It seems that last week’ s (8th July 2007) English edition of the Lakbimanews paper contained several “articles” created by extracting and editing content from several blogs. My earlier post and Rhythmic Diaspora’s cool headed post noted this after we were both tipped off by anonymous. After a rush of comments that I followed up, it seems quite a few bloggers had their content used on the paper. The attribution was basic. A name at the bottom. No URLs to the original blog posts – even in the online version. Rhythmic Diaspora’s name was misspelled in the article using his text. All giving the false impression that the authors paid columnists of the Lakbimanews newspaper.
So to compensate here is the list of bloggers in alphabetical order (besides myself) whose content appears on the Sunday (8th July 2007) issue of Lakbimanews without proper link backs or URLs.
Ephemeral Ruminations
- Lakbima version “This one’s for Bevis“
- Ephemeral Rumination’s post: “This one’s for Bevis” posted Monday, July 2nd, 2007
Pissu Perera
- Lakbima version: “Piercings-more pain, more gain“
- Pissu Perera’s post: “Piercings = look at me, I’m here?” posted Sunday, 1 July 2007
Rhythmic Diaspora
- Lakbima version:”Sri Lankan Mothers Have you got one?“
- Rhythmic Diaspora’s post:“Sri Lankan Mothers – Have you got one?” posted Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Scribbles Galore
- Lakbima version:”Road rage, it just takes over, I tell you!!!“
- Scribbles Galore post: “Road rage, it just takes over I tell you!!!” posted November 17, 2005
Its easy to get worked up about this and rant about ethics and the copyright issues etc. As I’ve noted on my comment on Rhythmic’s site this may be an outcome of the competition is heating up among English language papers – specially the Sunday ones.
A win win situation
Yes there is one. A big opportunity. If only mainstream editors knew how important link backs are to bloggers. The sad fact is that if asked most bloggers would have happily agreed to have their stuff in print. The papers would have easily roped in a lot more bloggers to crank out quite a bit of content. In exchange of publicity and perhaps even as part of a wider pool of (eventually paid) writers. Ad-sense bloggers in particular might like this, using mainstream media to attract readers.
For some this might not be a good idea. For other it might be. Right now the blogosphere seems nonchalant, leaning against the wall in their zoot suits sipping matinees.
At least this little episode got me a nice little jump in the hit count 😉 Eventually, with patience, people will hopefully learn that with a bit of co-operation all can benefit.
Hopefully Lakbima will realise that they are sitting on a gold mine (not in the current looter sense). Otherwise someone else will and start digging ahead of them.
Postscript:
I was going to call this post “Is English language media going to raid the SL blogosphere?” Perhaps its a good thing I didn’t.
Cerno 
Oi!! – you spelt my name wrong!
LikeLike
Correctly said! I too saw the article and felt almost the same.
LikeLike
RD: arg! sorry sorry 😦 Never should have blogged while wedding fever has hit the house. It was one point in the post – just like the Lakbima article 😉 To be sure I copy pasted to make sure I didn’t miss anything. Anyway I hope I didn’t but its getting nuttier by the minute here 😐 I got one of those Sri Lankan mothers and she’s a doctor too. Yes yes I’m a SLDC
LikeLike
Phone calls make a difference. I dunno who the editor of Lakbima is, but it’s owned by Sumathipala. Sri Lankan newspapers steal like its their job – any insert or entertainment supplement is copy/pasted from the net. The best you can probably get out of them is a link-back. Everyone should just call and complain about getting a link back. Someone’s editor will yell at them and they’ll do it next time
Tel: +94 112 330673 – 5
Fax: +94 112 449593
E-Mail: lakbima@isplanka.lk
LikeLike
Well if it’s your wedding then good luck. i never knew you were an SLDC too, you have my sympathies!
LikeLike
RD: Thank you 😀 Its not as bad as I could be 😉
Indi: Thank you for the info and the encouragement 🙂 Not sure if I want to deal with that right now. But perhaps I’ll have to. How prevalent is this sort of thing in your experience?
LikeLike
Er, everything in all the IT supplements is copied from the Net. Lots of stuff in GO, Lanka Woman (to a lesser degree), etc. Almost all of the general stuff in Sinhala street tabloids is taken from the net and translated. Calling seriously isn’t a big deal, if you post a name I’ll call them. It’s just the annoyance factor of 5 people calling that makes them change. No call, no change
LikeLike
Wow thank you 🙂 I’d appreciate that. Plus I think you got a bit more umph being a more how shall we say, “higher blogger profile” 😉 You can use Cerno if you are calling.
Never thought starting a blog will involve having to deal with the press.
Should be interesting to see what types of things the papers are grabbing off the web. And from where. Should give some picture of the browsing patterns of Sri Lanka’s mainstream media.
LikeLike
Was out of blogging for a few days and when i returned, wow, here’s something cool to discuss about. First of all, thank you guys for bringing this topic on to the table and it’s a good thing you did.
I too faced this situation. Two of my posts were published in Lakbimanews as of today (absolutely worthless television – 24/06/07, Audio & video piracy in Sri Lanka – 08/07/07).
As much as i was happy about my posts going to print, i share most of the views that were expressed by the bloggers in this regard. Yes, i too feel that it could be a win win situation. Exposure is almost always what a blogger looks for. The more readers you have the more happy you are. But i wished that they had the professional courtesy to ask for the permission of the blogger and linking back to the blog before they did anything of the sort.
LikeLike
t/p for lakbimanews english version is 0112433919/20. give em a ring. don’t let them get away with it…
LikeLike
just called lakbimanews and spoke to ashwin hemawaththegama, the business editor. i called on behalf of chaar-max who is a friend of mine. told him that we were toying with the idea of legal action and also with revealing lakbima’s tactics by way of the other news papers. i told him i want the editor to ring me by close of business today, also asked for an apology and costs. he was very sarcastic and threatening. told me to fuck off and hung up. will call later for rajpal…
LikeLike
Hi Mr Rhythmic etc., (others)
Greetings!
First thing, we tried to contact you, but it’s not possible in most of the blogs. We did contact some of the others though, who left contact e mails.
You bloggers know that you are anonymous.
We’d like to publish the stuff you write, of course, more of it! Profuse apologies, but the reason was that we here were unable to contact you guys was your anonymity.
Maybe a post would have helped; but didn’t think about the exact efficacy of that. because we did post at some sites, with our contactsw, and nobody bothered to reply!
But then, it would have been difficult to give our contacts to you that way..
Anyway we like the comment that this is a tribute to Sri Lankan bloggers. If your stuff is good we’d like to publish — it’s in the public domain too. So I think you should have a positive take on it.
It’s not as if any stuff was published without credits.
Anyway, we’d like to publish more of your stuff; and as you may have noticed, 90 per cent of our still is NOT from blogsites, so its just that we’d like to use SOME good stuff that comes from blogs that are of relevance to Sri Lanka..
We’d also like to pay you — for anything published in the future, as well as what was published. We don’t pay enormously, but we pay reasonable rates.
So please write to us at sumathienglish@gmail.com, and we would like to get the payment across to you, if you furnish an address.
In the meanwhile, we’d like to use some more of the blogs — and we hope you can send some of your other material on the e mail so that we can publish it..
Many of the boggers we published — including some such as Mr Fazli Sameer have got on board, and we hope you do that too. They write EXCELLENT stuff, and were not so harried. We don’t expect the same reaction from everyone, but then we are trying to set the record straight here.
We would have liked to get you on board at the very outset, except that your contacts were not available. At least, they were not available at our scrutiny; maybe they were available somewhere.
Thanks then, and so here is to the blogosphre — and here is to the mainstream!! We’d publish more, I hope you can write to us at our e mail and we’ll use more of yours, and pay you as well.
Thanks and no offence,
‘Mr Lakbima’
alias
those at Lakbimanews.
PS: And to that other person who said we may publish without the credit sometime, we don’t want to dignify that with a comment.
LikeLike
We’d also sue linkback in the future……except where writers have given us permission not to do so.
We were not aware of the importance of the linkbacks, and if taht was a problem — we do ask for yr’ pardon. No harm was intended; but we’d certainkly use linkback in the future
Mr Lambima
..those as Lakbimanews
LikeLike
that should read — certainly use linkbacks in the future
LikeLike
spoke to rajpal, same reaction. told me to sue him and also to fuck off. oh well. oh he did say to publicise it in new york and the great wall of china…made no sense to me…wonder who he fondled to get there
LikeLike
Lucky I just happen to log into to check my blog or non of the above comments would have gone through.
I’m very happy that those at Lakbimanews (assuming no one is spoofing Mr L) are taking a wiser proactive approach. Hope this works out for everyone (who will have to be patient 😉
I know some bloggers might want to nit pick Mr L’s comments about copyright etc. But I’d say lets get beyond that and work for something productive. If the mainstream media is taking the initiative with a wise approach lets welcome them 🙂
I’ll be away from a while and won’t have time to clear out the comments waiting to be moderated. I’ll take the risk of putting my blog on unmoderated mode for most of today and hopefully the conversation will keep on flowing (hopefully without being swamped my spam).
LikeLike
Pl’ rest assured that nobody is spoofing us here — if we did we did we would not provide the gmail address for writing back to us.
Pl write back, and we will see that you get paid….even though I am sure payment is not the only thing involved..
Like it was said earlier, we couldn’t contact you — and so….that was the biggest problem.
Now that we have been able to establish some sort of contact, write to us at sumathienglish@gmail.com, and we will take it from there.As for that one abusive caller…hh, well.. its difficult to tolerate that..to put it succintly. Can we keep the abuse out of this?
Cheers, and a good day.
LikeLike
By the way Cerno, assuming that you are getting married ALL THE VERY BEST TO YOU. I suppose this is what one has to assume when you says I will cease to be a single person? but 604800 seconds! Thatt’s fast. But happy marriage all the same, assuming you are indeed getting married.
These wishes are sincere,
LikeLike
when you ‘say,’ I mean
LikeLike
well, as i did tell rajpal and his business editor ashwin, the calls that were made were recorded. i’ve listened to the recordings again and not once have i even raised my voice (oh yes i was the apparently abusive caller). on all three times i was told that lakbima doesnt care if there were licenses or not. i was told that if its in the public domain they will do whatever they bloody want (in their own words). on all 3 times that i contacted lakbima i was told to fuck off when all i asked for was an apology. i cant fathom how lakbima can stand and say i was being abusive. i’m sure they’ll humbly apologise when i do decide to make public the recordings.
Rajpal, have the decency to admit ur shortcomings. u are known in the news industry. u are also just abt ruining it for ur self.
LikeLike
Blogs have been carried WITH attributions. Not without. URL’s are not necesarrily the only attributions.Its like carrying something courtesy the New York Times, something done all the time by all the newspapers.
Its a storm in a teacup. These blogs can be read anywhere as well. The articles concerned were also not earthshaking in character.
Any fuss beyond that, bringing in personalitis, is beneath this process.
Independent observer.
LikeLike
Confab – mate, I wouldn’t ne rushing to make that tape recording public if I were you..it’s against privacy laws to record conversations between people unless you’ve clearly told the other person (Lakbima staff in this case) that they were in fact being recorded. Sorry to burst your balloon, and all that jazz!
LikeLike
anon, being in the legal profession i’m well aware of the requirements. i informed both ashwin hemawaththegama and rajpal abeynaiyake at the beginning of the conversation that they were being recorded. my balloon is still intact.
LikeLike
Firstly wishing you a Happy Wedded Life, to you and your loved one!
Thought I’d post my reply to Mr. L-Lakbima here.
Well Dear Mr. Lakbima,
This is with regard to the word-for-word copy and picture-to-picture copy of my post “What to shout at Rugger Matches” which was published on your paper under “Local Rugby Lingo” page 28 – July 8th 2007.
http://chaarmax.blogspot.com/2006/09/what-to-shout-at-rugger-matches.html
I would like to bring your attention to a few points, you mentioned that contradict certainly in my case.
1. ///First thing, we tried to contact you, but it’s not possible in most of the blogs. We did contact some of the others though, who left contact e mails.
You bloggers know that you are anonymous.///
Well all you had to do was leave a comment. Just like the one you left here.
2. ///If your stuff is good we’d like to publish — it’s in the public domain too.///
Just because it’s in the Public Domain it doesn’t give you the right to publish, without proper citation and stating the sources. Just mentioning the Blog Author’s name in the “by XXX” is not enough. That would give the impression that the Blog Author is writing for your paper, and indeed getting paid for it as well.
What you need to do is, state the source, as “Source – http://www.abc.com” or “Courtesy of http://www.abc.com“.
As in my case, I wish to bring your attention to the Creative Commons License that I have, I certainly hope you are aware of it, and that your are committing an illegal act. Also you had incorrectly spelt my name as “Charrmax”.
3. Are you going to take responsibility for the statement “Brian Homa”, as for I did not write it, with the idea of my publishing’s to get into the mainstream print media. I certainly hope you guys do a better job as editors, than blindly copy content without going through them properly, checking for what might cause an offense to others.
Lastly, it’s not that we (atleast myself) aren’t glad to get our writings published but, with proper attribution to Us and our Blog web sites.
I certainly hope you would be more careful, since this is not the first time that this has happened.
Yours,
Chaar~Max
Contact Email – chaarmax-at-gmail-dot-com
LikeLike
So Rajpal has proved that he is the fuckwit that we thought he was. No surprises there.
Confab, well done. You are in the legal profession so I needn’t tell you what needs to be done, but from my experience I can tell you that the IPR laws in SL are not tight enough to do much. Online content, in particular, is a very hazy legal turf which is why Rajpal was quite cocky and confident in telling you to go ahead and sue.
If you need any help, call me. I believe you have my number.
Good luck.
LikeLike
Confab, just out of curiosity, did you call the Press Complaints Commission?
LikeLike
When you guys use words such as ‘fuckwit” (Theena July 11) etc., online, it says much about the quality of you people against the quality of the guy you fancy you are up against. Rajpal is probably the most respected English language journalist in the country, and he will continue to be so for a long time, in my reckoning.. He seems to have given you guys a break — if you don’t want to take it, don’t, but to use abuse on the web says much more about your idiocy imbecility immaturity and upbringing than it does about him.
Just look what none other the author of this website says in his blog on the other page — he says the positive twist on this is that the blogoshpere was taken to the mainstream, and if somebody is responsible for that it is the guy you are trying to upset with your abuse.
By the way, we hear only your self serving version that you were told-off by so and so in your recorded ‘such and such’ conversation. All that, we have not heard. but we can see clear as crystal who is being abusive here. When you use words such as fuckwit (Theena July 11) and lines like ‘don’t know whom —— fondled to get there” (Confab July 10) you are abusing someone using his name, under cover of a pseudonym at that!
That’s not just putridly low down and viperish, its also rank cowardice, because the person you are abusing is a real person not a pseudonymous cyber-person like yourself — and you guys are just vomiting all around the wicket taking advantage of your anonymity.
If its you guys who phoned him or his colleague, I can just imagine that anybody would have told you guys off, because you guys seem the most obnoxious bunch of jerks. As they say in them ole movies, it couldn’t have happened to a bunch of better guys! I’m sure they would have told you off, because you guys were obnoxious and self important on the phone, as you are now.
Guys, we blogopherics can judge for ourselves who is the doing right here, and who is the dolt. So, don’t get too cocky. You guys have taken a lot of egg and rubbed it all over your faces, while the author of this blog himself/herself says this is a good thing done by your so called detractor/s because they have ‘taken the blogophere to the mainstream.’ (The other blog on this subject…this site.)
In fact you guys having mentioned names and by that have surely done one thing – libeled a lot of people including the guy/s you mentioned. I happen to know that Rajpal is a leading light in the legal profession who has taken-on some of the biggest Colombo fish in Court and won, so he must probably not be even considering taking little baubles like you to court, even though he has all the reason to, with the kind of libelous guttersnipe sticky venom that you have poured on the pages.
In future, if you want to piss on yourselves, just do so in the privacy of the toilet — not in the glare of the public spotlight. So long.
LikeLike
amithdis, never knew u were a “blogopheric” considering that this is the first ever post that u’ve ever made. thank you for your rivetting appraisal of rajpal. i’m sure he’d be glad to have u on his team of journalists. why dont u give him a ring? i believe the number is 2433919. oh btw, he knows my name, he has my number, and he apologised to me by way of a text msg sent last night for abusing me over the phone when i called for an explanation. so in my books, rajpal the great, as u portray him, is nothing but a usurping coward, unworthy of pittance, unable to accept his faults and unbelievably crass. i’ve saved text msgs and phone recordings. amithdis, before u start dissing us, maybe u should try and process what happened.
thank u for ur time.
LikeLike
oh there he goes again, at least after reading my post, the guy has got off the four letter mode and comes back to the more parliamentary language ‘crass’ etc., Must have got the fear of god into him about being sued for libel, heh, heh!
Well, that’s progress anyway, you have to thank me for it
Looks like even a plain jerk is not beyond redemption these days. But anyway, what’s so crass if he apologized as you say he did. He probably didn’t at all, because its your rant alone Confab that we hear, and what can’t you cook up in your walled up cyber anonymity??
But let’s just say hypothetically he did apologize. Well he didn’t commit murder did he? You pissed him off with your self important call, and being the gentleman he is he apologized even though he had all the right to call you the jerk you are?
How does that make him a coward or a usurper except in your marginally developed juvenile mindset?
Maybe you can stuff your couple of tape recordings and all your saved text messages in your brain… the profound literacy of Rajpal’s text might just make you a little less addled and moronic than you are;
but not by much,.I say, not by much.. It takes a lot to re-brain an airhead.
So long
LikeLike
“When you guys use words such as ‘fuckwit” (Theena July 11) etc., online, it says much about the quality of you people against the quality of the guy you fancy you are up against.”
So I suppose it’s okay to steal content online and publish it on a newspaper without having the common decency to ask permission from the owner? And when the owner or someone representing the owner calls asking for an explanation, to ask him to fuck off?
“Rajpal is probably the most respected English language journalist in the country, and he will continue to be so for a long time, in my reckoning.. “
The leading journalist in the country lacks the ethical and professional judgment to ask permission before publishing someone else’s work? Wow.
“He seems to have given you guys a break — if you don’t want to take it, don’t, but to use abuse on the web says much more about your idiocy imbecility immaturity and upbringing than it does about him.”
Who are you or Rajpal to even assume that these guys want “a break” in the first place? If it’s “idiocy imbecility immaturity” to protest against someone stealing our work without asking permission, then what does that say about the person stealing the content and publishing it?
“Just look what none other the author of this website says in his blog on the other page — he says the positive twist on this is that the blogoshpere was taken to the mainstream, and if somebody is responsible for that it is the guy you are trying to upset with your abuse”
The only thing I agree with is the positive outcome of this fiasco. The rest is based on your assumption that Rajpal, in his infinite generosity, is giving us a break.
“By the way, we hear only your self serving version that you were told-off by so and so in your recorded ‘such and such’ conversation. All that, we have not heard. but we can see clear as crystal who is being abusive here. When you use words such as fuckwit (Theena July 11) and lines like ‘don’t know whom —— fondled to get there” (Confab July 10) you are abusing someone using his name, under cover of a pseudonym at that!”
Theena is my real name. Boo.
“That’s not just putridly low down and viperish, its also rank cowardice, because the person you are abusing is a real person not a pseudonymous cyber-person like yourself — and you guys are just vomiting all around the wicket taking advantage of your anonymity.”
Again, Theena is my real name. Cowardice indeed.
“If its you guys who phoned him or his colleague, I can just imagine that anybody would have told you guys off, because you guys seem the most obnoxious bunch of jerks. As they say in them ole movies, it couldn’t have happened to a bunch of better guys! I’m sure they would have told you off, because you guys were obnoxious and self important on the phone, as you are now.”
Yes, damn them bloggers! Obnoxious, self-important buggers have no right to get worked up over this simple case. Afterall, Rajpal is being generous and giving them “a break”! A break, dammit! Nevermind, if the simple act of asking for permission was one that Rajpal overlooked in his earnest desire to gvie the blogger a “break”.
As they say in the movies, assumptions are the mother of all fuckups.
“Guys, we blogopherics can judge for ourselves who is the doing right here, and who is the dolt. So, don’t get too cocky.”
I am sorry, but what does “blogopherics” even mean? If by “cocky” you mean that some of us are convinced Rajpal is a charlatan then, yes, cocky we are.
“You guys have taken a lot of egg and rubbed it all over your faces”
Funny, I was thinking the same about you, thanks to some of your assumptions.
“In fact you guys having mentioned names and by that have surely done one thing – libeled a lot of people including the guy/s you mentioned. I happen to know that Rajpal is a leading light in the legal profession who has taken-on some of the biggest Colombo fish in Court and won, so he must probably not be even considering taking little baubles like you to court, even though he has all the reason to, with the kind of libelous guttersnipe sticky venom that you have poured on the pages.”
Oh I quiver at the very thought! So he is going to take us to courts for libeling against him when the only reason we even gave him as much thought as we did this week was because he stole content from blogs? Brilliant.
“In future, if you want to piss on yourselves, just do so in the privacy of the toilet — not in the glare of the public spotlight.”
I’d ask you do the same thing.
So long.
LikeLike
God this guy is not just obnoxious, he’s a complete moron.
‘Boo, Theena is my real name’ he says.
Oh yeah really?
Your childish boo is symptomatic of your childish head, because if you are Theena, it still means you are anonymous for all intents and purposes in this blog post – – because we do not know for the life of us Theena who, or Theena what or Theena where? You are simply not identifiable, unlike the person/s you are ranting against and abusing, who are identifiable and have been identified.
You may have a blogspot as you seem to claim, but we do not know about that – we are going by the posts in this blogspot, in which you are heaping abuse liberally – and libelously — on identifiable people.
I mean, you might as well have said “I’m Perera’’, that’s my real name.
Dah, Perera? Perera as in Perera the trillionth from Pothuhera?
Oh well.
Anyway, this is what this guy’s comrade Chaaarmax, or whoever he is, said in his blog in this post yesterday:
“Lastly, it’s not that we (at least myself) aren’t glad to get our writings published but, with proper attribution to Us and our Blog web sites.’’
So nobody is assuming anything. It’s a fact that a lot of them like the fact that they have been published; and Cerno, the owner of this blog, sums it all when he says the blgosphere was taken to the mainstream by this development.
Nobody is assuming anything, except this ‘Theena’ who seems to be so thin in the head, and assumes that we here are writing these posts without having the facts at our disposal.
The fact is that most everybody in this site acknowledged that they would like to be in the mainstream. If they have a gripe about their post having being used, just call or write to the newspaper’s site and say, ‘don’t do so in the future, you can use the others, but not me.’ That’s all.
No they don’t want to do it either, because they WANT to be published – as the other guy says ‘not that we don’t like our posts being published.’’ Talk about having the cake and eating it too! More like the whores saying, “please have us, but not until we get our twisted knickers untwisted.’’
Once you start from there — by saying ‘we like our blogs being published’ there is no going back and saying ‘blogs were taken!!’ That’s will be like saying:
‘I love my life, I want to live to be a 100, but I fault my parents for bringing me into this world without asking me?” Duh?
So get a life.
If you are going to be so self important, who knows, you might blow a gasket one of these days, and the sound of it may be heard all the way in Colombo.
Then somebody might say, ahh, that’s that guy who wrote a blog and thought he was the Bard!
Cocky? You are flattering yourself.
It’s more like plain cock — and a lot of bull too if not plain chickenshit bullshitting.
God, I never thought I’d live to see this kind of sorry carping in the public print or cyber print — but there it is, these buggers, oops, bloggers have done it.
LikeLike
I am not going to respond to someone calling me names when he can’t rebut some of the points I brought up.
Name is Theena Kumaragurunathan. Ask Rajpal (assuming you are not him); he did steal my article as well. Link: http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2006/07/23/pow07.asp
LikeLike
amithdis, i have a contact number, if u have half the balls that ur father had, give me a call and tell me all this in person. the number is 0776029141. ask for aftab.
LikeLike
pity i wasn’t there to reply to this yesterday. I was away. but here I am now. Bringing all kinds of things into it — steal yrs indeed, the article has been attributed to blogcitics. It even ahs this Theena whtever self importnat’s guy’s name in it?
So? It shows the argument is about nothing.
There is a trackback, and if you have published in the public domain — and in a blog at that — you should have the guts to stand by what you wrote and not whimper.
And i am amused by half the balls and the father stuff… these ARE juveniles. What can i do wasting time with kids. the last thing anybody wants to do is to talk to a juvenile in person — I am no pedophile! So c, better stew in you own juice.
LikeLike
You don’t want to talk to juveniles but have no problems publishing their material in newspapers. Funny man…
LikeLike
Why bother stealing the work of mere juveniles then? Tsk tsk
LikeLike
Hello My learned, mature and not so juvenile Amithdis.
Except for the part you went “It’s more like plain cock — and a lot of bull too if not plain chickenshit bullshitting.”
Well thought I’d quote you since you have so aptly quoted me.. and using it for your tag line.. “Lastly, it’s not that we (at least myself) aren’t glad to get our writings published but, with proper attribution to Us and our Blog web sites.”
I wish you’d also commented on my 3 points as well. Or wait a minute, you obviously don’t have a rebuttal? So here goes another chance for you to help your “Honourable” friend Rajpal to dig himself out of the hole he dug.
1. ///First thing, we tried to contact you, but it’s not possible in most of the blogs. We did contact some of the others though, who left contact e mails.
You bloggers know that you are anonymous.///
Well all you had to do was leave a comment. Just like the one you left here.
2. ///If your stuff is good we’d like to publish — it’s in the public domain too.///
Just because it’s in the Public Domain it doesn’t give you the right to publish, without proper citation and stating the sources. Just mentioning the Blog Author’s name in the “by XXX” is not enough. That would give the impression that the Blog Author is writing for your paper, and indeed getting paid for it as well.
What you need to do is, state the source, as “Source – http://www.abc.com” or “Courtesy of http://www.abc.com“.
As in my case, I wish to bring your attention to the Creative Commons License that I have, I certainly hope you are aware of it, and that your are committing an illegal act. Also you had incorrectly spelt my name as “Charrmax”.
3. Are you going to take responsibility for the statement “Brian Homa”, as for I did not write it, with the idea of my publishing’s to get into the mainstream print media. I certainly hope you guys do a better job as editors, than blindly copy content without going through them properly, checking for what might cause an offense to others.
I believe it’s called “Deformation” 🙂
As for anonymity, I dont see you spelling out your name, your place of work and your address? So start off your next reply with those, so we the juveniles can learn something from you.
As for my stand on my work further being published on Rajpal’s poor excuse for a newspaper.. pls read this : http://chaarmax.blogspot.com/2007/07/charrmax-on-lakbimanews-courtesy-of.html
LikeLike
Sorry that I am commenting this late in the day, but as some of you may know, my situation is a tad different. A “journalist” for the Lakbima News did a book review that I didn’t agree with and posted about it on my blog. She came on trying to justify herself but wasn’t getting anywhere with it. So lo and behold I see a photo of myself alongside a half page article being called a bozo. And then insulting all of us bloggers. Ofcourse I see why our content had to be stolen and published in the Lakbima News – they have no content of their own with substance. Give this article a read. If you want to have a good laugh and also if you want to see poor journalism.
Chaarmax – could you please tell me more about the Creative Commons License? I need to know if she had any right to publish my photo and my post alongside her article and quote my post in the middle of her article.
LikeLike
themissingsandwich If they reproduced your artwork without your permission its a violation of copyright law. At least that’s my understanding of it. The Creative Commons License makes it easier for share work legally.
I tried to read the so called “journalist’s” “article”. It is rather unreadable. 🙂 Of course my blog posts are even more garbled but I’m not pretending to be a journalist.
LikeLike