Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
But not when the imitator puts his frickin' watermark on your work.
We got back from our US holiday on Tuesday, and I found several emails and messages from the bar's bewdas about content from my emoji pictionary posts (particularly this one) being spread on FB pages without any credit given.
Those who have followed and played the emoji posts would know that idea of using emoji icons to play pictionary came from my friend Pizzadude and I have since posted several such posts on my blog.
The first page I was informed about was the ROFLIndia Facebook page with the following post:
As you can see, ten songs have been featured using emoji icons and the post has 1,555 likes, 1,450 comments and 3,261 shares as of now. Hell, it even has a watermark. Great.
Here are the relevant posts from our blogs where the ten songs have been taken from.
Songs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 10 are from this post on my blog.
Songs 6 and 7 are from this post on my blog.
Songs 8 and 9 are from this post on Pizzadude's blog.
Over the last few days, it has been shared again and again on different FB pages. Here are just some which were sent to me by the bar's bewdas:
https://www.facebook.com/SocialKonnekt (link to post)
https://www.facebook.com/page4bollywood?fref=ts (link to post)
https://www.facebook.com/SrikanthGopisetty (link to post)
Each of these pages have hundreds of shares, likes and comments.
UPDATE (11 Nov 2012): Kanan has sent me yet another post on the ROFLIndia FB page!
Every single song featured in this has been lifted off this post on my blog.
I wrote to ROFLIndia.com to complain (since they seem to have an actual website in addition to an FB page), and to ask them to either give us credit, or remove the plagiarised post from their Facebook page. Of course, I have not received any response.
I have checked up Facebook's copyright infringement policy on this, and I don't think they will be able to verify page by page and remove the content. Some of you suggested that I should at least write a post on it and so I did.
Many thanks to all of the bewdas who took the time to write to me about it. Not only does it show that you care, it also affirms the fact that this is truly an infringement and not just my imagination. While I am not implying that no one else could have thought of the same idea of playing pictionary with emoji icons, I am sure you would agree that the fact that each of the songs in the Facebook post and the icons used to represent them are the same as those on our blogs is indeed remarkable. And so is the fact that there is not a single song on the Facebook post that has not appeared on our blogs. That's too much of a coincidence. What, they couldn't come up with even a single one themselves?
Of course, it's not like I was going to make a book out of my posts. The posts were written in fun, and were indeed meant to be shared and enjoyed by Bollywood fans. What bugs me is the fact that it was so shamelessly copied without any credit given to us.
Even if they didn't want to bother asking us for permission, how hard is it to put a little credit line at the bottom?
I probably can't blame the subsequent 'copiers' and 'sharers' as they probably didn't know it was stolen content, but to the first person who copied it off my blog (and is probably and hopefully reading this), I send you a thousand e-curses.
But not when the imitator puts his frickin' watermark on your work.
We got back from our US holiday on Tuesday, and I found several emails and messages from the bar's bewdas about content from my emoji pictionary posts (particularly this one) being spread on FB pages without any credit given.
Those who have followed and played the emoji posts would know that idea of using emoji icons to play pictionary came from my friend Pizzadude and I have since posted several such posts on my blog.
The first page I was informed about was the ROFLIndia Facebook page with the following post:
As you can see, ten songs have been featured using emoji icons and the post has 1,555 likes, 1,450 comments and 3,261 shares as of now. Hell, it even has a watermark. Great.
Here are the relevant posts from our blogs where the ten songs have been taken from.
Songs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 10 are from this post on my blog.
Songs 6 and 7 are from this post on my blog.
Songs 8 and 9 are from this post on Pizzadude's blog.
Over the last few days, it has been shared again and again on different FB pages. Here are just some which were sent to me by the bar's bewdas:
https://www.facebook.com/SocialKonnekt (link to post)
https://www.facebook.com/page4bollywood?fref=ts (link to post)
https://www.facebook.com/SrikanthGopisetty (link to post)
Each of these pages have hundreds of shares, likes and comments.
UPDATE (11 Nov 2012): Kanan has sent me yet another post on the ROFLIndia FB page!
Every single song featured in this has been lifted off this post on my blog.
I wrote to ROFLIndia.com to complain (since they seem to have an actual website in addition to an FB page), and to ask them to either give us credit, or remove the plagiarised post from their Facebook page. Of course, I have not received any response.
I have checked up Facebook's copyright infringement policy on this, and I don't think they will be able to verify page by page and remove the content. Some of you suggested that I should at least write a post on it and so I did.
Many thanks to all of the bewdas who took the time to write to me about it. Not only does it show that you care, it also affirms the fact that this is truly an infringement and not just my imagination. While I am not implying that no one else could have thought of the same idea of playing pictionary with emoji icons, I am sure you would agree that the fact that each of the songs in the Facebook post and the icons used to represent them are the same as those on our blogs is indeed remarkable. And so is the fact that there is not a single song on the Facebook post that has not appeared on our blogs. That's too much of a coincidence. What, they couldn't come up with even a single one themselves?
Of course, it's not like I was going to make a book out of my posts. The posts were written in fun, and were indeed meant to be shared and enjoyed by Bollywood fans. What bugs me is the fact that it was so shamelessly copied without any credit given to us.
Even if they didn't want to bother asking us for permission, how hard is it to put a little credit line at the bottom?
I probably can't blame the subsequent 'copiers' and 'sharers' as they probably didn't know it was stolen content, but to the first person who copied it off my blog (and is probably and hopefully reading this), I send you a thousand e-curses.
11 comments:
To my horror one of my friends sent me the same on whatsapp too!!!
Have you posted on the "original copy post" or any other post (under a different ID of course) a word of appreciation stating how cool an idea it was and how they came up with it?
Aaarrghh!!
I'll post your links on FB.
I saw it on my FB account as well .. someone posted it :) and I was like LOL. I was just wondering at the speed of copying :)
Using your creations without attribution is despicable, and I apply a multiplier on your e-curses!
(One of the great points about the World Wide Web is that providing attribution is kind of trivial with it.)
Aw man! That's completely outrageous. I agree about giving the credit part. I think if multiple people complain they might care about it and do something. Now I wonder whether any of my versions have made it to FB.
Btw, I found one more pic in their collection with what looks like clues from your posts too here.
shee!
i felt angry (and strangely cheated) too. Have added a link to your blog on some of these posts but the viral nature of these posts makes it difficult to spread the word. But I guess we can make the e-curses also go viral.so a 1000 e-curses from me too.
You can use a Copyright logo ;) google for it / and a very happy diwali
Another one- THis is posted by an RJ on Dubai Radio SUNO 1024 fm
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=559640327398493&set=a.187164544646075.50238.182821291747067&type=1&theater
I have pointed it out to them!
6 & 7 wale songs ki post pe ki meri comment dekho, ussi samay bola tha ki Pizzadude and you shld get its copyright.
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