Plagiarism-An Issue!!!!

Plagiarism-An Issue!!!!

As you all know, we have encountered a recent spat and a writer has been accused of "plagiarism". First I thought that maybe she had taken the idea and concept so I PMed her telling her that it's okay if you have been inspired by something and that she should continue, but she replied in negative. It felt really odd to me, if she didn't do any wrong, then there was no point of discontinuing the FF, but she feels de-motivated. Then I went through all the comments posted on 'Tycoon's pregnant mistress' and actually was shocked out of my wits when someone posted the name of the book, the author and an excerpt from the book, to my horror it was a word-to-word copy. Then I really thought about it for a long time and here I am posting this...Please do read this and leave a comment as this is a very serious issue which has to be dealt.

First let us look at what exactly plagiarism means...

Plagiarism, as defined in the 1995 Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary, is the "use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work."

Within academia, plagiarism by students, professors, or researchers is considered academic dishonesty or academic fraud and offenders are subject to academic censure, up to and including expulsion. In journalism, plagiarism is considered a breach of journalistic ethics, and reporters caught plagiarizing typically face disciplinary measures ranging from suspension to termination of employment.

Online plagiarism: Content scraping is a phenomenon of copy and pasting material from Internet websites, affecting both established sites and blogs.

Now coming back to what exactly has to be taken into consideration.

1. Since, we writers here are not publishing a book or something on those lines, since this site is purely for entertainment purposes, we may not be judged by the stringent measures of this offence.

2. Since we are not professionals we as humans are susceptible to influences...generally we tend to incorporate things we read somewhere or hear somewhere, consciously or unconsciously in what we write. This can't be an objective judgment so I don't consider this as an offence.

3. Coming to be 'inspired', that is the most natural thing, we are so much exposed to all these things that we may get inspired by movies, novels, even other serials etc... There is a lot of difference between getting inspired to write a story and writing the same story. Please people, see the difference, For example, I have written so many stories of jai and bani inspired by ekta kapoor's serial Kasam Se, I might have used her characters, some scenes, but it is me who has written the lines, the phrases, the dialogues, I have not written the same dialogue spoken by bani or jai. This is a very tricky situation to spot. Another example, I had seen this movie 'An Autumn in New York', I took the idea, but I have written it my way, at least people who read my story and saw the movie told me that they both were different. This is about being 'inspired'.

4. Word-to-word copy...this is ridiculous and foolish. I mean how a person can be so stupid that he/she would sit in front of the PC and go on typing something for a book, that's mindless, or simply copy paste from the countless internet sources which no one can trace. I will quote myself here, in my very first story "Sunbeam", I had literally copied Arundhati Roy's lines to describe a character because I loved those lines, but I had mentioned that these specific lines are not mine, I have taken from this book by this author. This kind of cheating is difficult to be caught since we are unable to locate the source. Taking a few lines is okay, but a complete lift is highly irresponsible and in bad taste and it should definitely be condemned.

Finally, I would like to say that, it is certainly not in good spirits to do such an act and even defend it. I read some comments telling please continue even though you have copied, that's ridiculous, all other writers here like me, tin, kanta, ranjana and many more are idiots or what that we spent a considerable part of our precious time sitting and writing for you guys, I agree this is our passionate hobby but we aren't obliged to put in so much effort, energy and time in it. We do it because we love it and we love you guys and your response. I am highly upset with what has happened, and even more upset with people who wanted the story to continue even after knowing that it was copied word-to-word. I feel upset over myself also since I gave her a benefit of doubt and tried to encourage her and she instead of admitting it and replying to my PM honestly she pathetically wanted to gain my sympathy telling that she was highly discouraged, shame. I have nothing personal against anyone, but this kind of dishonesty, I won't be able to support and I have no fear to take my stand.

I hope in future such incidents will not happen, please people it's a great creativity and a lot of hard-work goes into creating something new and it should not be abused like this.

Your comments!!!

God bless
Dhani

I recently took a communication course and in the first class we had to define plagiarism and write in our own words what we understood this to mean and sign this piece of paper. The teacher than explained the consequences of being caught doing this and then finally at the end after the final reports had been submitted and marked, we were given this back.

Copying another person's work and passing it as your own is a serious offence. Others should not encourage it, instead ask the writer to take the idea and create your own story from it. Initially it is hard, but if you start with short story and work at it, it gets easier. Always mention the source that insipred you or the lines that you use in your work. Noone can stop your from quoting words as long as you credit the original writer.

Heermaan, I think in your first story you mentioned you were basing it on a book you had read. I assumed you were creating something based on the book. There is no point copying the actual story and changing characters name, how do you derive satisfaction from it as it not something that you created.

Dear Dhani,

My sincere apologies to all the KS FF writers who give of their time,

considering your busy lives also to bring us honest story telling.

Had I known I was encouraging this individual to blatantly plagiarize

two people's books word for word, with my daily comments, I would have

never done it.

In my view, you just don't change the names of the main characters in other

people's writings and call it your own.

Hope everyone will be more vigilant from now on and look out for cheaters so the same thing

don't happen again. I Have no desire to be made a fool a second time.

Agreed, plagiarism is a serious issue and what heerman did was wrong, copying the text word for word (which i have now learned from looking up on the website and reading the excerpt). It is wrong for someone to take someone else work and claim it as his/her own, we all know this. I've had it happen to me before too, a writer taking my work and claiming it as her own. It was extremely hurtful and I felt cheated when she gained praise for something I wrote.

But I think this is now being blown out more than it should be. Heerman is already ashamed of her actions---- is it really necessary for all of us to make her feel worse than she already feels now? She may have not fessed up to her actions, but I'm sure that she feels awful at this point. And everyone's attacks at her isn't helping much. So please, let's all put this to a rest. She must have learned her lesson by now. Let's not belittle her anymore than she already has been.

I don't want to be mistaken for defending her, but I do believe that people need forgiveness. So that's all we should do--- forgive and forget. Everyone has already made her very much aware of her actions by now, hence, she isn't here on the forum anymore.

'Indian_goddess' , there is no pint of forgiveness or soemthing on those lines, i agree she might not be on this forum, but she didnt admit her mistake, sorry, but she has defended herslef and like a coward she just disappeared, i would have welcoemd her truly if she would have addressed us tellign that she wa sorry and that she would continue to write with an original idea. but intsead of that she just fled, telling that she was discouraged. i am sorry to say but i am not buying that.

I totally agree with vardhani here about the seriousness of the situation and what Heerman did was wrong. The right thing for her to have done would have been to make a post and sincerely appologize for her mistake once her second ff was labelled plagarized and she should have also admit the same for her first ff as well. But she did not do that and in turn used "being demotivated" as an excuse and ran away. She was "demotivated" to "write" something that she just copy and pasted.

No one is here to judge one another or forgive but issues like this do need to be pointed out and clarified. I myslef have been on this forum for awhile as a silent reader and have not commented on much but i would like to thank all the amazing writers who take time out of their busy lives to write these wonderful stories for us. I really appreciate what you guys do as i love reading and your stories are very entertaining.

im against plagiarism too

yes it is an issue

Hey Dhani,

I agree with you totally on this issue. Being from a scientific community I know how bad plagiarism is and how is it taken around the world. No one has any right to falsely claim anybody else's intellectual property as his/her own. It is not only morally wrong, it is legally wrong also. Though it hurts the sentiment of the person whose intellectual property is stolen and claimed as someone else's, but it does more damage to the name and career of the offender.

As far as getting inspired is concerned, we all get inspired from something or the other, like here all the writers are inspired by kasam se characters Jai and Bani, their story, their chemistry, their love hate relationship. Like Jayati said sometimes we get inspired by a movie, a serial or a novel or even by some people around us. Acknowledging the same does not make us small in any way rather show our sincerity, integrity and our stand for truth.

Taking a story idea or a certain plot for the story is justifiable if due credit is given from where it has been taken. But what happened here is copy and paste of a successful novel with the change of name of the protagonists. This is not good at all.

Since in the referred issue it is nothing where the offender is getting any monetary gain, I am unable to understand what satisfaction would she have got by the compliments given for the story that she knew by all means was not her own.

This forum has so many wonderful writers who give their valuable time and energy providing us with wonderful stories. Some are wonderful with words; some are blessed with the magic of weaving story around a situation. It would be wrong to say that someone is better than the other as all of them are taking out time and putting efforts for our entertainment. I know how difficult it is to take out time from one's busy schedule. But it is the thrill of knowing that people read and appreciate your writing keeps the writers typing out story after story. I would say that it would be wrong on the reader's part to promote someone to carry on updating even after knowing that the story has not been written by her, rather completely lifted from somewhere else. If they feel like reading the story, they can easily go and buy the novel to read it. But please don't promote a wrong practice for your own entertainment. It would only do harm to the person who is lifting it from somewhere else and posting it as her own. And personally I would not want any harm come to her. It is a lesson enough for someone to learn if she learns from this, but readers please don't ask her to continue it as it is morally, ethically and legally wrong.

cheers

Shweta