How Sakshi’s work got Flicked, got Published, and She got Nothing.

A usually quite and relaxed Saturday morning in Sakshi’s life – shockingly turned out to be not so conventional after all.

Here is her story –

At around 12.30 in the afternoon, she received a mail from a friend. The content of the mail read as stated below –

“Dear Sakshi,

Kindly check out the content of the link. I’m foxed.”

She did as she was asked to do. After all her ‘friend’ is one of the very few women, whom she considers to be a perfect youth icon for the current generation.

What she saw, once the link blew up on her computer screen – completely rocked her with that ‘pissed off’ feeling but it also thrilled her in a certain way.

Off lately Sakshi had been following her new-found hobby, quite religiously. Anything and everything she would find interesting or of grave importance, she had to blog about it; day in-day out. Her best-friend labeled had labeled her a ‘blog-a-holic’, something Sakshi completely denied but within new that it was true to its very word. Blogging had opened a whole new-door for her, a place where she could just be herself – think for herself – vent her emotions and thoughts. Her personal blog had practically become a third home and it had taken quite a few months for her to get noticed and create a special place for herself in the virtual desi-neighbourhood.

Not a writer by any means, at times she would be applauded for her women-centric posts and at times ripped-apart by other bloggers for her feminist views or for not dressing up her words in a perfect manner.

Couple of months back, she had written a post, “Not so ordinary women” - on the role women in today’s journalism. It was very much inspired by the then famous sting operation, ‘Duryodhana’. The center role in the success of that news was a brave lady named ‘Suhasini Raj’. This post Sakshi considered being one of her best work and something that was very much close to her heart.

Peace Journal’s shoddy job

And right now, on her monitor she was reading the same very post – pasted up on a U.S based magazine’s website, ‘Peace Journalism’ – with the credit been given to their in-house writer, Sabyasachi Amitav.

Holy-moly! Her work had been plagiarized for the very first time. Well, not technically; during her 10th grade exam, she had allowed the boy sitting on the opposite bench copy from her answer sheet.

Mr. Amitav had copied her work from the very first word to the very last – in short her entire post but was creative enough to give it a different title. She was amused with the fact that her work was that good – to be plagiarized, but angry that the writer did give her – deserved credit. Plus she had never even thought of this happening to her, even in her most wanted dreams – she previously believed it only happened with the top-notch bloggers.

Who owns the copyright ?

So here she is looking at her blog-reading janta for some urgent advice, regarding her next course of action against the (accused) individual and his employer.

Do you think she can earn her (desired) fame and fortune?

As of now Sakshi has not contacted the Mr. Amitav or Peace Journalism, regarding the plagiarized issue, with the fear that the concerned parties in all probability would try to erase their shoddy work from the virtual land.

Lastly, Sakshi has decided to invest the entire proceedings/award money gained from this copy-right violation, in the improvement and creating further awareness of the desi-blogoshpere.

And Yes ! She would love to sue this f****’s ass for whatever its worth.

Thank you, Suhasini for bringing this to me attention.

UPDATE :

It seems our friend, Mr. Sabyasachi Amitav is a Pro-Plagiarizer. Below are (just) some of his handy-con jobs.

Write-Up 1 :

Original : “The rightist party that did nothing right” published in Deccan Herald.

Copycat : “2005 The Year of Embarassment For BJP”, published in Peace Journalism.

Tip – Justene Adamec

Write-Up 2 :

Original : “StopRagging.org”.

Copycat : “RAGGING AND SOCIETY” , published in IMC India.

Tip : Albert Krishna Ali and Mitesh

Kindly let me know, if you come across any more of his (not) original work.

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[...] About – Sakshi « How Sakshi’s work got Flicked, got Published, and She got Nothing. [...]

Pingback by Attacking the Pro Plagarist Sabyasachi Amitav at To Each Its Own — May 15, 2006 at 7:31 am | #

[...] Sakshi, one of the prolific desi bloggers was shocked to see her post flicked by an online webzine without a hint of attribution. Shameful! I hope the guilty writer is exposed and fired. [...]

Pingback by DesiPundit » Plagiarism strikes again — May 15, 2006 at 9:56 pm | #

[...] This is an update on previous post, “How Sakshi’s work got Flicked, got Published, and She got Nothing.”, where I had informed about how Sabyasachi Amitav had plagiarized one of the post from TRIO and published it on Peace Journalism, an e-magazine. [...]

Pingback by Attacking the Pro Plagarist Sabyasachi Amitav at To Each Its Own — May 16, 2006 at 11:25 am | #

[...] – Raed Jarrar takes on Richard Perle in Washington (who seems to be trying to “Iraq Iran.”) -Â Indian blogger Sakshi discovers her work has been plagiarised by US-magazine Peace Journalism. [...]

Pingback by Blog round-up » | Antony Loewenstein — May 17, 2006 at 2:12 am | #

[...] Itâ€™s been exactly 10 days since the whole â€œmy post got ripped-offâ€ episode took place on TEIO. Timely reaction and fantastic support from the desi blogosphere and some non-desi, gave the issue of blog plagiarism the much needed exposure. [...]

Pingback by Final Update on Blog Plagarisim at To Each Its Own — May 23, 2006 at 6:32 pm | #

great blog…

…

Trackback by great blog — January 13, 2007 at 5:35 am | #

Comments

27 comments | Add your comment »

Albert Krishna Ali
May 13th, 2006 at 10:18 am | #

The name struck an instant chord. Sabyasachi Amitav had once sent me my own article on ragging under his name for publication in a site i run, http://www.stopragging.org! I was more amused than angry. Some others have also plagiarised my articles on ragging, and sometimes so shoddily that I was more embarassed than flattered. I don’t get angry at plagiarists, and I don’t write on the net for fame or to get noticed or to make money. The only emotion I feel for a plagiarist is pity. They’re so dumb – and Mr Amitav is dumber of the lot – that they are not worth your time. Let them plagiarise, it doesn’t really affect you, does it?

arZan
May 13th, 2006 at 2:18 pm | #

I think you should contact the publication and also send emails to various mainstream american newspapers.

Ambar
May 13th, 2006 at 3:36 pm | #

Shoddy copy pasting at that. The louse has even retained the typos in the original!

And from the about page:

“Peace Media welcomes unpublished editorial submissions from freelance writers.”

http://peacejournalism.com/AboutUs.asp

All the best Sakshi.

Anand
May 13th, 2006 at 4:07 pm | #

Hey Sakshi

While I know it is kinda rewarding to know your article was actually copied by a journlist, it is illegal. I know of this one website called http://www.ripoffreport.com which actually takes up cases of fraud and stuff..Maybe you could try that..keep updating..

Regards

Born a Libran
May 13th, 2006 at 4:10 pm | #

I certainly think you should let the concerned authorities know… Send what you have written up to the editors at the magazine and maybe the website mentioned above… But you should certainly complain… There is so much hoo haa haa over Kaavya and this is much graver than that… So dont let him get away with it for sure…

Saakshi O. Juneja
May 13th, 2006 at 4:32 pm | #

Thank you guys for your support. I guess its right time to contact the concerned magazine. And get things straightened.

Its also been brought to my notice that the accused writer..has played this shoddy act earlier as well. He had apparantly flicked Shivam Vij’s post on ‘Ragging’.

Its high time that we teach the dude…some lesson…the punjabi ish-style.

Chak De Phatte !

Mitesh
May 13th, 2006 at 4:52 pm | #

Google turns up the following info on him that might help you sue his ass:

Name Sabyasachi Amitav
Date of birth: 05-10-1982
Email id: sabyasachiamitav@yahoo.co.in
Address: Garhandhia, Po.Nimapara, Dist. Puri, ORISSA-752106 Phone: (06758)252579,252443,252341 Mobile: 09440457203
Education:Master’s in Journalism and mass communication(Utkal university),M.Sc(Envornmental Sc),PGDRD,PGDCA.
Languages Known English (Fluent Spoken &written), Hindi (Fluent Spoken and Written) besides oriya, Bengali
Professional Experience: I started my carrier in journalism by t writing aricles for different oriya newspapers.Then i joined Oriya daily â€œThe sambadâ€™â€ as a correspondent from Bhubaneswar and served in the capacity for six months.In Jan 2002 joined The Pioneer, Raipur edition as a copyeditor. worked there more than 7 months.besides this am also worked in Doordarshan Bhubaneswar as a trainee journalist.

And yes, seems like the plagiarized article is here: http://india.indymedia.org/en/2005/11/211072.shtml although I cannot verify it.
All the best!

vijay
May 13th, 2006 at 5:42 pm | #

The gentleman in question commenting on an narticle in the hoot org

Who say media needs a regulator. if it is possible then i say it is rediculous. in the era when we say free media, freedom of speech and right to information i think there is no place for regulator.And second who regulates whom.in commonword we may welcome the selfregulation.But channel like V and MTV what the regulation mean… again i ve a point when abhisekh bachhan “Bunty” and rani mukharjee “Bubli “presents the prime time news in ndtv nobody should raise the guinuneness of the topics. i ve also no objection if both of them presents the news as Abhisekh or rani…i ve the only objection that why they present inform of Bunty and Bubli. now a days only for TRP, TAM many news channels show the nudity and very unhealthy visuals. Even if they showing visuals like a man siriously injured in a BOMB explosion interms EXCLUSIVE

Saakshi O. Juneja
May 13th, 2006 at 5:45 pm | #

Vijay – I read that. All the more reason to kick his ‘ass’.

temporal
May 13th, 2006 at 6:43 pm | #

heheh

(a potential recruit for them spammers.. i bet )

Saakshi O. Juneja
May 13th, 2006 at 7:24 pm | #

Temp – Don’t even get me started on THEM.

Albert Krishna Ali – Thanks for your comment. This guy don’t make a difference to me or my passion for blogging, however to let some-one off without even raising a voice…is just not in my system. Plus whats the use of my blogging….if I can’t even stand for myself. Its not about MONEY, APOLOGY, CREDIT, FAME….it’s about ME.

Bangaloreguy
May 13th, 2006 at 7:55 pm | #

Sakshi,

This might help.

Sunil
May 13th, 2006 at 10:02 pm | #

Sakshi………an article of mine (http://balancinglife.blogspot.com/2006/04/eating-out-desi-in-style.html) was also recently plagarized (lifted completely, with no credit or linkback to me) by some online portal called karmaconnection or something.

I left them a strong comment, and sent them an email threatening legal action. Aaman also sent them a mail (i had crossposted it in DC).

I did not get any response from them, but the article disappeared by the end of that day.

This happens very often, and it’s hard to go at faceless entities……but often times, letting them know that this is not accepted results in the removal of the plagarized article. I was outraged for a couple of days, but when things cooled down, i thought it wasn’t worth the stress…..

Harsh
May 14th, 2006 at 5:30 am | #

Plagiarism is a very serious offense and it is punishable to high degrees in the West.
I should say, “go sue him!”
I am personally not sure what you’ll get from this, but I can ask one of my IP law buddies. you interested? It’s free (ha!)
Till then, I suggest you bask in the glory of being conned (if you are not already doing so!). One pleasure of your intellectual/creative property being stolen is that you can strut around telling people “MY article got stolen, AND published”. I wish someone would copy from ME. Me guess me ain’t that great….

Good Luck!

Huzaifa
May 14th, 2006 at 10:43 am | #

Hi, I commented this on Desicritics.org, but i thought i should leave this comment here as well.

Sakshi – and all you other bloggers – there is a great website for checking whether your articles have been copied or not.

Just go to http://www.copyscape.com and put your blog post address (permalink) in the search box. It searches the net for any similiar pages. In your case, peace journalism’s article is the first match. ( The article has been removed, but you can view the cache. It also highlights the plagiarised parts…..so the entire page is highlighted !!)

Also, you dont have any License displayed on your blog. You should visit creativecommons.org and get a copyright license for your site. Right now, it isnt “explicitly” mentioned anywhere on your website that the articles are copyrighted to you.

…And if you are still seething for revenge, take Sabyasachi’s email and sign him up for every spam mailing list you can find. A thousand daily mails from lonely men from Nigeria, who take viagra, sell car insurance, have won the lottery and are looking for a hot fun relationship will drive anyone insane.

Saakshi O. Juneja
May 14th, 2006 at 11:04 am | #

Huzaifa – Thanks for your input. Have put up the ‘copyright’ logo now.

Kapil
May 14th, 2006 at 4:30 pm | #

U have my support ..

anshu
May 15th, 2006 at 2:00 pm | #

Hi,
Take it as a salute. He did not even both to edit it much (other than change
the location of paragraphs). Its an achievement.
There are very few people who contribute to original work, most of the others
just copy or enhance the work done by the original. It hurts when you see your
work being acclaimed as some else’s, but presently not much can be done.
Mostly the guy would publish a sorry mail on the site, and then continue with
the same the very next day. The life goes on, the only one remebering it would
be you and the people close to you. So take it easy. Get it out of your system,
and get back to writing. Don’t let this affect you.
You’d have seen a lot of this happening during the academic life too.

-Anshu

aparna
May 16th, 2006 at 4:47 am | #

Hi Sakshi, did you write to the magazine? Hope they have taken action!

Pets
May 17th, 2006 at 11:04 am | #

Like the look of the site and the information. Just wanted to say keep up the good work!

Rob

Vijay
Jun 5th, 2006 at 7:16 am | #

plz tell me what do after pgdca

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