According to Wikipedia, Plagiarism is the “wrongful appropriation” and “purloining and publication” of another author’s “language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions,” and the representation of them as one’s own original work. It’s a nightmare for any author who spend considerable time to write original content. Web is like an Ocean where any Tom, Dick or Harry can come, take a dive and steal. I have faced this horror many times in past but would like to share recent experience on how i fought Plagiarism successfully.
It was fine Thursday Morning (Sep 26, 2013). I was enjoying cup of tea in my Balcony and browsing through NDTV Android App. Suddenly one article on NDTV.com draw my attention “Closing Your Home Loan – A Checklist”. As i also wrote article on same subject some time back, i clicked the post. After going through post i realized that post on NDTV looks like summarized version of my post. As if someone has studied my post in detail before writing for NDTV. All 5 points covered by me on my blog were covered in NDTV post.
NDTV Post: http://profit.ndtv.com/news/your-money/article-closing-your-home-loan-a-checklist-327533
My Blog link: https://www.nitinbhatia.in/home-loan/home-loan-closure-5-important-points/
The NDTV’s post is written by Mr. K. Ramalingam (Director & Chief Financial Planner) of Holistic Investment Planners. I decided to take up the matter with NDTV and Holistic Investment Planners. I wrote to Mr Ajay Mankotia of NDTV Complaint Redressal Cell and to Mr. K. Ramalingam separately.
I got immediate reply from Mr. K. Ramalingam and he marked Mr Anupam Varma of NDTV in mail to clarify his case. It cannot be coincidence that all 5 points highlighted by me are also part of NDTV Post. I shared similar posts on web with Mr Ramalingam but none of the post covered exactly same 5 points as covered by me except Mr. Ramalingam’s post.
Several mails were exchanged between me and Mr. Ramalingam but he was not ready to except Plagiarism. I clarified that Plagiarism is not restricted to blanket copy of any post but it also include representation of someone else’s thoughts, ideas or expressions. Mr. Ramalingam maintained that its a coincidence that all 5 points are matching.
Finally after few mail exchanges, i decided to make final representation to NDTV to safeguard my interests as original author of content published on NDTV.com I requested NDTV to either remove the article or give credit to my work by mentioning my name & blog link on NDTV post.
Today, to my surprise i observed that NDTV has removed the post of Mr. K. Ramalingam from their website and also removed rest all posts of Mr. Ramalingam published on NDTV.com
Though in India, law against Plagiarism is very weak but i consider my case as a major victory against Plagiarism. I would like to thank NDTV.com for duly acknowledging the originality and authenticity of content published on my blog. At the same time for the benefit of my fellow authors & bloggers who are dedicating their life to make internet most knowledgeable database. It is important to highlight Plagiarism cases in open forum so that copycats cannot take authors for granted. Plagiarism is like a Plague. It is very demotivating for any author, whose work is being copied shamelessly. It’s high time to fight against Plagiarism & copycats on web.
Copyright © 2011-2013 Nitin Bhatia. All Rights Reserved.
Or, you could think of it as an honour: another person thinks of your blog/writing as being meaningful, worthwhile, important and significant. I think that this what all of us bloggers wish for.
Of course, if the plagiarism means that more readers go to that other person’s website/video and fewer people go to yours and/or you get less revenue because of that and/or YOU are accused of plagiarism then you are harmed and that certainly can not be tolerated.