One of the most difficult parts of teaching is making sure that students get it into their heads that plagiarism is wrong.I am known to have thrown bitch fits when i have discovered chunks of projects from the net. ‘you will lose your job’ i tell them, ‘no one will hire you’, ‘it is stealing’ …….

But, at the back of my mind I know that – the message may not get through. After all this is a country where people attain success through blatant lifting of ideas, music, formats and other rights. There seems to be no penalty, only successes. Although recent cases give hope to the notion of ownership of copyright, the bulk of the times copyright is taken as the right to copy 🙁

So, it is hardly surprising that the Hindustan Times got the wrong definition of copyright when they used Nita’s picture without attribution, or permission or payment.

I wonder what i should tell my students the next time someone decides to pass on someone else’s work as their own ! It’s ok, the HT will hire you, it seems to be company policy !!

8 thoughts on “Plagiarism 101

  1. I can never understand why people use others’ posts/ content without attribution. Don’t they think they will never get found out? Don’t they realize how much damage they do to their credibility?

    I also wonder if the HT doesn’t have any photographers, or stock photos readily available..

  2. Thanks for your support Gargi. You are right when you say that there are no penalties, only successes. No one cares, not the law certainly. I think shaming such people is the only answer. The internet makes it easy to steal but it also makes its easy to spread the news.

  3. Harini: You will probably remember our discussion on this issue over the few posts I wrote on plagiarism.

    I am increasingly of the view that certain cultures are just predisposed to rejecting the idea of property rights (and by association, privacy and personal boundaries), and therefore plagiarism is seen as a non-event. The tragedy of course is that in the absence of property rights, it is difficult to accelerate the process of innovation and the engine of economic growth. It is therefore ironic that two of these oblivious cultures are widely expected to drive the world’s economic growth. Welcome to a future of chaos, accelerated stealing and impunity-free-violations of property rights!

  4. @lekhni — i think that people genuinely think that they won’t be found out. Who will know, after all there are a billion plus thingees on the net ! i guess they have also not been brought up to understand the difference between right and wrong!

    @ Nita – you are most welcome….

    @ Shefaly – don’t think that it is a problem of culture as much as the problem of implementation of laws. The legal process takes for ever and few people in India want to go up against the more powerful. Things are thankfully changing. Some of these are because of law suits brought by foreign owners of copyright … but the bulk of it is through Indians realizing that they are creators of copyright and therefore they have to protect their own.

    @Prax — the video doesn’t play, the original is no longer available on youtube 🙁

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