It might be said that plagiarism of online content is one of the major problems hounding the blogosphere. The information in cyberspace is so vast that users appear to have this mindset  they can have limitless access to online content without properly observing copyright rules and such. One reason for other people’s brazen behavior  is that there has yet to be a test case against copy right violation in the Philippines even though some people have been caught with their pants down in “copying” other people’s blog entries. Local bloggers cite the classic case of Keiko, a student from the State University who was found guilty of “copying” from several bloggers that she was forced to issue an apology and removed her site altogether. 

A blogger may ask: what can I do to protect myself from plagiarism then? Putting  an “All Rights Reserved” notice or a Creative Commons License appears to be popular among bloggers. But if things head for the worst, one should also know that  web content is protected under  Republic Act 8293, The Intellectual Property Code Of The Philippines and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Copyright Treaty of which the Philippines is an informal signatory. Still, others opine that in lieu of pursuing an expensive, time-consuming legal case, the best armor against plagiarism is still vigilance – for your work and those of others.

To further shed light on this topic, this author talked to her fellow members in the Blogkadahan network. They include educator Tito Rolly who is found at www. titorolly.blogspot.com, Toni (http://toni.marikit.net), Dr. Emer (http://emeritus.blogspot.com), Batjay (http://kwentongtambay.nicanordavid.com), Karla (www.rockersworld.com), Ruth (http://ruth.pinayexpat.net), and Ate Sienna (http://atesienna.pansitan.net).

Q. What would you consider as plagiarism on the net, particularly of a blog?

A. Ruth: What i consider plagiarism is when the author obviously wants to pass something that's not his creation as his own

 Tito Rolly: To me, anything that one passes as his own which is not his constitute plagiarism. Be it a photograph, text, drawing, symbols, etc.  will be plagiarized if one says it's his when in fact it is somebody else's.

Batjay: Plagiarism of a blog - the moment somebody publishes anything that isn't his without permission from the actual owner or at the very least acknowledgement of source.

Dr. Emer: Plagiarism is when you publish someone else's work or idea and claim it as your own. Blogs, as I understand it, are personal journals or diaries of people, which means it involves personal experiences. If you plagiarize someone else's ideas or experiences, what do you call that? Are you an ‘experience snatcher?’ Are you an ‘idea-thief?’ Take your pick. No matter how you call it, I still thing it's stealing.

Karla: Plagiarisim, particularly of a blog, is copying something found from a publication or from another blog entry without citing them making it to appear as yours.

Toni: Plagiarism is defined as any writing that was copied from someone else
and presented as your own. This definition will not change regardless
of form -- broadsheets, homework, books, images or blog entries.

Q. Do you have a personal experience with plagiarism? If
not, do you have an experience with a friend of yours being
plagiarized?

Ruth: I haven't been victimized to my knowledge, pero sa Pinoyexpats, there's another multi-authored blog for Pinoys which copied the "submission" page of Pinoyexpats verbatim. Our editor Melissa contacted and settled it with them privately. They admitted they copied and pulled their page down.

Toni:  I do not have any personal experience with plagiarism. Well, not that I
know of. That's the problem with plagiarism -- you never know you're
being plagiarized till that thief gets caught. It's one of the worst
things that could happen to writers who share their thoughts freely.
But I have had three online buddies who became victims of plagiarism.
In all three cases, my buddies complained about the plagiarists in
their own blogs and cited the entries that were copied and claimed as
the plagiarists' own. And in all three cases, by the time I followed
the outgoing link to the plagiarists' respective blogs, the blogs were
already inactive.

Batjay: A lot of my stuff end up in message boards. Many of my Spiderman pictures get published in a lot of blogs. Some acknowledge my site, a lot don't even bother. I don't maintain a commercial site which is why normally I don't care that much if my stuff is copied. As long as people don't make money out of it because if they do and I don't have  a cut - I'll cut their balls.

Dr. Emer: Most of my posts find their way as forwarded emails in several e-groups. Most often, I get emails from anxious foreigners wanting to visit the country asking about our dengue and malaria situation, and also emails from medical students asking for help on some of their assignments. On my Reviews blog (http://emereviews.blogspot.com), a post I wrote more than 6 months ago (January 2005) still finds its way on forwarded emails here and abroad. It concerned my C2 green tea review-post. I still get emails until now of people asking why I spam them with my posts when (hello!) I didn't even know my post was going around. Some wise guy probably thought it was a bright idea to "cut-and-paste" my post and spread in the email world. Would I call that plagiarism? I think not. It is a case of a misinformed individual who probably meant well but ended up as a spammer.

Karla: So far, I haven't found someone yet who plagiarized my entries. however, some of the pictures of the band that I took that got published in a certain broadsheet and there's no acknowledgment of me as the photographer.
Yes, I have come to know some people who were plagiarized. Plagiarism is rampant on the net. Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V are the ones responsible for it. Haha!

Q. Why do you think plagiarists do the things they do?

Tito Rolly: Out of sheer laziness.  People tend to go the easy route.  I am not sure but there may be computer classes that even allow plagiarism.  Let's take, for example, a webdesigning class.  Since this subject is more about designing a website, there may be teachers who would allow their students to copy and paste drawings or symbols just so the student would learn how to lay-out their webpage.   They may give URL's where you can get freebie drawings but never emphasize that this could not be done on personal, private blogs or whatever.

Ruth: Why do plagiarists do it? Well, with thousands of blogs coming up daily, what are the chances you'll get caught? There are no clear rules in place, there's no board or big brother who oversees that you play by the rules. There's no punishment for doing it and lawsuits are unlikely, especially for personal journals. After all, bloggers also hide behind personas/nicknames. Who are you going to sue, if ever you want to pursue it? Most bloggers are not journalists, no idea about publishing, whatsoever to know what's allowed and what's not. After all, there's no "code of ethics" that bloggers signed when they started blogging. Ignorance is no excuse, but it explains the prevalence, doesn't it?

So kahit inis ako sa plagiarism, I'm beginning to accept it as normal, just like spammers. I'll probably let the person know that I know and would most likely rant about it in my blog, but that's about it.

Dr. Emer:  I think they can fall in any one of these two categories: [1] they are lonely and insecure people who want to have a life but unfortunately aren't creative enough to make one. So "they steal" and claim it as their own.
[2] they are simply neophytes in the internet and the blogging world unaware and ignorant of rules against plagiarism.

Toni: There could be two kinds of plagiarists: those who are aware that they
are plagiarizing and those who aren't aware they are plagiarizing.
Those who aren't aware they are plagiarizing are obviously not aware of
copyright protection or do not how to acknowledge their source. They
may not have had any malicious intent. Those who are aware that they
are plagiarizing may have malicious intentions. But what ties both
kinds of plagiarists is one thing: Lack of respect. It's basic manners
to give credit to whom credit is due.

To be continued…

(What do you think about plagiarism? Email me at annalyn.jusay@gmail.com)