I am currently in a position I somehow haven't ever found myself in before. It may be a trivial matter for some. But as for me, I am still not sure as to what to make of it - appreciation or plagiarism?
So I came across this guy's profile on Facebook through some random coincidences or common friends, I don't really remember. I somehow happened to read his description of himself in the 'About' section. And it almost came as a hard smack in my face. A lot of the words and phrases used there were a direct lift from my blog. To be more precise, they had directly been copied from one of my popular posts and from my profile description on the blog. To top it all, the words that he had added himself make it seem like he sat with a Thesaurus in hand while writing this self-flattering, completely fake description of himself. See for yourself -
I hope that guy reads this. Because I surely won't be doing anything further than writing about it here. If someone's being a jerk, doesn't always mean I have to be one too. Or maybe I can, but not at the same level surely. A dose of their own medicine usually suffices. Hope it did. ;)
P.S. Please, God, give some sense of decency to people. I'd really like that. Thank you.
So I came across this guy's profile on Facebook through some random coincidences or common friends, I don't really remember. I somehow happened to read his description of himself in the 'About' section. And it almost came as a hard smack in my face. A lot of the words and phrases used there were a direct lift from my blog. To be more precise, they had directly been copied from one of my popular posts and from my profile description on the blog. To top it all, the words that he had added himself make it seem like he sat with a Thesaurus in hand while writing this self-flattering, completely fake description of himself. See for yourself -
A meandering and at times promenading psyche in pursuit of his true destination(which honestly is an enigma to me at this moment) at the same time trying to do just to the intent of his creator(another obscurity) having a demeanor that is inscrutable(as Bermuda triangle could never manage to be);affably good at times and yet inexplicably weird at another......somewhat conspicuous and a little contumacious(incredulous is how I perceive it as :D ).....an enigma ........a simple guy with ambitious dreams...proud to be what i m ......I do not really know for sure if any of this describes him or not, or if he is indeed as enigmatic and charming as he portrays himself to be through my words. But at this moment, I am not in the least obliged to give him credit for anything. I don't know is this is called plagiarism or not, or if this is illegal or not, but it is downright annoying and frustrating. He must have come across my blog, read my fiction piece, liked the imagery I had used and probably thought of using it to paint a mysterious and impressive picture of his own on that social hub where everyone only wants to impress everyone else. If doing such a naive thing gives someone a much needed ego boost (and maybe a few friend requests from random girls on Facebook), I won't be a killbuzz. I'm fine with my words being used to enhance someone's self image, as long as I know. So the right thing to do was to drop me a line, maybe appreciate my work (even if he had to lie about that!) and tell me that he wished to be able to use my words. I'm sure I'd never have refused to that, even if he were a sworn enemy. I wouldn't even have asked him to acknowledge it publicly. But being an ass and just copying stuff from the internet without making the slightest effort to give the creator credit for their work seems to comes way more easily to people nowadays. Guess it always has.
I hope that guy reads this. Because I surely won't be doing anything further than writing about it here. If someone's being a jerk, doesn't always mean I have to be one too. Or maybe I can, but not at the same level surely. A dose of their own medicine usually suffices. Hope it did. ;)
P.S. Please, God, give some sense of decency to people. I'd really like that. Thank you.
see if you can protect your blog with DCMA. there are many out there who cannot write anything without a little inspiration (beyond acceptable limits, of course).
ReplyDeleteHe's like the Pritam(music director) of writing world :P And yes that's exactly what we call plagiarism while the thief would get away by calling it "inspiration" with some added material of his own !
ReplyDeleteI can understand how it feels when someone stealthily takes our content and proclaims it as their own brain-child! I was also a victim of Plagiarism lately, where in my entire post was copy-pasted shamelessly without even 'customizing' it to his need. I thrashed him in the most decent way possible right on his blog, which seemed like a repository of many good posts from many bloggers around. The next time I tried opening his blog, blogger said it's unavailable! Good. He understood at least! But there's something you can always feel proud about it, if someone has gone to the extent of stealing your content,how good should that be! hmm!
ReplyDelete@Debajyoti - I guess I'll give it a try. The guy's a total loser; I sent him the Creative commons license, and he said it doesn't apply to him and that I am a jerk. >.<
ReplyDelete@Furo - True. They're everywhere. Just that it was a first for me, finding out my work copied like that.
@Keshav - Hahaha. Right :P And yes, he doesn't even call it as being inspired. Tells me he has a sound vocab of his own. :/
@Cartic - Great. Served him right. Good work I must say! Mine is a minor case. And he isn't using it in him name, just using my lines to describe himself on fb. I am not sure if I'll do a lot about this. Not worth my time. And that thought indeed is a bit consolatory...my work must surely be good enough to be copied! :)
There should be a way of copyrighting your blog's content.... some websites don't allow people to select and copy-paste... wonder how they do that.
ReplyDelete