copyright violation by malayala manorama

7 Nov 2008. Casually reading through Malayala Manorama, a malayalam newspaper we subscribe, the pleading eyes of an Indian Mynah grabbed my attention. The mynah was too familiar to me… I told sarah that this was the mynah on the papaya tree, which I photographed a few years back. We checked our records and found that it was stolen from my article on kerala birds here: http://www.malayalam.rocksea.org/kerala-birds

malayala manorama steals copyrighted photograph

The plagiarised photograph which appeared in page 9 of  malayala manorama newspaper on 7th November, 2008.

 

indian mynah

The original photograph, taken on 24th September, 2005, from my front yard. Note that the copyright embedded was also dismissed by the newspaper.

Fortunately I am in Kerala on vacation now, or I would never have known about this! Going through the rest of the images on the newspaper, it seemed that most of them were simply lifted from the internet, without any consent from the respective photographers/authors.

This is very shameful to come from one of the leading newspapers in Kerala. The editors of the newspaper should ascertain that whatever published in the newspaper is genuine and rightly credited for its source. Failing to do this is a treachery towards its subscribers and the original authors.

______________________________________

19 Nov 2008. I had called manorama yesterday and they assured to email me regarding the necessary actions that could be taken regarding this issue. So far they haven’t contacted me back.

In case malayala manorama doesn’t come up with a satisfactory solution, I will be filing a complaint regarding copyright violation and protection of my intellectual property rights.

______________________________________

21 Nov 2008. Reply from Malayala Manorama:

Dear Roxy

We have enquired about publication of the photograph as mentioned in your mail.

The picture was sent to us by the author of the article in a CD. He had not mentioned that it contained photos having copy right. We are sorry for having published it without your permission.

If you have no objection, we will carry a corrigendum stating that that photo was taken by Roxy Mathew.

Incidentally, I went through your blog. There are good photog raphs. If you are ready to contribute, we would like to publish a few photos with articles in Padhippura ofcourse giving credit to you.

We have warned all our contributors to avoid such mistakes in future.

With regards

xxxxx
Senior Sub Editor
Manorama
Kottayam

______________________________________

24 Nov 2008. Reply back to Malayala Manorama:

Dear xxxxx, Senior Sub Editor:

Thank you for your email acknowledging the source of the photograph.
It is pleasing to know that the future contributors will be made aware
of providing genuine articles/photographs.

However, I am sorry to say that the solution provided is not satisfactory.
The credits should have been there in any case.
Just running a corrigendum stating the author will not
justify having the photograph on the newspaper free of cost.
Malayala Manorama does not run free advertisements or give
free subscriptions for everyone, right?

The photograph taken by me has been published, without credits,
on a commercial newspaper, which is sold in the market.
This means that the content of the news, articles, photographs
carry a price.

Adding the copyright violation to this, the newspaper has
to pay me a suitable compensation.
The newspaper may be aware that copyright violation charges
can carry a compensation from 50,000 to 2 lakh INR.
Please also note that my camera equipments are as expensive
as the amount stated above.

Roxy

______________________________________

27 Nov, 2008. From my experience, the dealings with Malayala Manorama on the above issue has been clean and amicable, so far. They are regretful about overlooking the copyright of the photograph. The solutions agreed over the telephone:
1. The newspaper will be paying me an amount of 5,000 INR as compensation.
2. The newspaper will publish a corrigendum crediting the photographer.
This, they stated, will be done within a week. So, let me wait and see before any further updates

The newspaper also mentioned that they will make sure about credits of photographs/articles before publishing any, in the future. So far, as it sounds, is a welcome decision.

______________________________________

01 Dec, 2008. Corrigendum published by Malayala Manorama in the Padippura section. I am also happy to note that many of the photographs published in Padippura these days are credited to their rightful owners.

malayala manorama corrigendum

Translation: The photograph titled Mynah, published in the Padippura section on 7th November, was photographed by Roxy Mathew. The omission of the name is regretted.
______________________________________

05 Dec, 2008. Happy to note that today I received the cheque from Malayala Manorama. Many thanks to the editorial staff of the newspaper for responding to the issue and taking appropriate action at the right time.

malayala manorama pays for the photograph

______________________________________

29 Responses

  1. The Corrigendum looks ridiculous but good that you got 5k rs! Do they give you credit for your photos now?

  2. malayala manorama seems to forget their committment to the society, as it was unethical from the publishers side. The owner of the photograph by now being duly compensated. “Padippura” seems to be a coulmn to educate the future citizens of this country and this newspaper used such platform to devalue itself.

  3. Hi sir,

    I am a freelance writer. Could you please get me an email ID of Pahippura editor (may be from the letter you received) so that I can send him articles directly? Kindly help me, sir.

    arunta007 [at] gmail [dot] com

    Arunanand T A
    Ernakulam.

  4. anna says:

    Hi, It is nice to hear that u r in kerala now. Sharing this to all is a great job. anyway, they accepted their mistake and paid u for the photograph.

  5. Mridula says:

    Thanks for sharing this Rocksea. I am going to compile a page with links to all such known cases to me once the dust settles on mine.

  6. ആഷ says:

    ഇതൊരു നല്ല വാർത്തയാണല്ലോ.
    (മോഷണം പോയതല്ല കേട്ടോ) 🙂

  7. Kiranz..!! says:

    റോക്സി,വളരെക്കാലങ്ങൾക്കു ശേഷം വീണ്ടും കണ്ടു മുട്ടാനായതിൽ സന്തോഷം.ഫലവത്തായ ഒരു പരാതി,അഭിനന്ദനങ്ങൾ മാഷേ..!

  8. rocksea says:

    ആണോ? മലയാളം ബ്ളോഗ്ഗുകളിലെ പ്രധാന (ചര്‍ച്ചാവിഷയമായിട്ടുള്ളവ) മോഷണങ്ങള്‍ മിക്കതും വെബ്സൈറ്റുകളില്‍ തന്നെയല്ലേ നടന്നത്? ദിനപ്പത്രങ്ങളില്‍ വന്നിട്ടുള്ളവയും ഉണ്ടോ? കാര്യമേതായാലും സംഗതി ഒന്നു തന്നെ…

  9. Congratulations for your fighting spirit to achieve this compensation against a leading newspaper in Kerala. This incident will definitely inspire more people to come against plagiarism by the media giants.

    • rocksea says:

      Yes jayakrishnan, hope these initiatives are taken seriously and the copyright awareness is spread across the media. Pobably both the media and the bloggers should be aware about the rights of authors so that they are preserved.

  10. rocksea says:

    haree, wakaari, viswam… yes, it is a positive response. thank you 🙂

  11. viswam says:

    Rocksea,

    Congratulations dear!

  12. wakaari says:

    Happy to know that Malayala Manorama, notorious for its adamancy, ego etc etc. has accepted this particular mistake and gave a compensation too.

    Some ethics, somewhere… very rare… but here 🙂

  13. Malayala Manorama accepting their mistake and correcting it in the best way they could; really appreciable. I hope they will not repeat this mistake again.

  14. Hi Roxy
    Unlike the plagiarism that TOI indulges in at irregular intervals, this seems to be a situation where the “enemy” has in fact admitted the mistake.

    Good luck.

    -Nikhil

    • rocksea says:

      hello nikhil, yes, I saw many such instances from TOI (specifically, mentioned at indianpressarethieves.blogspot.com). Isn’t there anybody to stand against the copyright violations by them?

  15. ur cousin says:

    Hey Roxy….
    Glad 2 C U caught them red handed. No wonder this has happened. Shame seems to have left Kerala….Its not just with Malayala Manorama….U see it everywhere…
    Anyway all the best in ur efforts and Nice Fotos….

    • rocksea says:

      Hey Chandy, yes, when I checked for similar issues over the internet, I found that many leading newspapers (not all though) have lavishly indulged in plagiarism, online and offline. It is shameful when they could easily generate quality content by enhancing their staff or by requesting the original authors. Even in my case, I would have readily provided the photograph as it was meant for educating children.

      Anyways, Malayala Manorama staff told me that it was a mistake commited by an author who send the articles by CD and they agreed that it was their (editorial staff) mistake to overlook it. At least in this case, they took it as a step to improve their output.

  16. Mishmash! says:

    Hi there! Came here through Kerala Blog roll as I had the same bad experience with Manorama. They took one of my photographs and published it in their Bahrain edition without even contacting me for my consent…I wrote to 7-8 people in Manorama and till now only one person responded saying they will look into the matter and after that its been a complete silence. I was shocked to learn that a leading newspaper like MM can do such blatant plagiarism and they re so shameless they still continue to do such thefts. I am yet to publish this incident in my blog thinking that MM will show some professionalism which I know is not their cup of tea anymore!

    Good that u re in Kerala now….wish you all the best…hope you get paid for your work!

    Shn

    • rocksea says:

      Dear Shn, We share your feelings. Had you called them? Probably calling them along with the emails could have made a difference. The intellectual property rights in our country are fairly strong enough to protect us, I feel.

  1. February 11, 2012

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  2. September 22, 2012

    […] Oh boy ! Google has been very helpful in this regard. There are recent instances that has been mentioned here and here. […]

  3. October 10, 2014

    […] 21. A wikipedia page called Times of India=Plagiarism. 22. For Rocksea and Sarah it was Malayala Manorama. 23. Ritu found her short story without her permission in Femina. 24. Anuradha found her picture […]

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