from Hollywood, and sadly there doesn’t seem to be an end to it, at least in near future. An honest stand up comedian once expressed his concern over rivals who copied from the Internet and used for their performances. Is it fair that they get rewarded?

The habit of plagiarism is like a forest fire, if not stopped in time… you got the point.

I don’t have a problem with people sharing other’s thoughts on their Twitter feed / Facebook wall, I have a problem when they claim it to be their original creation.
Some people copy without credit, as they feel it is socially acceptible. Their ignorance shouldn’t be promoted further.

If we cannot be original in our thoughts, then IMO we should be more courteous w.r.t. original thinkers.

It is about setting precedent. Today if one individual does this, tomorrow another would learn to do something similar. There was a time when India was widely renowned for its innovation and originality. Today there is a cloud over our originality in several aspects.
It is not a positive trend. A change has to be brought forward, and whenever something like this happens, it has to occur within all of us.

And if you don’t want to bring a change, then do whatever you are doing. Steal, lift, celebrate that you aren’t getting caught. Perhaps that is your purpose of life . 🙂