Saturday, September 11, 2010

Copycat blogger rouses my righteous indignation

A screenshot of sunheriyaadein's blog page

The last one day has been a colossal waste of time for me—courtesy a blogger called sunheriyaadein whom I consider more a copycat than a blogger of any standard. I felt I must record this rather unpleasant experience—that of being plagiarized from, which I accidentally discovered—loudly and clearly with everyone out there. Putting this in writing clearly on my blog, will, I hope, in some measure, deter the copycats prowling on the Internet, who just copy and paste text.

Yesterday was a laidback Friday, and I happened to be browsing a few blogs on old films when, in the Bhooli Bisri Sunheri Yaadein blog, I chanced upon a recent write-up (August 3, 2010) on Mohammed Rafi, whose death anniversary it was on July 31. As I glanced through it, this ode to Rafi started to sound and look uncomfortably familiar in places. I realized I was reading my own writing from one year back.

This blogger (whose real name is a mystery, and who has not listed any email where she can be contacted—I am tired of searching!), had blatantly lifted excerpts, verbatim, from my post on Mohammed Rafi (that I wrote aound his last death anniversary for the passionforcinema blog on July 29, 2009, later republished in my blog here on July 31, 2009) and passed it off nicely as her own! My first reaction was sheer anger and outrage.

Of course, I could give benefit of doubt and deem this to be inadvertent; however, this is too verbatim a case. Anyway, I quickly ran a trial version of Copyscape through my imitator’s posting, and, sure enough, Copyscape caught four clear instances—the exact ones that I had found. (I have recorded them below.)

I am more worldly-wise now and have installed Copyscape as a deterrent, and have become more aware of the importance of protecting one’s intellectual property, and this cannot be stressed enough. I left a long comment with links to the plagiarized passages on my imitator’s blog, but that is “awaiting moderation,” and so I won’t be surprised if it never shows up there. So, I am left with no choice but to post all the details here.

Looking from the other side: I never really imagined someone would find me worth copying from! So it is a compliment, perhaps. Still, although imitation is the best form of flattery, as the saying goes, it is just plain annoying to see someone else stealing one's thoughtfully-crafted paragraphs. Any honest writer will vouch for that.

For your convenience, I have listed below the shamelessly plagiarized excerpts, including the Copyscape links to them. This is what the plagiarist's blog posting looks like when I write this rant. Here goes:

1. My original: So much is written about Rafi (1924-1980) that I don’t quite know where to begin and what new to say really. I am stumped. It should just suffice if I say that Rafi was one of the most versatile singers in the history of Hindi film music. His pan-Indian (and beyond) appeal seems to get only stronger with time. From the doleful Jugnu (1947) to the patriotic Shaheed (1948) to the classical Baiju Bawra (1952) to the effervescent Mr. and Mrs. 55 (1955) to the regal Raj Hath (1956) to the poetic Pyaasa (1957) to the meltingly romantic Barsaat Ki Raat (1960)—phew! the list is endless—Rafi sang it all. And more.

The copy: So much is written about Rafi (1924-1980) that I don’t quite know where to begin and what new to say really.  Rafi was one of the most versatile singers…From the doleful Jugnu  to the patriotic Shaheed  to the classical Baiju Bawra to the effervescent Mr. and Mrs. 55  to the regal Raj Hath to the poetic Pyaasa  to the meltingly romantic Barsaat Ki Raat - phew! the list is endless—Rafi sang them all. And more. http://www.copyscape.com/?s=98914592341806&sms_ss=google

Screenshot of copied excerpt 1 (highlighted)
2. My original: In his earlier years, before he had fully come into his own, Rafi sang for Ghulam Mohammed (Naushad’s protégé) a lovely duet with Lata in Pardes (1950), called “Akhiyaan milaake zara baat karo jee,” a song to which I am very partial for two reasons: Madhubala’s striking beauty, and Rafi’s deep, powerful rendering that is reminiscent of Pankaj Mullick, not to mention a very young Lata’s exquisitely honeyed voice.

The copy: In his earlier years, before he had fully come into his own, Rafi sang for Ghulam Mohammed (Naushad’s protégé) a lovely duet with Lata. This one is picturised on Rehman and Madhubala and I love this  for lots of reasons: Madhubala’s striking beauty, Rafi’s deep, powerful rendition, peppy music and young and dashing Rehman!
http://www.copyscape.com/?s=52609318731807&sms_ss=google

Screenshot of copied excerpt 2 (highlighted)
3. My original: … picturized on Ajit (much before he turned villain for the screen). Bombay—that teeming metropolis, teeming then in the 1950s just as it is teeming today—the land of opportunities—was masterfully captured by lyricist Prem Dhawan to composer Hansraj Behl’s tune that is born for the harmonica.

The copy: This is Rafi singing for Ajit. in the good old days before he turned into a villian on screen. Bombay—that teeming metropolis, teeming then in the 1950s just as it is teeming today—the land of opportunities, sapno ka shehar—was masterfully captured by lyricist Prem Dhawan to composer Hansraj Behl’s tune. http://www.copyscape.com/?s=61913581131803&sms_ss=google

Screenshot of copied excerpt 3 (highlighted)
4. My original: Equally at home on different turfs, Rafi could convincingly slip under the skin of characters that were poles apart: he sang for the brooding Dilip Kumar in Deedar (1951) with the same ease with which he lent his voice to a frolicking Johnny Walker in C.I.D. (1956). And, truly, it is difficult for the listener to decide where Rafi excels more.

The copy: He could convincingly slip under the skin of characters that were poles apart: he sang for the brooding Dilip Kumar in Deedar with the same ease with which he lent his voice to a frolicking Johnny Walker in C.I.D. And it is so difficult for the listener to decide where Rafi excels more and who his voice suits the best! http://www.copyscape.com/?s=49254971131804&sms_ss=google

Screenshot of copied excerpt 4 (highlighted)

End of everyone’s waste of time. We all have better things to do.

6 comments:

  1. Hey Nivedita,
    I'm sorry...I know it's my mistake. I had listed the songs for my Rafi special post. And when I actually sat down to do the post and started googling for the links to the songs, I came across your blog. And trust me, it's not just your blog I have copied from. I have acknowledged it myself and thanked all the other fellow bloggers for their contributions(I have done so in my earlier Shammi Kapoor special post as well). I have lifted up lots of things from other blogs as well - and that too shamelessly. I say my mistake because I didn't acknowledge your post. I have rectified that now. When I listen to a song and come across something that exactly describes how I feel about the song, then I find it god-sent coz it saves lot of time.
    You know what, this reminds me of a quote -“Copy from one, it's plagiarism; copy from two, it's research.”
    And don't worry about your comment never showing up on my blog, I'm approving it. As to replying to it, I will have to copy-paste what I just wrote here.

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  2. That same blogger takes screencaps from me (even collages that I've put together) too without any acknowledgement. I try not to let it bother me but it is annoying to see the work you put into something used by others as if it is their own. When it's your own thoughts and words, it's of course even worse.

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  3. Exactly my point. Thank you for understanding my outrage, Memsaabstory.

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  4. @ Memsaab : I have to admit that I never took the screencaps that seriously. For movies I took them myself, but when I did posts on songs, I searched for images in google, saved and used the images which I liked. Copyright of images didn't actually strike me :-( Half the time I didn't even check where I was taking them from.
    It's only recently that I realized I was hitting your blog most of the times and I acknowledged that in one of the posts. I know that's a pretty lame excuse.
    I'm extremely sorry for annoying you both and for wasting so much of your time. It was a mistake on my part. And thank you so much for this - for showing me the light in time and preventing me from committing further blunders and getting into bigger troubles. Going forward, I'll make sure that I take due permission before taking anything (text & images) from somebody else's blog.
    Thanks once again!

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  5. Hi Nivedita,
    Interesting happening, and quite significative of today's attitude towards information in general, and the Internet in particular.
    I went to see what Sunheriyaadein wrote in "defense" of her/his attitude, and this reminds me of what some of my students say, when i happen to nab one who has lifted info from an unquoted source - they just don't know the reason for the reproof; they don't understand why what they did was reprehensible.
    So the blame which a wronged author tries to make a thief shoulder is difficult to transfer onto him, because they just do not see that it was stealing. As Nasir (Sunheriyaadein's defender) says, he/she just went here and there on the net, and collected information for her article ("what we usually write in the blog is based on information that we gather on the internet, magazines, newspapers, etc.")
    There is a general belief that what is written and accessible on the net has become public property, and that the author of the lifted work has probably done the same to write his own work.
    The recognition of intellectual proprety is very hard to make people understand today.
    So I totally agree with Suhan when he/she writes: "To say it’s ok to copy because what the person has done is so good is the worst sort of excuse for cheating, which is what plagiarism is. "
    I too am disappointed by the attitude of this blogger, but hardly surprised, because it's all too common.
    Regards,
    yves

    ReplyDelete