Friday, October 12, 2012

How I Fought Plagiarism And The Ways To Curb It! - I


Thanks for the great response that you all gave me for my first short story – Life after college. May be that is why I am trying to write more and more these days. I think after writing my blog for more than four months now, I can call myself a blogger. Although, I never wanted to become a blogger but still I am now. I had a dream, the dream to become an author. But the process of getting published is really very time consuming and I may also call it frustrating some time. And, I did not want to kill my passion for writing. So, that’s how I became a blogger and you are here. Hey wait, this is not a story on how to become a blogger? But, the story of a blogger through his blog. I have changed the name of the characters for any disputes. So, today let me tell you another short story. 

Following my rule of posting one or two blog posts every month, I was still confused what to write in my blog this month. Today is a Sunday and normally this is the day when I write my blog posts. I opened the word document and went deep into the ocean of thoughts and after thinking a lot posted my article named, ‘The True Meaning of Victory’.  Since, I was already late for my dinner, I went out to have it. When I returned it was already 10. Now, my blog needed some visitors. Because when you write something you want others to read it. There may be a lot of ways to drive visitors to your blog. At a later stage when your blogs becomes popular search engines play a vital role. But, my blog was still to get its popularity at Google. So, I use facebook, the love of so many youngsters these days. I am a member of more than 100 of the literary groups with thousands of members in each of them. I posted my blog link with few lines from my post in several of the groups after I updated my blog posts in my status. The people who even did not open the blog started liking my status by just reading the line from my blog. On the other tab, my gmail was open as always. I checked in my mail that a comment was written in my blog post. Just this message in my inbox brought a smile on my face. And, why not, it was less than two hrs and I received a comment on my blog. What could be better than this for a blogger?  I went to my blog and checked for my first comment. I felt like somebody has taken my kidney out of my body after reading my first comment. It said, ‘Awesome Words! I am copying it ....’ 

     All my hard work and thought process was of less importance now. The time value of 2-3 hrs that I spent this evening meant nothing. The comment was from someone named ‘Aakash Mishra’ and trust me if the guy would have been standing in front of me, I would have taken no seconds to kill him. I had a deep pain. I didn’t know how to react, what to do, whom to ask for help? I searched through the long list of my online friends and my eyes stopped at Abhinav. Abhinav is one of the leading blogger of the country and has more than 700 posts in his blog now. His admirers include leading movie actors to the bestseller authors from the industry.

I did not feel like greeting him. My first words in our chatbox were, ‘Yaar, updated my blog right now and the first comment is I am copying it. What should I do?’

‘Tell him to give credits,’ he replied back instantaneously.

I thought for a moment. Do I have a choice? With a sad mood, I wrote those words, ‘Aakash, it would be really great if you mention at the end of your post/article that it is copied from the blog followed by the link, I don't have a problem in that.. :)’ and asked Abhinav whether it is fine to post in my blog comment.

He replied with a yes and we ended our conversation by greeting each other.

I felt more upset for that moment. Allowing someone to copy from your answer-sheet in exam is easy, but allowing someone to copy it from you blog with a smiling face is very difficult. Although, I did the tough job by replying to his comment.

     However, I was not happy. Can’t anything be done with those who rob our contents? There should be a way to punish them? I had a lot of questions fighting in my mind with no answers. I felt like my head was going to burst. I shut down my laptop and kept it in my cupboard, switched off the light and rested my head on my pillow.

*             *             *

It has been almost an hour since I switched off  the light. The time can really be very slow when you have something going in your mind. I was almost tired by changing sides of my bed when the James Bond in me shouted out, ‘C’mon, you can’t let it go like that; wake up and search for the culprit; punish him or teach him a lesson.’

        I don’t know others. But the James Bond in me never listens to me after he decides about something. I woke up and in just few seconds was switching on my laptop. Aakash teasing comment was still ruling on my blog post. I clicked on to look for his blogger profile. There was no picture of the blogger and not enough detail. I started clicking on his blog shown in his blogger profile one after another but, still was unable to find mine blog post.  

‘Oh, I must use copyspace.com,’ my mind gave me a quick thought.

Copyscape.com is a website which shows the links of all the websites or blogs that are copied from a link when you paste the link on the search bar. I pasted the link of my blog post and here it was. Aakash blog’s link was shown below. I took no time in reaching his blog. My blog post was in front of my eyes with the same title, same picture, but no link of my blog in it. I went to contact us page of the blog and was disappointed not to find any details of the blogger. I flipped among different posts and pages without any use. I logged in my facebook account back and pinged Abhinav.

‘I got the blog of the guy and my post but no reference :(,’ I wrote in the chatbox.

‘If he does, it’s very nice. If not, you can do nothing. That happens bro, get used to it,’ he replied back in another second.

‘All my words, my views, my ideas,’ my pain showed in my words. ‘How can anybody post it in his/her blog?’ I questioned him although I knew he doesn’t have an answer to my question.

‘It happens, with me it happened a several numbers of times,’ he replied back.

     ‘And, even the same picture from my blog.’

     ‘The side effects of publishing our views on our blog which is open to all..’

    I gave the culprit link to Abhinav and asked Abhinav if I can somehow find his email id. None of us exchanged any words for next few minutes. I still moved from one posts to another of the blogger for may be finding even a small and minute detail of the blogger but of no use. I mean, I had only his name ‘Aakash’ and that too in a country where there is a Aakash studying with you in all your school or college days.

     ‘There are no details available about the blogger,’ Abhinav replied after few minutes.

I felt disappointed. I closed my chat window without replying him any further. I tried to look for other updates in the facebook but didn’t find anything interesting now. I saw an update from Priya. If I don’t tell about Priya the story will be incomplete. Priya is also a blogger. We are from the same city, the city of Delhi but we never met each other and enjoy our presence together at facebook. Life at facebook is so different. We don’t know each other well. We have never seen each other but still we share a special bonding with each other. Although Priya and I may be of similar ages but her profile shows she is the managing director of some magazine that I have seen only at her profile. I pinged her with my problem as she was upset with the same problem of plagiarism just few days back. She understood the whole problem and asked me to report about the plagiarism at Indiblogger Family group at facebook. My mind and body were in no mood to take more pain and so, I shifted the plan for further proceedings next day.