keral
On September 9th, 2008, I had posted about an un authorized usage of a photograph taken by me in a Malayalam daily called Kerala Kamudi here: കേരളകൌമുദിയുടെ ഓണക്കളവ്
I was notified about the usage by Sajiv Vijay who was in Kerala. He grabbed a copy, quickly scanned it and sent it to me. Sanad K was quick to come with a pdf link of the daily. (Beware photo editors, you think that you won’t be caught if you take content from internet. But that is not the case. This is is a perfect example. I have never met Sanad and haven’t met Sajiv in last 1 year or so. But they were ready to help me. So was numerous others around the globe.)
I E-mailed the editor and waited for a reply. Fellow photographers, bloggers, friends, especially Adv. Hari Raj M R had helped in the communication with Kerala Kaumdi.
Few days later, to my surprise, I received a call from B C Jojo, executive Editor of Kerala Kaumudi. He was open with me and admitted that “editorial staff used your (my) photo as they were unaware that this a photograph which had copyright“.
He also said “Soon we will be republishing your image with due acknowledgment. We would like to send a remuneration.Please inform your full name and other necessary details for that.”
In the next mail, he asked for my bio-data and a photo. I had sent him a small bio data but decided against sending the photo.
Today I had a chat with B C Jojo and he said the remuneration cheque is ready.
I will be donating the amount, after deducting Rs 1000 towards my phone charges and time spend on this to a noble cause.
blogs posts describing / linking the incident:
1. Image theft again Posted by Jo
2. Against plagiarism by the thieves of media by sudipta
3. Wake up, bloggers by Sudipta Chatterjee
4. Mentioning what happens to the water mark in TOI does it again… and again
5. Congrags freebird by SANAND K | സനന്ദ്’s
6. ചിത്രചോരണം – മാധ്യമം (പരിണാമം ഒന്ന്)
I sincerly thank Sajiv Vijay for notifying me of the event, മലയാളിക്കൂട്ടം | Malayalikkoottam members, fellow photographers and numerous bloggers who wrote about the incident & supported me.
I sincerely thank B C Jojo & Kerala Kaumudi for their openness and showing the true spirit of a media house. To be frank after dealing with numerous plagirism events, I had lost hope and I never expected such a brave and positive response from Kaumudi.
More than republishing the photograph or giving the remuneration, I would like to thank Kaumdi for the promise :
“Definitely we will also be joining the crusade against this illegal usage of photos. We will soon publishing an article on this and will continue to do so.”
Also this may be first case in which a Creative Commons licensed creative work is respected by Indian Media.
I hope, This is the begining of a new Era and Haree & Jo also will get justice.
To know Haree’s story :ചിത്രചോരണം – മാധ്യമം (പരിണാമം ഒന്ന്)
To Know Jo’s story : Pranatha Books Kochi – Open Copyright Infringement
Lets Hope that this is the beginning of the end of plagiarism in India.
Aha. For me, this puts a tiny bit of faith back in people. Kerala Kaumudi has come out and admitted the mistake. This is awesome Bob, 🙂 Keep at it.
@CT thanks for your comment buddy.
@Din As you said it rarely happens and hope others will follow this positive gesture.
@Jo thanks for your comment man.
@Haree I hope your issue also will get solved. Fight till the end ! never give up.
@Seema sigh, lets hope so. What happened to your case with TOI ? they recently accepted another similar incident.
@Twilight Fairy Thanks !
@Nandan yea, lets hope so.
@Ashik Thanks buddy ! I hope your intelligence increases more so that in addition to spell checks you become capable of running grammatical checks on my Malayalam medium/goverment school/kerala syllabus English 🙂
unauthorized is a single word.
That’s a very good gesture from Kerala Kaumudi, setting an example for all other print media..
We can hope all others will be following this soon.. 🙂
this is great! very good news.
Hey freebird, great to hear about this! Its a well taken step by Kerala Kaumudi which I hope rest will also follow.
It’s good to see that the problem got resolved in no time, without any other complications. KeralaKaumudi surely set an example here which may be followed by other media. Most importantly everyone should stop the habit of plagiarising images.
For those who’re not familiar with Malayalam, here’s an English version of my issue with Madhyamam: [http://www.flickr.com/photos/haree/3023433903/].
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Good to see that KK has acknowledged it now.
Thats is really great.
It rarely happens, I mean people admitting their mistake. Actually it is quite surprising !
Anyway glad everything is solved in a very good manner.
Good to hear this was resolved decently. The response from the Kaumudi folks is heartening indeed. I hope they will make it a point to examine and talk about the creative commons approach to copyright – it would be wonderful if they really devote some space to talking about this sort of thing.
now, if you are not getting why people are crying when the photos taken by them are stolen.
It feels as if your baby is stolen, kidnapped, her head is shaven and tattooed with an idiotic picture, one of her leg is chopped off and then sent her to beg.
all we ask is for attribution. Nothing else.