A Picture of Mine in Brunch but without Any Credit to Me
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The Picture of Mine which Appeared in Brunch (epaper here) after Cropping out (c) Mridula D that you can see at the Bottom Left
Update 17 (20/12/2009): From the issue of Brunch of 20/12/2009- In the Brunch issue of 6th December, we published a picture of a cup of coffee by Mridula Dwivedi without giving her due credit for the same. We apologise for the mistake.
I consider the matter closed now. I think both the parties will not like to see a cup of coffee for a long period of time!
Update 16 (18/12/2009): I am expecting to see the correction on Sunday (20/12/2009) maybe in 8 font size!
But even then I am looking forward to it.
Update 15 (15/12/2009): If you see update 6 I had used Ask Vir page to ask Mr. Sanghvi’s opinion on this issue. To my surprise Mr. Sanghvi has replied. And he considers it a legal issue between me and Hindustan Times and hence does not want to get involved.
Update 14 (13/12/2009): On second thoughts let me see the corrections in print and then I would make this post un-sticky. I do not like to see this post first thing on my blog but then if I have come this far, a few more days are not going to hurt.
Update 13: (12/12/2009) I went and met the editor. Things have been discussed to my satisfaction completely. I think they will get implemented too. By Monday I will make this post unsticky. Thank you all for your support.
Update 12: (11/12/2009) I am meeting a Brunch representative tomorrow. I am going with an open mind but with open options too. I will put an update as soon as possible after it.
Update 11: (11/12/2009) If I get a phone call from their side I would try my best to meet them tomorrow. I have to say for the editor that when I was asking a lot of questions, she gave me her cell number. I have given her mine, so that she could call at her convenience. After all, her schedule could be more unpredictable than mine. If only they had treated me this way when the incident started. Even now there is feet dragging (at least it feels like that to me) but slightly better communication than before.
But by no means I am anxious to settle on any terms. I am quite prepared to make this long drawn unless I feel I am treated fairly.
Update 10: (10/12/2009) Anyone who knows how media corrects their mistakes in press when they are not unintentional? Any examples?
Update 9: (9/12/2009, night)In a surprise move in her most recent mail the editor of Brunch asks to meet me! I am still going to be very careful. And more so, I commute so much that I have to carefully think which day to meet.
Added a little later- I have not responded to that email yet but I will for sure do. I need to sleep over the matter and I think I have earned it. If this was the first response my delay might look like rude but after all this I need to take time.
Update 8: (9/12/2009, evening) I heard from Brunch again after @sidin from twitter intervened. But the higher ups still want to say in the correction at Brunch (on 13th) that the mistake was unintentional. So if you see that in Brunch don’t believe it. They cropped out (c) Mridula D from this image.
Then they want to pay me purchase rates for the photo! Funny as if they had purchased it. I have rejected both the offers.
Now this is going to be long drawn. I am going to start blogging normally and the posts will appear below this post. Have some patience with me.
I have to figure out what is a good way to fight out in the long run, but I am going to do that for sure.
You will find a lot more on this at @mridulad on Twitter.
Update 7 (9/12/2009): I am making this post sticky till 20 December 2010. Let us see who blinks first.
Update 6 (9/12/2009) Mr. Vir Sanghvi has a Ask Vir page on his website. I typed this rather long question relating to plagiarized photo above (but I have very sincere doubts of it has any meaning for Brunch/HT) only to be told at the end that I can use only 750 characters. Well my question within 750 characters is-
Brunch plagiarized a picture mine on December 6, 2009. When I wrote to the Brunch editor, Poonam Saxena she agreed that the picture is mine. The picture had a clear (c) Mridula D with it which was cropped out by Brunch. She says it is an “inadvertent mistake and I do apologise for that.” How can cropping out (c) Mridula D be inadvertent? I am told that the penalty can be in the range of 2.5 lakhs as compensation and 4 months in jail. And she is not even willing to discuss the compensation amount with me http://www.gonomad.com/traveltalesfromindia/2009/12/picture-of-mine-in-brunch-but-without.html I am using @virsanghvi on every tweet on this issue. I wonder if the social media clues would get noticed at HT or not.
Obviously the question is being sent to admin for approval! I am sure he never gets to see it, much less address it.
Update 5 (9/12/2009): Search for @virsanghvi at Twitter. But then he follows no one and maybe he uses it as a broadcast medium only and never even searches for @virsanghvi!
Update 4: (8/12/2009) I have started using @virsanghvi at Twitter let us see if he has time to follow a case of plagiarism of his Brunch or if he is too busy to bother with trivial things like plagiarism. And as I said if need be
I will continue for an year or whatever it takes to get adequate acknowledgement and compensation.
Update 3: (8/12/2009) I got a mail from the editor today evening asking for my postal address as they wish to send compensation. The only problem is they have not discussed the amount of peanuts they wish to send me. And I am not willing to negotiate till they ask my price. They make me feel like I am in the wrong.
Update 2: (8/12/2009) I was at Twitter but just merely so. Today I realized how fast things spread there!
Update 1: (8/12/2009) Nothing new to report for today morning! I hope they are not treating the matter as closed.
Original Post
You can look at the same image in Brunch (E-paper here) Hindustan Times Sunday (December 6, 2009) Supplement without any credit to me and image has been cropped to take out my copyright. I am not amused. I had posted this image originally here.
On Sunday we get a lot of newspapers. Hindustan Times is one of them. I was flipping through Brunch and then I had a feeling of Deja Vu. I started laughing and said the same thing to Sesha- this is my picture. This time he didn’t tell me it could be ia generic photograph. If you hold a copy of the Brunch you would find that the foam in the coffee is pixel by pixel same, the image above and the image on page 12 of Brunch of December 6, 2009.
I have written to the author of the column. And I got a reply from her, as expected she said she has no role in selection of pictures.
I have written to the editor of Brunch Ms. Poonam Saxena now. By evening she replied agreeing that there has been a mistake because copyright issues were not clear and they are willing to issue a correction and talk about compensation. I strongly disagree.
But I strongly disagree with the statement that copyright issue was not clearly mentioned. Google search is not anything in itself, it lists images posted by others and carries a notice next to it saying “images may be subject to copyright.” Secondly of you click on my image it carries additional copyright (c) Mridula D.
I started putting (c) Mridula D after one of my other images was picked up by an in-flight magazine with a credit to someone else. What more clarity is needed?
So I do not agree that the behavior was unintentional. Let us see how this pans out in the end. I am much more incensed this time than I was when it happened for the first time with the in flight magazine.
In the meanwhile I am making this post sticky.
P.S. The picture above mine in the article (of sarson ka saag) can be found at Flickr. I hope Ravi has been luckier than me and his picture has been used with permission.
PPS. Mint (Under Hindustan Times Umbrella) had done an article on plagiarism earlier.
Original Post Ends Here
Other cases of Hindustan Times Plagiarism of Blogger Pictures.
135 thoughts on “A Picture of Mine in Brunch but without Any Credit to Me”
The copyright mentioned on your photograph is so clear. The editor is playing games by making such a remark. I had a similar issue when one of my copyighted photographs was cropped and used for a newspaper: http://www.rocksea.org/malayala-manorama-copyright-violationThey accepted the mistake, even called me up, published a corrigendum and compensated me with an amount. They also accepted my suggestion that future images will be given ue credits and copyrights will be taken care of. They are sticking to that, I feel.Mridula, you should not accept their statement that there was something wrong from your part! However, if they accept their mistake and understand the feelings of a writer/photographer who has been robbed, and offer you a corrigendum and a compensation, I feel it is good.
Good you mentioned. But will say you are lucky/unlucky(both) that your photograph was circulated with a daily newspaper. Circulation is big but without credit that is not encouraging.Waiting to read what happened next?
This is so unethical on their part and as you say, it's not the first time it happened. And you are lucky to find out that your work was stolen. There could be many more who aren't even aware of the theft of their work.Being a national paper, how can they be so ignorant about plagiarism?This surely needs to be taken on a broader scale.
Hi Mirdula,It's really sad to know that even people in such responsible field don't care about the copyrights. What difference is this writer/editor's action from someone secretly pocketing a 100/- fallen from someone else pocket?Shame on them! (unless they correct their mistake)
U should and you must drag on this..this must stopHave u wrote it to the author of the Article..Ms. Seema Goswami email has being provided in the article itself.This is the most shameful aspect of Indian Media and Indian society on a whole, we do not give two hoots to the Intellectual Property Rights..I support you no this….
You must be so mad! It is infuriating when this happens. I've taken to putting my name on all my pictures right in the middle – they can't crop it out. You should think about doing that. Good luck with fighting it out!
Sucks. Unfortunately the concept of private rights is not ingrained into us. It's a cultural thing… We spit and litter public property, so why not steal something that easily available online…
Sorry to hear that. As such a pro magazine yes it is unacceptable. The same thing has happened to me numerous times and the though most of the time they apologize, they first defend vehemently.Mostly the answer i get is some junior/fresher took it from google images and he did not know much about copyrights. So they say we will ensure this notice is given.Anyways let us know the final outcome
You are right in being incensed and also is choosing to disagree to their simple plain apology.Make them read their own Mint article and teach them a lesson. This kind of plagiarism is not new and large media houses have been caught with pants down more than once.I'm not too sure of the legal penalty etc but you must be compensated. ToI got themselves in a similar imbroglio sometime back. I'm sure you can manage but let me know in case you need some help on this.Please don't be upset. Have a nice day.Cheers!
Rocksea, many thanks for sharing that post. At the moment HT/Brunch has gone all silent. I will keep you all updated.Hobo, this is not circulation, I came to know about it by chance by opening Brunch. If it was last week I was at Lancaster and would not even have known!I agree Nisha that I was lucky, I found out that my work was stolen, last week and I was not even around!Doli, thanks a lot for your support.Priyank I agree it is a cultural thing but not acceptable from someone who is in the business of publishing.Vamsee but then many of us ask for compensation! Shrinidhi I did just that but Mint and HT have separate desks is what I was told. I wonder if WSJ has any say into such things?Praveen they now have a mechanism of correcting their mistake. They agree, agree to run a correction and then talk of compensation. But what makes me angry is HT Brunch cropping out my (c)Mridula D notice. Lakshmi thank you, I have done that and got some replies.Amit have you ever written about these incidents? I wish to collect them at one page.Thank you for your support Tarun.Fida I am going to fight it out even if this post stays sticky for a year!Bindu, I am mad at the moment. No doubt.Sangfroid I also do not know about the legal penalty but let us see how can I take this up on social media!Karthik I have many problems.1. The editor nowhere explicitly acknowledges that my (c) Mridula D was cropped out.2. They can not show me the text of correction beforehand, I am sure it is going to be 'inadvertent mistake.'3. They are not even willing to address the other picture (at least not known to me) that I have mentioned in my post and seems to belong to Mr. Ravi D on Flickr.4. What is the amount of compensation they deem appropriate when Brunch cropped out (c) Mridula D. If the person was new why were they trusted with the final page? 5. Who is responsible for such mistakes an intern/employee on the lower rung or someone higher up who knows the rules of the game. Why is someone given the responsibility of the final page if they do not understand the rules?
Karthik,Let me put it this way:Mridula has the right to price her picture at any amount that she deems appropriate for her picture, if at all she wants to put them for sale.In principle, she has all the rights to charge a crore for it as well. HT is no one to decide the compensation amount.Equally important is that she deserves the credit for the image, along with the image, so that the readers who liked the picture could know who the photographer is. A note later on is no good. What HT did is wrong in principle. How they make up for it is irrelevant.
Mridula: Yes, HT's reason is warped and unfair. But considering you mention they agree it is indeed an error (despite the warped reason), are willing to issue a correction and compensate, what is the problem? Is it that you do not want that photo to be published at all in a print publication or you want it published after explicit approval from you? If its the former, you do have a point; but if its the latter – I think what HT says/ offers seems to have some meaning. No?
Hi Mridula,though it seems shocking, such incidents seem to be commonplace (irrespective of how credible the media house/newspaper is known to be).A friend of mine had a similar experience with one of his photographs shamefully stolen by a very big news daily in South India. When he called up the editor, he was given a "we stole your image, so what" kinda response.It was only after he and few other photographers (from online community) threatened to involve PTI and other agencies, that they buckled down. Published an article and gave him due credit.good luck and don't give up.Deepesh.
Sorry to say this, but what do you expect from Indian media (TV, movies and print media) – only thing they know is "idhar ka maal udhar". I am sure that lady must have stolen that article also from a "C" grade American publication.
Its shameful that HT has done this. With a huge circulation, they should be even more careful about doing the right thing. They might learn a lesson for the future with this incident.
Hi Mridula.1st time on your blog, have heard abt u from lakshmi!!sad indeed that a leading paper would do this..hope they do u justice, giving due credit or putting a retracting on their paper… !!!
M, quite disturbed by this..shame on HT. but am sure they will have to rectify the error and they will do so…in The Hindu and TOI i think there are ombudsmen..lost touch with indian media so dunno present status…such battle take long time if u go for legal fight..but u can get in touch with the editor and am sure they will accept yr argument..reg. blaming junior or seniors etc..doesnot matter at all. ultimately, the blame lies with the head that wears the crown..u r bound to win simply becz it's yr hard work…so wishes mridula…
All the best. Forget compensation for a moment. There is still a common courtesy of requesting permission before attempting to use. I wonder how they would react if they were subjected to the same treatment.
Thats sick!I too had experienced Plagiarism..The entire recipe of Gulab Jamoon along with the picture was copied word to word by another blogger!But I was successful in getting my content removed from the copier's blog within 12 hours.So,i wrote a blog post to help ppl tackle Plagiarism..Mine was with Blogs, Yours is with Newspaper..,so i doubt if the methods mentioned in my blog post on Plagiarism helps you..But you can try looking at my blog post..http://swathipradeep-bloggerhacks.blogspot.com/2009/12/plagiarism-and-how-to-tackle-it.html
So Hindustan Times also is another publication of India that steals photographs and content and then acts holier than thou.I have had issues with TV channels and Times of India on matters relating to theft of photographs from my flickr photo stream.http://www.flickr.com/photos/ezee123/Plagiarism is a polite word. The correct usage is theft. Welcome to the world of Indian newspapers and magazines who have no compunctions in stealing images and putting them up. I have any number of such issues which I have not been following up.To top it all even if they were to pay money, it is a scandalously low figure they want to pay. I prefer not to sell images to Indian publications as they pay almost next to nothing.It is good you are making an issue about it.It gives me some impetus to wake up and pursue my battles as well.
This is just not done. I am posting and linking up to you. I DO hope they get back to you and that you get a good amount of money off them. They have NO right to your pics without your approval and you have every right to charge them anything you want … I wish the legal system here were better. http://themadmomma.wordpress.com
Hi Mridula,Oh My God! I am so sorry to hear about this. I can see you are very agitated about it. Its disgusting how these things happen. All they had to do was ask permission to use the picture and work out the payments/whatever. Most irresponsible I must say. Do get them!Julia
@Deepak,My blog contant was stolen even though i had put up a copyscape banner and cc license in sidebar..So,these people will steal irrespective of everything!!Can u teach me how to watermark images??
Hi,I understand your anger at this newspaper using your photo without credit but this issue has made me think of a few things (especially since copyright law in context of new media is one of the subjects I am studying.) With the emergence of new media like the internet and the ease with which technology (cameras) is available to people, the idea of copyright as absolute is rapidly changing.Your original post says this photo was taken at Club Mahindra. The photo may be yours, but you only have the copyright of the photo you took. The copyright for the presentation will be with Club Mahindra. This photo would not have existed if someone at Club Mahindra did not have the expertise or resources to make that presentation.So just for a question’s sake: if you sue for compensation and you get it, do you think Club Mahindra should also get a share? I should ask my lecturer about this.Just another thought, I do think you and the people who make comments here should refrain from making personal attacks or generalized comments on editors of HT because I think that exposes you to be sued for defamation / damage to reputation etc. If you have to criticise, stick to your grouse without making generalised insinuations about HT editors.Just hope big papers in India realize that just as it is taboo to lift articles off the net (am hoping it still is), it should be taboo to pick up random photos off the net too. They should invest some money into subscribing to sites where photos can be used without copyright problems.Thanks
Sudipta many thanks for your support.Mihir, many thanks for stating the points so clearly on my behalf.Sankara you have beautiful photos, be very careful.Deepesh many thanks for sharing that experience with me.Indianhomemaker many thanks for your support.Atul, Seema was very nice to me throughout this episode, but then I know we all get angry.Aarti, ignore the blog date it now says 20 December 2010. That is because that way it will remain on the top of this blog, till I change the date. Many thanks for stopping by and your comments.Ramesh it seems like many of them do it, there are known cases, I will collect them at one place as soon as this settles down.CK2 many thanks for your support.Princess thanks for sharing your experience. Every bit helps. I can say twitter helps to spread the word quite quickly.Thank you for your wishes Sandeep.
Mridula – Once this is all over, hopefully in your favour…It would be great if you could put together a post that would summarize this experience and put together the Do's and Don'ts and how can bloggers prevent content and photo pilferage or something on those lines…That way the entire blogging community stands to benefit.
Mumbai Paused many thanks for your support but I think I have anyway dragged @virsanghvi with enough tweets. Let us leave his writing alone 😀 I also know this is collective frustration.Ezee123 many thanks for sharing your experience, though I am sorry to hear about it. Hope you will pick them up.The Mad Momma many many many thanks for the link. That helped a lot and all those noble souls who tweeted and retweeted along with me many of them without ever having any contact with me before.Julia, I agree if someone asks permission most of us would agree. But the trouble a lot of blogger (myself included) ask for a small compensation from commercial websites and sometimes they are not even willing to pay that.Abhilash, jokes apart but many many thanks for your support.Shekhar, many thanks. That sounds like a complement!Deepak, are you a lawyer? Can you quote me where in the Copyright Act of 1957 it is written that (c) is not enough? I have been reading it and I didn't find any mention. I would entertain any discussion of the legal aspect only after one has quoted a relevant section of the law. Otherwise my speculation is as good as yours! Even the google search says along with the images that the image might be copyrighted. Anonymous can you quote me the relevant sections of the law? I can quote you one- This is from the Copyright Act of 1957 available at http://www.ircc.iitb.ac.in/Indian%20Copyright%20Act%201957.html Many thanks for your suggestions.Anonymous again about Club Mahindra can you quote me the relevant section of the law? They must be teaching you to quote that or a precedent in the court, otherwise your analysis has no support and is only a description. To anyone who wants to discuss the legal aspects please quote me the relevant sections from the law so that I can look it up. Or else it is very difficult for me to follow legal implications and I will not be able to engage in a debate with you.
Sankara I would not have been able to do this alone, so whatever is the outcome (and I have a feeling this may not be over yet) I am going to do that for sure.
Tarun they now want to meet me inperson, see my latest update. And many thanks for your support. Know someone who understands the Copyright Act of 1957 and its many amendments?
Tarun, Tarun Tarun that sounds like such a blessing. Can I drop you a mail somewhere? I need to discuss this with you and not just in the comment section here. But then I have to call it a day at the moment or I will miss office tomorrow and I do not wish to do that at all.
Mridula nothing serius… tension nahi lene ka.call circuit fix an appointment and vaat laga dalo unki.Kidding :)Thats quite sad to hear and I hope you should take compensation for this practice.
Good for you Mridula. Stick to your fight and agree to a compensation only after they negotiate with you otherwise they are quite liable to send you a cheque for 2000/- and later say that things had been settled with you.
All is well that ends well.I wish the issue to end soon on a positive note. Best Wishes!!!But will say unintentionally the post is superhit – hurrayyy !!!
Natasha that offer of purchase price has already been made and rejected.Harish are you a lawyer?Hobo, I am so tired I am falling asleep on the keyboard. Anuradha many thanks for your support.Sue, many many thanks for the link.Deepak, many thanks for the advice but I am told that I may not define any copyright and it is still mine by the very act that I took that picture or I am the author of that creation. Since you did not quote a source neither am I quoting.
Plagiarism! This is one word every blogger has to know and realize the importance of it. Cuckoo had this very interesting post on Plagiarism Do let us know if you need any help and we will do the needful.
buddy….the battle is half won already by u…if they want u to meet them, grab the opportunity yar.. put your case forward..this is just a humble opinion…anywy…u have been wronged and hence u have a right to get justice the way u feel…best wishes always friend..
hey, this really sucks. And i bet they're all doing it… your standing up for yourself will make it easier for SO many others… all the best, and keep up the good fight.I'm sorry, but i am neither a lawyer not a journalist (not that that helps, apparently), but am linking to my blog…
(C) might be abstract but it is only used as a formality. So is defining the license. The main onus is any Intellectual Property is the originality of the creator. Licenses like creative commons are used so as to inform people that the stuff is in public domain and can be used according to the terms provided in the license. It is just like a sign post informing what is and what is not.Any further updates Mridula
Ramesh thanks a lot for your support. let us see what that meeting brings out.Debo many many thanks for linking from your blog. That helps for sure.Tarun yes, maybe we will meet on Saturday and probably talk tomorrow first because at the moment I am not at all sure what they want. And many thanks for that clarification.Hobo that was already offered and I have already rejected that. That is not enough.
Good for you to follow this up. But it is not the first time HT has done this sort of stuff. One of their editors – a guy called Thapa – writes a blog for HT on sex ed issues, and one piece was rather, shall we say, "heavily inspired" by an op-ed in the UK newspaper Guardian. Even words and phrases were similar. I left several comments on it on his blog, but he censored all of them.
Rajat many thanks. This was the second time and I don't like to repeat my mistakes twice.Anonymous I would have pointed that out to the Guardian instead.
Now I get it why beautiful pictures on blogs make you wince. And in my case, I haven't started putting even a watermark or a copyright sign on my photographs.I'm glad you are fighting it out. All the best.
Mridula, I did write to the Guardian. They thanked me for letting them know and said they will follow it up. I don't know how successful they were because that blog post remained on the HT site for months on end. Good luck with your fight! We need very tough laws on intellectual property in India.
Indica I also started using (c) Mridula D after the first incident of my picture getting published without my knowledge. Before that I didn't. Anonymous many thanks for the update. I think beyond that you could not have done much.
Kiran, I am trying for that but an 'unintentional mistake' and purchase price as compensation would not do.Hobo, I tried that. I got the 'unintentional error' and purchase price as an offer in return, which I did not agree to.
That means the second option, correct? If I am correct it is maximum 2.5 lacs, correct?But who will the final decision-maker to decide the best amount under 2.5 lacs And why?
Hobo, many thanks. But the people who have been in similar situations say I am going on a futile journey, the editors never settle with anyone.So open mind and open options is how I am keeping it.
Mridula,There is a huge NOICE on this post and it needs to go more public. I request you to write to [email protected], [email protected] separately and lobby against plagiarism. It has to become a public debate, more than on blogs. I also think you should begin to push for price….or else! kind of stuff.Julia
Better if you draw it. Having come this far away doesn't warrant going back. And on Compensation part, it can always increase…and that limit of fine u mentioned is payable to the court..the (Rs. 50000)
Julia what is NOICE? And if you know them why don't you point it out. I believe they generally pay no attention to such mails.Tarun, I have quoted the legal minimum only.Rameh people who have been through this and people who have supported me hugely say I am wasting my time, so my expectations are at a minimum. But then as I said open mind and open options.
How completely rude are they! it's good that you've done something about this though, just imagine how many other people have their work stolen without being realised where or what it is being used for.
We had discussed this sometime back….if they have used it for commercial purposes, then (c) applies.I am glad you have the resilience to stand up. They must be waiting for you to tire out. :o)
San I know and I guess you start becoming paranoid after few such instances.VS, I am quite obstinate that way. If I put my mind to it. 😀 I will know tomorrow.
Mridula,I am sorry if I offended you. Did not mean to. In the meantime, I have been talking with fellow journalists who are aware of breaking copyright in the US or Europe.John Calderone, a friend says, " Hi, Julia. Intellectual property are seriously protected in the US and Europe, and the difference between the two places is the length of time a copyright lasts. But there are fair use clauses that allow reviewers and academics to quote sentences from works without seeking permission. However, for images, permission mu…st always be sought to reprint them, and the owners of the images often require a payment. Using an image without seeking permission and giving credit to the creator of the image is a clear legal violation. (There is some fair use issue such as a movie poster in a review, but the studios often release such images for fair use in reviews because they see it as free publicity.) In the link you provided, Brunch is completely wrong, and in the US or Europe, it would quickly pay a fee to avoid a costly lawsuit."Now that you say it, I will most certainly bring it to their notice.Julia
Julia in no way you offended me ever. i was talking bout my inability to get a response and a feeling that people respond to known emails. I was so tired, I must have not said this well. Many many many thanks for writing to John Calderone and many many thanks for his reply. I think the issue is sorted out, I just need to get through the implementation. If I sounded rude somewhere, I am really sorry.
I do not wish to defend HT by any means. Certainly what Brunch did is a clear violation of rights and should NOT have been done.However, to all the self-righteous people who have posted comments on this blog, all I want to ask is, can you answer the following questions honestly:1. Have I bought a pirated book off a roadside vendor?2. Have I downloaded a song/movie from the internet?3.Have I ever watched/bought a pirated movie DVD?4. Have I purchased a pirated computer game for a tenth of the price of the original just because the original one was too expensive?If you answered 'Yes' to even one of those questions, you are a hypocrite. The only difference between what you did and what HT did is that you did not get caught. If a company violates copyright, you make a big hue and cry about it. But if you download an MP3 off the internet, it's OK, eh? Why make this distinction between an individual and a corporation? A violation is a violation and if you have ever done it yourself, you have no right to self-righteous comments on this blog. Think about it.
Anonymous, no, the correct analogy would be that I take a book, print multiple copies of it, get advertisers advertise with me and still get away with it. You think about it.
@MridulaThis is not about you, Mridula. It's about all the self-righteous people who have posted comments as if they've never violated copyright.I completely agree that your rights were violated and I have said as much in my comment.
Good point Mridula. Anyway, the young lawyer in making should also note that if a criminal is being tried in court, corruption in the law forces and even in the judiciary will not be considered an argument. It can of course be used for entertainment.Each case has to be discussed for its merit.
Dear Anonymous,No – The honest reply for your said questions And for arguments will say:To error is human but with intention & knowledge or without intention & knowledge that is a question. Your questions are valid but calling people who posted comments hypocrite is with intention/knowledge or without intention/knowledge – you decide.;-)
Mr. Anonymous….My question to you is why are you commenting as anonymous on payroll of HT I suppose..secondly…the question about IP is not always about money or consideration, it is about recognition. Seldom any writer will like to have a less readership by abusing his readers who use roadside bookshops… but he would not tolerate if any of his writer PICK is work up without giving him due credit. Money does come later in this case
Congratulations Mridula. In fact I think we should thank you for taking a stand and demonstrating that one person can make a difference, if he/she really wants to.Well done! Btw..Congratulations to HT also for being gracious enough.
Thank you Hobo, Tarun and VS for responding to the anonymous comments.Ajeya which show is this?VS thank you but the implementation remains to be seen.Sandeep this was the second time and I was furious.
Dear Mridula,It is so nice of you to come here to say this. I have tried to get in touch with my HT pals in the Editorial. They have turned out to be as silent as a tomb on this subject 🙂 You said it too. I am surprised.But John sitting in New York replied you see.This has become a very great eye opener for me as well. Unfortunately, what we place for Public viewing in our blogs or our photo albums do lend themselves to misuse as well by unscrupulous people. I have therefore decided that I am henceforth going to say: All pictures published here may be used with credit to me, Julia Dutta and my blog. Thank you!!!Julia
temme..is there no ombudsman for HT? forgive my ignorance..it would have been as simple to solve this issue if they had one…surprised they r dragging it so long..very simple..they have committed a mistake..all they have to do is to communicate to u..talk to u and finish it off..anywy..M, best wishes buddy..
I personally feel how offended you are. I am of Indian origin but brought up in USA almost my entire life. Copyright violations and Patent violations are so rampant in some countries. Yes, they say they will issue a correction. You know where that will be? It will be in the lower portion, in a very small unreadable letters, on page 84.
@ anonymous,HT pubished Mridula's photograph, without credits,on a "commercial" newspaper. The content of the news, articles, photographscarry a price. This is far different from the instances cited by you. It was not for personal use, not even for free-educational purposes.
@ AnonymousVoltaire once had "I may not agree with what you say, but I will till my death will protect your right to say"in your first comment you tried to deny that..A basic human rightAnd then you are commenting (without name and I am surprised what fears that you have) preaching ethics while there is a battle going on….I might agree with you, but that doesn't deny me or any of my fellow commentators here our right to say..and you are hell bent in proving us wrong by even though you are tending to get argumentative. IPRs are violated everyday, but why don't those people take action…because they usually get revenue and readership and recognition..And U are trying to sidestepping the raised by other bloggers…A commercial media giant, with lawyers on payroll can afford "Picking" up others work without giving them credit? Then comes the question of conduct..When you have a question in hand you don't tend to be philosophical you try to solve it and make it sure that it doesn't gets repeated either by other on your or by you on other@ Mridula, Sorry for taking this Guy/gal again..Was not thinking of posting but his/her comments were……
I across this post entirely by accident and although I haven't read this closely, I was a little surprised to see that you keep referring to this as plagiarism. True, it is plagiarism. More pertinently, it is copyright infringment — copyright subsists in a work from the moment it is fixed in tangible form. For a photo, that would mean "from the moment the photo is taken". A copyright notice is not necessary to acquire copyright, neither is any form of licence. Using a copyrighted image without permission from its owner is infringement. End of story.And in India, infringement is both a civil and criminal offence.There's a copyright 101 here if you're interested. http://www.takingitglobal.org/images/resources/tool/docs/1611.pdf
@ Anonymous….I don't require copyright for dummies…I work on that Copyright Act, 1957 and TRIPs Agreement quite often…Secondly on photographs copyright subsists from date it is published for that year and then for next 60 yrs counted from the calender year….And you were making a story out of yourself here
Julia many thanks for the effort and it is not the first time HT was accused of this. See the other links on my post! They will remain slient. Say thank you to John from my side.Ramesh many thank for your support and making it a hundred.SG the other picture that I mentioned in my post, the correction was on the content page but yes someone else had to point it out to me, it was in such a small font that on my own I could not even locate it! I think the same might happen in my case! But let us see.Rocksea, thanks for stating your point and engaging with Anonymous.Anonymous, no, personal use is exactly the same as violating the copyright for profit. Happy now?Now do I have a second Anonymous? Thank you fo pointing out that what HT did was infringement but I went to meet the editor and we have agreed in principle on a course of action. As soon as it gets implemented I will make this post unsticky and maybe close the comments but not till the correction is made. Tarun tu mug le bhai, tere exams hain. Come here only when you are thoroughly tired of mugging. But many thanks for engaging with Anonymous. Some days (like today) I feel too tired.
I hope you have not agreed to anything yet. I want you to consider this also in your discussions with them. They may agree with whatever you want but will want to put a "non disclosure clause". This means you cannot talk or write or discuss about the agreement between the two of you. Please beware.
Sg unfortunately I have met the editor and I would not say we went as far ahead as non disclosure but she did request not to disclose in public apart from the general nature,Anonymous, we had a long talk and I not asked for 1 lakh in the first place itself! In India the legal minimum is 50K.
Hi Mridula,I landed here via Anu's blog. I liked the way you are standing up for your rights. Great going!I went thru' few of your posts and just wanted to tell you I do blog on temples. Do visit my blog when you find time and encourage me.
I have asked Mr Vir Sanghvi who has an opinion about everything from Pakistani politics to creation of states in India if he has any opinion about plagiarism in Indian media and am awaiting his answer. Its surprising that the man doesnt even accept that its a mistake and forwards us to his legal department as if the newspaper were none of his concern. In India, no one is accountable, except maybe God.
@ anonymous,why do you read/interpret what i never wrote? did i ever tell that "it's OK to violate copyright for personal purposes"? surprised??! i was refering to the graveness of the issue on relative terms. if we consider all crimes in the world on the same status, we will all be in prison for sure.
Hmmmm, Mridula…a bit late but I can really feel what have you been going through, as I have also been through phase quite a few time and for me it has mainly been from bloggers and the online users and at points I had also to stop blogging or remove the posts which were really close to my heart…On of my very popular travel blogs is totally de-activated now due to this ever-increasing menace and really became very choosy these days while posting something on my blogs……I really used to feel dejected and It's as if I'm used to it now…so many of my posts are copied and used in websites and forums without my permission, knowledge and accreditation…I just really can sigh that even these big media houses can stoop so low…I have come across blogs plagiarism of another largest selling national newspaper so many times….they are just doing it again and again…sigh:(!
Chitra thanks for your support and I hopped over your blog finally.SG I think we have sealed it over a handshake but they have not given me any reason to go back on my words.Janit, many thanks for stopping by. Maybe Mr. Sanghvi is suggesting the way out, next time it should be made a legal issue.Flyingstars you take beautiful pictures! I know it is even more difficult to fight the random lifts on the web. I am going to make the watermark more prominent and see how it goes.
Some optimism please Mridula. Maybe they will use a bigger font, maybe they will put you on their ethics board, maybe they will gift you a whole year supply of coffee…so many options. 😀
The point I'd like to make Mridula is this.. you're smart and the people you're in correspondence with regarding this matter are smart..but somewhere in this is an unsmart person who must have picked your picture from the internet.. had to meet his deadlines for the day.. had been made to sign contracts governing copyright laws before he was put on the job.. however that was just something which the smart guys had made him do so they could stay clear of trouble.. so my point is – the smart talk, the smart deal, the smart grieve.. n its all just a game they're good at… my heart goes to the unsmart guy out there working in offices..n elsewhere.. my heart goes out to him..
VS you were right, the font looks bigger than 8 for sure.Ramesh I had been to Mumbai only once 10 years ago!Abhineet, I agree with you, only anyone who know me will not call me smart, straight forward yes, but not really smart.
Was busy with mugging when it occurred to me that It was Sunday so I checked out the brunch…Congrats…for sticking up, perhaps it was the right thing to do.Now there is a saying in Punjabi "to make a sweet lassi bitter" you surely made their coffee bitter. So much fighting over a heart.:)Back to Mugging 🙂
..once you're a little smart you can't help getting smarter as each day goes by… n its not such a bad thing 🙂 after all, given you're comfy with it and it's keeping you comfy in this smart world.. ..i myself am sometimes not ( ..
Tarun thank you for the comment and happy mugging again.Abhineet, I do not wish to get into a debate about my smartness or the lack of it. Thanks for stopping by.
on behalf of all people everywhere who have been plagiarised and all people who have worked for the indian newspaper industry and been treated like horse$hit i want to say thank you for sticking it out and making this a fight and winning! you were clearly in the right and they were in the wrong, and it was healing to see the issue play out as such. good on you for making it that way.
Anonymous this was the second time it happened to me hence this anger and resolve. The first time around I was quite clueless and I agreed with a correction and a little higher than purchase price. Not twice! Thank you for your comment.
Hi Mridula,Best Wishes for a very happy and happening 2010.Glad that this issue was resolved to your satisfaction. Was reminded of this when i saw the copyright on this page – very clear and not obtrusive too. http://www.cricinfo.com/decadereview2009/content/gallery/436097.html
Rajeev, my best wishes to you too for a wonderful 2010.I loved the copyright notice at the link but the trouble is that people find my pictures through Google search and that notice would not come as it would not be on the picture. Maybe I could do something like that on the picture itself.
I saw the post. I am not at all surprised by this. HT is notorious for this kind of malpractices. Last year I faced a similar problem when one day I discovered my photo on their Calcutta edition. There was no mention of the photographer though. It is quite unfortunate that an old newspaper house have such a scant regard for the copyright. You can witness my bad luck by visiting my photo album at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pritam2k7/3187597332/
The copyright mentioned on your photograph is so clear. The editor is playing games by making such a remark. I had a similar issue when one of my copyighted photographs was cropped and used for a newspaper: http://www.rocksea.org/malayala-manorama-copyright-violationThey accepted the mistake, even called me up, published a corrigendum and compensated me with an amount. They also accepted my suggestion that future images will be given ue credits and copyrights will be taken care of. They are sticking to that, I feel.Mridula, you should not accept their statement that there was something wrong from your part! However, if they accept their mistake and understand the feelings of a writer/photographer who has been robbed, and offer you a corrigendum and a compensation, I feel it is good.
Good you mentioned. But will say you are lucky/unlucky(both) that your photograph was circulated with a daily newspaper. Circulation is big but without credit that is not encouraging.Waiting to read what happened next?
This is so unethical on their part and as you say, it's not the first time it happened. And you are lucky to find out that your work was stolen. There could be many more who aren't even aware of the theft of their work.Being a national paper, how can they be so ignorant about plagiarism?This surely needs to be taken on a broader scale.
Really bad! They should not be doing such cheap things!
This is definitely not right. It could have taken them a minute to send an email and asked for permission.
Mail that Mint Journalist who published article on newspapers lifting photos from blogs…he might help.
Hi Mirdula,It's really sad to know that even people in such responsible field don't care about the copyrights. What difference is this writer/editor's action from someone secretly pocketing a 100/- fallen from someone else pocket?Shame on them! (unless they correct their mistake)
pls write to the editor and tell them..this is certainly not accepted
U should and you must drag on this..this must stopHave u wrote it to the author of the Article..Ms. Seema Goswami email has being provided in the article itself.This is the most shameful aspect of Indian Media and Indian society on a whole, we do not give two hoots to the Intellectual Property Rights..I support you no this….
National Newspapers should know better…don't give up!
You must be so mad! It is infuriating when this happens. I've taken to putting my name on all my pictures right in the middle – they can't crop it out. You should think about doing that. Good luck with fighting it out!
Sucks. Unfortunately the concept of private rights is not ingrained into us. It's a cultural thing… We spit and litter public property, so why not steal something that easily available online…
Sorry to hear that. As such a pro magazine yes it is unacceptable. The same thing has happened to me numerous times and the though most of the time they apologize, they first defend vehemently.Mostly the answer i get is some junior/fresher took it from google images and he did not know much about copyrights. So they say we will ensure this notice is given.Anyways let us know the final outcome
You are right in being incensed and also is choosing to disagree to their simple plain apology.Make them read their own Mint article and teach them a lesson. This kind of plagiarism is not new and large media houses have been caught with pants down more than once.I'm not too sure of the legal penalty etc but you must be compensated. ToI got themselves in a similar imbroglio sometime back. I'm sure you can manage but let me know in case you need some help on this.Please don't be upset. Have a nice day.Cheers!
Rocksea, many thanks for sharing that post. At the moment HT/Brunch has gone all silent. I will keep you all updated.Hobo, this is not circulation, I came to know about it by chance by opening Brunch. If it was last week I was at Lancaster and would not even have known!I agree Nisha that I was lucky, I found out that my work was stolen, last week and I was not even around!Doli, thanks a lot for your support.Priyank I agree it is a cultural thing but not acceptable from someone who is in the business of publishing.Vamsee but then many of us ask for compensation! Shrinidhi I did just that but Mint and HT have separate desks is what I was told. I wonder if WSJ has any say into such things?Praveen they now have a mechanism of correcting their mistake. They agree, agree to run a correction and then talk of compensation. But what makes me angry is HT Brunch cropping out my (c)Mridula D notice. Lakshmi thank you, I have done that and got some replies.Amit have you ever written about these incidents? I wish to collect them at one page.Thank you for your support Tarun.Fida I am going to fight it out even if this post stays sticky for a year!Bindu, I am mad at the moment. No doubt.Sangfroid I also do not know about the legal penalty but let us see how can I take this up on social media!Karthik I have many problems.1. The editor nowhere explicitly acknowledges that my (c) Mridula D was cropped out.2. They can not show me the text of correction beforehand, I am sure it is going to be 'inadvertent mistake.'3. They are not even willing to address the other picture (at least not known to me) that I have mentioned in my post and seems to belong to Mr. Ravi D on Flickr.4. What is the amount of compensation they deem appropriate when Brunch cropped out (c) Mridula D. If the person was new why were they trusted with the final page? 5. Who is responsible for such mistakes an intern/employee on the lower rung or someone higher up who knows the rules of the game. Why is someone given the responsibility of the final page if they do not understand the rules?
Am with you on this – maybe I should start that blogathon and make it an annual event.
Karthik,Let me put it this way:Mridula has the right to price her picture at any amount that she deems appropriate for her picture, if at all she wants to put them for sale.In principle, she has all the rights to charge a crore for it as well. HT is no one to decide the compensation amount.Equally important is that she deserves the credit for the image, along with the image, so that the readers who liked the picture could know who the photographer is. A note later on is no good. What HT did is wrong in principle. How they make up for it is irrelevant.
This is extremely shameful! Mridula – You should fight till you receive justice.This incident also tells me to copyright my photos too!
Mridula: Yes, HT's reason is warped and unfair. But considering you mention they agree it is indeed an error (despite the warped reason), are willing to issue a correction and compensate, what is the problem? Is it that you do not want that photo to be published at all in a print publication or you want it published after explicit approval from you? If its the former, you do have a point; but if its the latter – I think what HT says/ offers seems to have some meaning. No?
Hi Mridula,though it seems shocking, such incidents seem to be commonplace (irrespective of how credible the media house/newspaper is known to be).A friend of mine had a similar experience with one of his photographs shamefully stolen by a very big news daily in South India. When he called up the editor, he was given a "we stole your image, so what" kinda response.It was only after he and few other photographers (from online community) threatened to involve PTI and other agencies, that they buckled down. Published an article and gave him due credit.good luck and don't give up.Deepesh.
This is outrageous. Please do take action, and I hope they apologise in written and compensate and GIVE DUE CREDIT.
Sorry to say this, but what do you expect from Indian media (TV, movies and print media) – only thing they know is "idhar ka maal udhar". I am sure that lady must have stolen that article also from a "C" grade American publication.
Its shameful that HT has done this. With a huge circulation, they should be even more careful about doing the right thing. They might learn a lesson for the future with this incident.
Hi Mridula.1st time on your blog, have heard abt u from lakshmi!!sad indeed that a leading paper would do this..hope they do u justice, giving due credit or putting a retracting on their paper… !!!
Btw, just noitced the date on this post.. it says Dec 20,2009.. how come?did a double take to chk todays date !! 🙂
M, quite disturbed by this..shame on HT. but am sure they will have to rectify the error and they will do so…in The Hindu and TOI i think there are ombudsmen..lost touch with indian media so dunno present status…such battle take long time if u go for legal fight..but u can get in touch with the editor and am sure they will accept yr argument..reg. blaming junior or seniors etc..doesnot matter at all. ultimately, the blame lies with the head that wears the crown..u r bound to win simply becz it's yr hard work…so wishes mridula…
All the best. Forget compensation for a moment. There is still a common courtesy of requesting permission before attempting to use. I wonder how they would react if they were subjected to the same treatment.
Thats sick!I too had experienced Plagiarism..The entire recipe of Gulab Jamoon along with the picture was copied word to word by another blogger!But I was successful in getting my content removed from the copier's blog within 12 hours.So,i wrote a blog post to help ppl tackle Plagiarism..Mine was with Blogs, Yours is with Newspaper..,so i doubt if the methods mentioned in my blog post on Plagiarism helps you..But you can try looking at my blog post..http://swathipradeep-bloggerhacks.blogspot.com/2009/12/plagiarism-and-how-to-tackle-it.html
its happened so many times before and the media doesnt seem to learn from their previous mistakes! all th ebest in ur fight for ur rights
So Hindustan Times also is another publication of India that steals photographs and content and then acts holier than thou.I have had issues with TV channels and Times of India on matters relating to theft of photographs from my flickr photo stream.http://www.flickr.com/photos/ezee123/Plagiarism is a polite word. The correct usage is theft. Welcome to the world of Indian newspapers and magazines who have no compunctions in stealing images and putting them up. I have any number of such issues which I have not been following up.To top it all even if they were to pay money, it is a scandalously low figure they want to pay. I prefer not to sell images to Indian publications as they pay almost next to nothing.It is good you are making an issue about it.It gives me some impetus to wake up and pursue my battles as well.
This is just not done. I am posting and linking up to you. I DO hope they get back to you and that you get a good amount of money off them. They have NO right to your pics without your approval and you have every right to charge them anything you want … I wish the legal system here were better. http://themadmomma.wordpress.com
Yet again!I saw this in the newspaper. Bloody thieves! I'm sure Vir Sanghvi doesn't even write his own articles. He probably steals them!
Hi Mridula,Oh My God! I am so sorry to hear about this. I can see you are very agitated about it. Its disgusting how these things happen. All they had to do was ask permission to use the picture and work out the payments/whatever. Most irresponsible I must say. Do get them!Julia
It's very common practice in print media. Especially in India, The best you can do is to choose an license for your content and put into a declaimer on your blog. At least it'll be on safe side.Legally © Name is not enough. It's better to define a license on your blog.If you think your pictures should not be monetize by other people then I'd recommend you to put a watermark in center of an image.Anyways You can always sue them for copyright infringement if you have a license defined somewhere on your blog.Best,Deepak
@Deepak,My blog contant was stolen even though i had put up a copyscape banner and cc license in sidebar..So,these people will steal irrespective of everything!!Can u teach me how to watermark images??
Hi,I understand your anger at this newspaper using your photo without credit but this issue has made me think of a few things (especially since copyright law in context of new media is one of the subjects I am studying.) With the emergence of new media like the internet and the ease with which technology (cameras) is available to people, the idea of copyright as absolute is rapidly changing.Your original post says this photo was taken at Club Mahindra. The photo may be yours, but you only have the copyright of the photo you took. The copyright for the presentation will be with Club Mahindra. This photo would not have existed if someone at Club Mahindra did not have the expertise or resources to make that presentation.So just for a question’s sake: if you sue for compensation and you get it, do you think Club Mahindra should also get a share? I should ask my lecturer about this.Just another thought, I do think you and the people who make comments here should refrain from making personal attacks or generalized comments on editors of HT because I think that exposes you to be sued for defamation / damage to reputation etc. If you have to criticise, stick to your grouse without making generalised insinuations about HT editors.Just hope big papers in India realize that just as it is taboo to lift articles off the net (am hoping it still is), it should be taboo to pick up random photos off the net too. They should invest some money into subscribing to sites where photos can be used without copyright problems.Thanks
Sudipta many thanks for your support.Mihir, many thanks for stating the points so clearly on my behalf.Sankara you have beautiful photos, be very careful.Deepesh many thanks for sharing that experience with me.Indianhomemaker many thanks for your support.Atul, Seema was very nice to me throughout this episode, but then I know we all get angry.Aarti, ignore the blog date it now says 20 December 2010. That is because that way it will remain on the top of this blog, till I change the date. Many thanks for stopping by and your comments.Ramesh it seems like many of them do it, there are known cases, I will collect them at one place as soon as this settles down.CK2 many thanks for your support.Princess thanks for sharing your experience. Every bit helps. I can say twitter helps to spread the word quite quickly.Thank you for your wishes Sandeep.
Mridula – Once this is all over, hopefully in your favour…It would be great if you could put together a post that would summarize this experience and put together the Do's and Don'ts and how can bloggers prevent content and photo pilferage or something on those lines…That way the entire blogging community stands to benefit.
Mumbai Paused many thanks for your support but I think I have anyway dragged @virsanghvi with enough tweets. Let us leave his writing alone 😀 I also know this is collective frustration.Ezee123 many thanks for sharing your experience, though I am sorry to hear about it. Hope you will pick them up.The Mad Momma many many many thanks for the link. That helped a lot and all those noble souls who tweeted and retweeted along with me many of them without ever having any contact with me before.Julia, I agree if someone asks permission most of us would agree. But the trouble a lot of blogger (myself included) ask for a small compensation from commercial websites and sometimes they are not even willing to pay that.Abhilash, jokes apart but many many thanks for your support.Shekhar, many thanks. That sounds like a complement!Deepak, are you a lawyer? Can you quote me where in the Copyright Act of 1957 it is written that (c) is not enough? I have been reading it and I didn't find any mention. I would entertain any discussion of the legal aspect only after one has quoted a relevant section of the law. Otherwise my speculation is as good as yours! Even the google search says along with the images that the image might be copyrighted. Anonymous can you quote me the relevant sections of the law? I can quote you one- This is from the Copyright Act of 1957 available at http://www.ircc.iitb.ac.in/Indian%20Copyright%20Act%201957.html Many thanks for your suggestions.Anonymous again about Club Mahindra can you quote me the relevant section of the law? They must be teaching you to quote that or a precedent in the court, otherwise your analysis has no support and is only a description. To anyone who wants to discuss the legal aspects please quote me the relevant sections from the law so that I can look it up. Or else it is very difficult for me to follow legal implications and I will not be able to engage in a debate with you.
Mridula, have u contacted them again….
Sankara I would not have been able to do this alone, so whatever is the outcome (and I have a feeling this may not be over yet) I am going to do that for sure.
Tarun they now want to meet me inperson, see my latest update. And many thanks for your support. Know someone who understands the Copyright Act of 1957 and its many amendments?
I have it in my course…give me some time today itself will quote the update…
Tarun, Tarun Tarun that sounds like such a blessing. Can I drop you a mail somewhere? I need to discuss this with you and not just in the comment section here. But then I have to call it a day at the moment or I will miss office tomorrow and I do not wish to do that at all.
Mridula nothing serius… tension nahi lene ka.call circuit fix an appointment and vaat laga dalo unki.Kidding :)Thats quite sad to hear and I hope you should take compensation for this practice.
above all text part, the image is tempting.
Good for you Mridula. Stick to your fight and agree to a compensation only after they negotiate with you otherwise they are quite liable to send you a cheque for 2000/- and later say that things had been settled with you.
All is well that ends well.I wish the issue to end soon on a positive note. Best Wishes!!!But will say unintentionally the post is superhit – hurrayyy !!!
way to go mridula, there was nothing inadvertent, just sheer laziness on the part of the journalist and layout artist. we are with u 100% on this.anu
Am linking. Such a shame.
I am in IT but knows a lot about licensing. Since, I deal with licensing print media and softwares.Copyright Act -57 may protect you in India not abroad. Also, © is very abstract symbol, IMHO you should define license, for example Creative Commons Share-Alike, With Attribution.Anyways to be on safe side choose a license from http://creativecommons.org/@princess, I uses http://picmarkr.com for watermark. Make sure you put watermark in cetre or interesting area.Cheers.D
Natasha that offer of purchase price has already been made and rejected.Harish are you a lawyer?Hobo, I am so tired I am falling asleep on the keyboard. Anuradha many thanks for your support.Sue, many many thanks for the link.Deepak, many thanks for the advice but I am told that I may not define any copyright and it is still mine by the very act that I took that picture or I am the author of that creation. Since you did not quote a source neither am I quoting.
Plagiarism! This is one word every blogger has to know and realize the importance of it. Cuckoo had this very interesting post on Plagiarism Do let us know if you need any help and we will do the needful.
buddy….the battle is half won already by u…if they want u to meet them, grab the opportunity yar.. put your case forward..this is just a humble opinion…anywy…u have been wronged and hence u have a right to get justice the way u feel…best wishes always friend..
hey, this really sucks. And i bet they're all doing it… your standing up for yourself will make it easier for SO many others… all the best, and keep up the good fight.I'm sorry, but i am neither a lawyer not a journalist (not that that helps, apparently), but am linking to my blog…
(C) might be abstract but it is only used as a formality. So is defining the license. The main onus is any Intellectual Property is the originality of the creator. Licenses like creative commons are used so as to inform people that the stuff is in public domain and can be used according to the terms provided in the license. It is just like a sign post informing what is and what is not.Any further updates Mridula
Maybe a published notice within recent days publication stating that a subject was wrongly published.
Ramesh thanks a lot for your support. let us see what that meeting brings out.Debo many many thanks for linking from your blog. That helps for sure.Tarun yes, maybe we will meet on Saturday and probably talk tomorrow first because at the moment I am not at all sure what they want. And many thanks for that clarification.Hobo that was already offered and I have already rejected that. That is not enough.
u go girl 🙂 proud of u , keep us posted how it goes.
Good for you to follow this up. But it is not the first time HT has done this sort of stuff. One of their editors – a guy called Thapa – writes a blog for HT on sex ed issues, and one piece was rather, shall we say, "heavily inspired" by an op-ed in the UK newspaper Guardian. Even words and phrases were similar. I left several comments on it on his blog, but he censored all of them.
Rajat many thanks. This was the second time and I don't like to repeat my mistakes twice.Anonymous I would have pointed that out to the Guardian instead.
Now I get it why beautiful pictures on blogs make you wince. And in my case, I haven't started putting even a watermark or a copyright sign on my photographs.I'm glad you are fighting it out. All the best.
Mridula, I did write to the Guardian. They thanked me for letting them know and said they will follow it up. I don't know how successful they were because that blog post remained on the HT site for months on end. Good luck with your fight! We need very tough laws on intellectual property in India.
Indica I also started using (c) Mridula D after the first incident of my picture getting published without my knowledge. Before that I didn't. Anonymous many thanks for the update. I think beyond that you could not have done much.
You want compensation?
Why? Are you surprised? Why should I not want compensation? I think I have a legal case against them. But before that I want a proper correction.
This is absolutely shocking. I hope you get an apology and compensation.
Whatever you think is correct should be conveyed through e.mail/phone Or a meeting is always better for positive solutions.
Kiran, I am trying for that but an 'unintentional mistake' and purchase price as compensation would not do.Hobo, I tried that. I got the 'unintentional error' and purchase price as an offer in return, which I did not agree to.
The difference:Purchase price & compensation?
Hobo, the first is paid if you buy from the author/agency the second is demanded after a copy and paste.
That means the second option, correct? If I am correct it is maximum 2.5 lacs, correct?But who will the final decision-maker to decide the best amount under 2.5 lacs And why?
Hobo, my reading of copyright act says minimum 50,000 maximum 2 lakhs but I might be wrong.
All I wish & pray is: positive solution as soon as possible.
Hobo, many thanks. But the people who have been in similar situations say I am going on a futile journey, the editors never settle with anyone.So open mind and open options is how I am keeping it.
Mridula,There is a huge NOICE on this post and it needs to go more public. I request you to write to [email protected], [email protected] separately and lobby against plagiarism. It has to become a public debate, more than on blogs. I also think you should begin to push for price….or else! kind of stuff.Julia
Better if you draw it. Having come this far away doesn't warrant going back. And on Compensation part, it can always increase…and that limit of fine u mentioned is payable to the court..the (Rs. 50000)
buddy watching this space…waiting to celebrate yr victory…:)
Julia what is NOICE? And if you know them why don't you point it out. I believe they generally pay no attention to such mails.Tarun, I have quoted the legal minimum only.Rameh people who have been through this and people who have supported me hugely say I am wasting my time, so my expectations are at a minimum. But then as I said open mind and open options.
How completely rude are they! it's good that you've done something about this though, just imagine how many other people have their work stolen without being realised where or what it is being used for.
We had discussed this sometime back….if they have used it for commercial purposes, then (c) applies.I am glad you have the resilience to stand up. They must be waiting for you to tire out. :o)
San I know and I guess you start becoming paranoid after few such instances.VS, I am quite obstinate that way. If I put my mind to it. 😀 I will know tomorrow.
Mridula,I am sorry if I offended you. Did not mean to. In the meantime, I have been talking with fellow journalists who are aware of breaking copyright in the US or Europe.John Calderone, a friend says, " Hi, Julia. Intellectual property are seriously protected in the US and Europe, and the difference between the two places is the length of time a copyright lasts. But there are fair use clauses that allow reviewers and academics to quote sentences from works without seeking permission. However, for images, permission mu…st always be sought to reprint them, and the owners of the images often require a payment. Using an image without seeking permission and giving credit to the creator of the image is a clear legal violation. (There is some fair use issue such as a movie poster in a review, but the studios often release such images for fair use in reviews because they see it as free publicity.) In the link you provided, Brunch is completely wrong, and in the US or Europe, it would quickly pay a fee to avoid a costly lawsuit."Now that you say it, I will most certainly bring it to their notice.Julia
Julia in no way you offended me ever. i was talking bout my inability to get a response and a feeling that people respond to known emails. I was so tired, I must have not said this well. Many many many thanks for writing to John Calderone and many many thanks for his reply. I think the issue is sorted out, I just need to get through the implementation. If I sounded rude somewhere, I am really sorry.
I do not wish to defend HT by any means. Certainly what Brunch did is a clear violation of rights and should NOT have been done.However, to all the self-righteous people who have posted comments on this blog, all I want to ask is, can you answer the following questions honestly:1. Have I bought a pirated book off a roadside vendor?2. Have I downloaded a song/movie from the internet?3.Have I ever watched/bought a pirated movie DVD?4. Have I purchased a pirated computer game for a tenth of the price of the original just because the original one was too expensive?If you answered 'Yes' to even one of those questions, you are a hypocrite. The only difference between what you did and what HT did is that you did not get caught. If a company violates copyright, you make a big hue and cry about it. But if you download an MP3 off the internet, it's OK, eh? Why make this distinction between an individual and a corporation? A violation is a violation and if you have ever done it yourself, you have no right to self-righteous comments on this blog. Think about it.
Anonymous, no, the correct analogy would be that I take a book, print multiple copies of it, get advertisers advertise with me and still get away with it. You think about it.
@MridulaThis is not about you, Mridula. It's about all the self-righteous people who have posted comments as if they've never violated copyright.I completely agree that your rights were violated and I have said as much in my comment.
Good point Mridula. Anyway, the young lawyer in making should also note that if a criminal is being tried in court, corruption in the law forces and even in the judiciary will not be considered an argument. It can of course be used for entertainment.Each case has to be discussed for its merit.
Well Said Mridula…
@VSHow neatly you sidestepped my point. I applaud.
Dear Anonymous,No – The honest reply for your said questions And for arguments will say:To error is human but with intention & knowledge or without intention & knowledge that is a question. Your questions are valid but calling people who posted comments hypocrite is with intention/knowledge or without intention/knowledge – you decide.;-)
Mr. Anonymous….My question to you is why are you commenting as anonymous on payroll of HT I suppose..secondly…the question about IP is not always about money or consideration, it is about recognition. Seldom any writer will like to have a less readership by abusing his readers who use roadside bookshops… but he would not tolerate if any of his writer PICK is work up without giving him due credit. Money does come later in this case
Good update…I havent watched the ir sanghvi show yet…i feel its too slow but should decide after watching it.
Congratulations Mridula. In fact I think we should thank you for taking a stand and demonstrating that one person can make a difference, if he/she really wants to.Well done! Btw..Congratulations to HT also for being gracious enough.
congratulations mridula. u've shows the way to a lot of people, who may face the same problem later on. thanks.
Thank you Hobo, Tarun and VS for responding to the anonymous comments.Ajeya which show is this?VS thank you but the implementation remains to be seen.Sandeep this was the second time and I was furious.
Dear Mridula,It is so nice of you to come here to say this. I have tried to get in touch with my HT pals in the Editorial. They have turned out to be as silent as a tomb on this subject 🙂 You said it too. I am surprised.But John sitting in New York replied you see.This has become a very great eye opener for me as well. Unfortunately, what we place for Public viewing in our blogs or our photo albums do lend themselves to misuse as well by unscrupulous people. I have therefore decided that I am henceforth going to say: All pictures published here may be used with credit to me, Julia Dutta and my blog. Thank you!!!Julia
temme..is there no ombudsman for HT? forgive my ignorance..it would have been as simple to solve this issue if they had one…surprised they r dragging it so long..very simple..they have committed a mistake..all they have to do is to communicate to u..talk to u and finish it off..anywy..M, best wishes buddy..
hey…et tu Mridula? i thought u would readily say, here, i am sending a mobile by parcel..take it..bahhh:( hey, joking dont worry…
heyyyy lemme complete the 100th comment too….best wishes Mridula:)
I personally feel how offended you are. I am of Indian origin but brought up in USA almost my entire life. Copyright violations and Patent violations are so rampant in some countries. Yes, they say they will issue a correction. You know where that will be? It will be in the lower portion, in a very small unreadable letters, on page 84.
SG you were right in was in a small font in the table of contents but I could at least get some compensation.
@ anonymous,HT pubished Mridula's photograph, without credits,on a "commercial" newspaper. The content of the news, articles, photographscarry a price. This is far different from the instances cited by you. It was not for personal use, not even for free-educational purposes.
@rockseaOh, I suppose it's OK for you to violate copyright for personal purposes.
@ AnonymousVoltaire once had "I may not agree with what you say, but I will till my death will protect your right to say"in your first comment you tried to deny that..A basic human rightAnd then you are commenting (without name and I am surprised what fears that you have) preaching ethics while there is a battle going on….I might agree with you, but that doesn't deny me or any of my fellow commentators here our right to say..and you are hell bent in proving us wrong by even though you are tending to get argumentative. IPRs are violated everyday, but why don't those people take action…because they usually get revenue and readership and recognition..And U are trying to sidestepping the raised by other bloggers…A commercial media giant, with lawyers on payroll can afford "Picking" up others work without giving them credit? Then comes the question of conduct..When you have a question in hand you don't tend to be philosophical you try to solve it and make it sure that it doesn't gets repeated either by other on your or by you on other@ Mridula, Sorry for taking this Guy/gal again..Was not thinking of posting but his/her comments were……
I across this post entirely by accident and although I haven't read this closely, I was a little surprised to see that you keep referring to this as plagiarism. True, it is plagiarism. More pertinently, it is copyright infringment — copyright subsists in a work from the moment it is fixed in tangible form. For a photo, that would mean "from the moment the photo is taken". A copyright notice is not necessary to acquire copyright, neither is any form of licence. Using a copyrighted image without permission from its owner is infringement. End of story.And in India, infringement is both a civil and criminal offence.There's a copyright 101 here if you're interested. http://www.takingitglobal.org/images/resources/tool/docs/1611.pdf
@ Anonymous….I don't require copyright for dummies…I work on that Copyright Act, 1957 and TRIPs Agreement quite often…Secondly on photographs copyright subsists from date it is published for that year and then for next 60 yrs counted from the calender year….And you were making a story out of yourself here
Julia many thanks for the effort and it is not the first time HT was accused of this. See the other links on my post! They will remain slient. Say thank you to John from my side.Ramesh many thank for your support and making it a hundred.SG the other picture that I mentioned in my post, the correction was on the content page but yes someone else had to point it out to me, it was in such a small font that on my own I could not even locate it! I think the same might happen in my case! But let us see.Rocksea, thanks for stating your point and engaging with Anonymous.Anonymous, no, personal use is exactly the same as violating the copyright for profit. Happy now?Now do I have a second Anonymous? Thank you fo pointing out that what HT did was infringement but I went to meet the editor and we have agreed in principle on a course of action. As soon as it gets implemented I will make this post unsticky and maybe close the comments but not till the correction is made. Tarun tu mug le bhai, tere exams hain. Come here only when you are thoroughly tired of mugging. But many thanks for engaging with Anonymous. Some days (like today) I feel too tired.
I hope you have not agreed to anything yet. I want you to consider this also in your discussions with them. They may agree with whatever you want but will want to put a "non disclosure clause". This means you cannot talk or write or discuss about the agreement between the two of you. Please beware.
so how did HT treat u faily? did they pay u 1 lakh cash for it?
Sg unfortunately I have met the editor and I would not say we went as far ahead as non disclosure but she did request not to disclose in public apart from the general nature,Anonymous, we had a long talk and I not asked for 1 lakh in the first place itself! In India the legal minimum is 50K.
Hi Mridula,I landed here via Anu's blog. I liked the way you are standing up for your rights. Great going!I went thru' few of your posts and just wanted to tell you I do blog on temples. Do visit my blog when you find time and encourage me.
Following you!
If the non disclosure clause is not in writing, it is not worth anything.
I have asked Mr Vir Sanghvi who has an opinion about everything from Pakistani politics to creation of states in India if he has any opinion about plagiarism in Indian media and am awaiting his answer. Its surprising that the man doesnt even accept that its a mistake and forwards us to his legal department as if the newspaper were none of his concern. In India, no one is accountable, except maybe God.
@ anonymous,why do you read/interpret what i never wrote? did i ever tell that "it's OK to violate copyright for personal purposes"? surprised??! i was refering to the graveness of the issue on relative terms. if we consider all crimes in the world on the same status, we will all be in prison for sure.
Hmmmm, Mridula…a bit late but I can really feel what have you been going through, as I have also been through phase quite a few time and for me it has mainly been from bloggers and the online users and at points I had also to stop blogging or remove the posts which were really close to my heart…On of my very popular travel blogs is totally de-activated now due to this ever-increasing menace and really became very choosy these days while posting something on my blogs……I really used to feel dejected and It's as if I'm used to it now…so many of my posts are copied and used in websites and forums without my permission, knowledge and accreditation…I just really can sigh that even these big media houses can stoop so low…I have come across blogs plagiarism of another largest selling national newspaper so many times….they are just doing it again and again…sigh:(!
Chitra thanks for your support and I hopped over your blog finally.SG I think we have sealed it over a handshake but they have not given me any reason to go back on my words.Janit, many thanks for stopping by. Maybe Mr. Sanghvi is suggesting the way out, next time it should be made a legal issue.Flyingstars you take beautiful pictures! I know it is even more difficult to fight the random lifts on the web. I am going to make the watermark more prominent and see how it goes.
Some optimism please Mridula. Maybe they will use a bigger font, maybe they will put you on their ethics board, maybe they will gift you a whole year supply of coffee…so many options. 😀
hi M..best wishes..:) thanks 4 the invite…ok u come to mumbai..tea will be on me..hehe:0
The point I'd like to make Mridula is this.. you're smart and the people you're in correspondence with regarding this matter are smart..but somewhere in this is an unsmart person who must have picked your picture from the internet.. had to meet his deadlines for the day.. had been made to sign contracts governing copyright laws before he was put on the job.. however that was just something which the smart guys had made him do so they could stay clear of trouble.. so my point is – the smart talk, the smart deal, the smart grieve.. n its all just a game they're good at… my heart goes to the unsmart guy out there working in offices..n elsewhere.. my heart goes out to him..
VS you were right, the font looks bigger than 8 for sure.Ramesh I had been to Mumbai only once 10 years ago!Abhineet, I agree with you, only anyone who know me will not call me smart, straight forward yes, but not really smart.
Was busy with mugging when it occurred to me that It was Sunday so I checked out the brunch…Congrats…for sticking up, perhaps it was the right thing to do.Now there is a saying in Punjabi "to make a sweet lassi bitter" you surely made their coffee bitter. So much fighting over a heart.:)Back to Mugging 🙂
..once you're a little smart you can't help getting smarter as each day goes by… n its not such a bad thing 🙂 after all, given you're comfy with it and it's keeping you comfy in this smart world.. ..i myself am sometimes not ( ..
Tarun thank you for the comment and happy mugging again.Abhineet, I do not wish to get into a debate about my smartness or the lack of it. Thanks for stopping by.
great! mridula, happy for you 🙂
Saw the retraction. I don't think it could possibly have been in smaller type but hey, it's there. 🙂 Well done, you.
Thank you Rocksea.Sue, thanks I agree it was small but then as you say it was there!
on behalf of all people everywhere who have been plagiarised and all people who have worked for the indian newspaper industry and been treated like horse$hit i want to say thank you for sticking it out and making this a fight and winning! you were clearly in the right and they were in the wrong, and it was healing to see the issue play out as such. good on you for making it that way.
Anonymous this was the second time it happened to me hence this anger and resolve. The first time around I was quite clueless and I agreed with a correction and a little higher than purchase price. Not twice! Thank you for your comment.
Hi Mridula,Best Wishes for a very happy and happening 2010.Glad that this issue was resolved to your satisfaction. Was reminded of this when i saw the copyright on this page – very clear and not obtrusive too. http://www.cricinfo.com/decadereview2009/content/gallery/436097.html
Rajeev, my best wishes to you too for a wonderful 2010.I loved the copyright notice at the link but the trouble is that people find my pictures through Google search and that notice would not come as it would not be on the picture. Maybe I could do something like that on the picture itself.
Hey Guys,We can now disable the Right clicks on our blog posts using a script!I have disabled it on all my blogs and have also blogged about it.Check this link!http://swathipradeep-bloggerhacks.blogspot.com/2009/12/disable-right-clicks-on-your-blog-posts.htmlRegards,Swathi Pradeephttp://swathi-pradeep.blogspot.com
I saw the post. I am not at all surprised by this. HT is notorious for this kind of malpractices. Last year I faced a similar problem when one day I discovered my photo on their Calcutta edition. There was no mention of the photographer though. It is quite unfortunate that an old newspaper house have such a scant regard for the copyright. You can witness my bad luck by visiting my photo album at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pritam2k7/3187597332/