The Ugly Face of Internet Plagiarism

The Internet is such a diverse and easy to use medium. It expands our horizons for communication like few others medium’s in the history of mankind. The effect this has had on the publishing industry in particular is worth looking at. While on one hand it has given everybody and anybody a means to become a publisher (it takes less then five minutes to start your own blog), on the other hand, this mass amateurization of publishing has virtually opened the floodgates for one of the industry’s biggest evils - plagiarism.

A few days back one of my fellow bloggers at the Karachi Metroblog joyfully disclosed the newest edition of WeCite, a fairly new and on the face exciting ezine (online magazine for those who’re not familiar with the term), that represented to us, the changing face of online journalism, the rise of "new media" as its called. But little did we know then what an ugly story this ezine had hidden under its core of modernity and flashy-ness.

One of our readers initially pointed us to the possibility of one of their articles being plagiarised, a possibility that he later confirmed himself by contacting the original author of the article, who verified the article was indeed copied. The same day, I send a stern email to their editorial team, demanding attribution for two of my images (this and this) that they had used in one of their articles (see this). And despite apologies, both in the comments section at the Karachi Metroblog, and via email, which reassured me, that the images would be attributed and re-licensed as necessary "as soon as possible", three days went by and nothing was done.

It was not out of a quest for publicity that I demanded proper attribution. Most images on Flickr, from where they lifted my images too, are either all rights reserved, or some rights reserved, under Creative Commons Licenses. The license I used (CC Share-Alike Attribution 2.0) allowed reuse, adapting and distribution, under the condition of proper attribution and re-licensing under the same license under which the image was first uploaded. Any use of the images that does not fulfill this criterion was illegal. It was a matter of principle, and I expected, that an ezine that was seemingly proud of its open-mindedness and liberality, would respect and abide by laws, that it would know better then the ordinary Joe on the street what copyright was and why it was important.

It was this frustration that led me to dig deeper into the matter. I initially discovered that the article they had used my images with was it self an adapted version of an article that appeared in The Hindustan Times, but as I searched more, using Copyscape, a fantastic plagiarism-detecting search engine, the research presented some shocking discoveries. Out of a total of 27 articles published in this month’s issue, at least 11 were plagiarised, either exact copies of other articles on the web, or with major chunks copied from other sources. Vis-a-Vis and Slant Magazine in particular faced the brunt of the copy-attacks, with 5 and 2 of their articles respectively being copied word for word.

Other content was lifted from Blogcritics, Rediff News and even random blogs of ordinary people, like Jtom’s In The Family House, were not spared. And if you thought it was merely the staff and guest writers that were deceiving and misleading their editorial team, let me tell you that everyone from the editor in chief, to the associate and executive editor, had at least one plagiarised article under their names.

Hastily I sent emails to some of the many authors whose work had been copied. Not surprisingly, many of them responded back saying their attempts to get in touch with the magazine staff was resulting in bounced back emails. By Thursday afternoon, the website management realized the mess they had gotten themselves into, and responded initially by making the website inaccessible with "server upgrade" maintenance messages coming up with apologies. Urooj Zia, fellow Karachi metroblogger and one of the guest writers there meanwhile expressed her disbelief and asked her article to be removed from their website. Urooj’s article was one of only 16 articles in the entire magazine which were original.

Pakistan at large remains a society where plagiarism, piracy and copyright infringement are viewed as an acceptable practice, an invariable product of inflation and where leading daily broadsheets, names like Dawn and The News, occasionally don’t mind lifting copyright protected content from the web and incorporating it in their owns publications without attribution, it is perhaps not entirely surprising that a budding Pakistani ezine should also resort to such tactics. But it is the extent to which they have plagiarised is what is truly shocking. It shows how deeply ingrained indifference, cheating and dishonesty are in our society.

Below you’ll find a complete list of all their plagiarised articles along with links to the original authors they were copied from, the links for the plagiarized versions will not work though, because as of today, the management of the ezine has put up apology on their blog, saying they are investigating the issue. They have accepted some amount of responsibility and even promised to come make a comeback but the fact the apology it self is penned down by some one who was involved in the plagiarism of some of these articles, as I can confirm it was, it is a clear indication that their editorial staff is still in denial about whose fault this was and how many people were involved.

They should be aware that plagiarism is a hideous crime and not one that will fetch them any sympathy at any level. If there is any way they can come out of this crisis, it is by starting a fresh, and leaving behind every single person involved in the copying activities of the past. Meanwhile, this entire incident, as whole, serves as a rude reminder of the Internet’s vulnerably for allowing such practices to take place. Its easy to use interface is both an advantage and disadvantage at the same time, a dangerous double edged sword that can and has been repeatedly abused. But the good part is that same technology that allows plagiarists to copy in the first place also makes it particularly easy for them to get caught. One hopes that the strong response we, the readers, have shown to it this time will send a strong warning to all those out there to guard against it heavily in the future.

Whilst we’re at the subject though, don’t forget to check out Copyscape and put some of their anti-copying banners on your blog or website. And you might as well check if your own content hasn’t been copied by someone else too, because in this day and age, you never know.

1. Go Go Go Pakistan - by Head Biter, WeCite
Copied from: Cricket and the Blue Billion - by Vir Sanghvi, The Hindustan Times

2. Spider Man 3 Review -By Head Biter, WeCite
Copies from: Spider-Man 3 -by Ed Gonzalez, Slant Magazine


3. Madonna - Erotica -By Kiran Bokhari, WeCite
Copied from: Madonna-Erotica -by Sal Cinquemani, Slant Magazine

4. Mullah Power! - by Ayesha Fazli, WeCite
Copied from: Why The Mullahs Will Win In Pakistan - By Sushant Sareen, Rediff News

5. Tango-The History of Love -By Kiran Bokhari, WeCite
Copied from: TANGO: The History of Love...for Three Minutes -By Lisa Cigel, Vis-a-Vis, Magazine

6. Underestimating Your Self-worth -by Ayesha Fazli, WeCite
Copied from: THEN AND NOW: Never Underestimate Your Self Worth -By Neli Lalanne, Vis-a-Vis Magazine

7. Way of the Mommy! -By Sumbal Aziz, WeCite
Copied from: What To Expect When You’re Not Expecting -By Sala Elise Patterson, Vis-a-Vis Magazine

8. Just Another Blog on the Wall -By Rabia Manzoor, WeCite
Copied from: Why Most Film and Music Blogs Have No Voice -by Tiffany Leigh, Blogcritics

9. 300: This is Sparta -By Omar Saleem & Miss WeCite, WeCite
One huge chunk copied from: 300 - the movie - "guy flick" - from a chick’s perspective -By Jtom, In The Family House

10. Those bonds -By Ayesha Fazli, WeCite
Copied from: FEMALE FELLOWSHIP: A Celebration Of The Bonds That Exist Among Girlfriends -By Sala Elise Patterson, Vis-a-Vis Magazine

11. Till Death Do Us Part: Is monogamy more prevalent than we thing? -By Christina Anderson, WeCite
Copied from: TILL DEATH OF LOVE DO US PART: Musings On Monogamy, By Shashoua, Vis-a-Vis Magazine