KY saw – Blog Post Used by the Star Without Prior Knowledge
I was checking comments on the blog as usual last Sunday and came across these two comments:
By chee hong on Oct 5, 2008 | Reply
hey KY , congrats la dude! i saw this blog post in on of the Star’s article this morning ..
By AkiraSabine on Oct 5, 2008 | Reply
Flipping through The Star as usual on a lazy Sunday afternoon, I happened to see a familiar name, KY! haha. “Hey, I read his blog” was my first reaction. Congrats!
I then quickly searched online and sure enough I found this article on the Sunday Star Metro compiled by Renita Che Wah, a name I could not recall.
my post appeared on the Star
The article (full screenshot) is made up of 3 sentences by the journalist, followed by 15 short paragraphs quoted directly from the Pantai Seafood entry I wrote on the 26th of May September.
Obviously I was feeling pretty proud to be noticed by the most read English dailies and have the paper used my blog post heavily in an article, I went out and bought a copy of the paper for save keeping too.
At the same time, however, I do find it a little odd that I was never informed prior to the blog being quoted. No phone call, email, or even a comment left on the blog. Pictures were taken directly from the blog and edited without my knowledge either.
To be fair, a previous blog post of mine on Kampung Atap Curry Fish Head was also used by the Star Metro over a year ago (link here), and the journalist did communicate with me prior to publishing. The difference is, this time around I was kinda caught by surprise.
I think the Star should consider giving me a weekly column instead. What do you make of this?
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Just a thought about using contents from newspapers. If you take a look at the bottom of the page for The Star, there’s a ‘terms of use’ and it spells out quite clearly the dos and donts.
But even so, I don’t think the papers will bother taking action against any and every person who quote from their papers. Unless of course one reproduces the whole paper as their own etc.
But the same restrictions the papers impose apply here too, say if you have one of those ‘creative commons?’ license I see on some blogs, that restricts reproduction of your blog content.
Anyways, they should have asked first, just as a matter of courtesy. It’s not that hard to email. But at least they credited you and didn’t publish it as their own post.
And it’s about time the newspapers gave you a column KY. Long overdue already man.
congrats to u KY…hope it will drive ur blog traffic hinger….
‘Actually, it’s not exactly sue-able, mostly because she DID credit you for the post, AND she did not use a direct byline (it’s ‘Compiled By’).’
Have to wade in here. Yes, this is copyright infringement. The right to COPY or make a COPY is owned by the copyright owner, in this case KY. Because it credits him it just means it doesn’t come under plagarism laws, BUT making any copy of a post or article still infringes copyright.
Yes, copying a piece from the newspaper in the same way is also copyright infringement and a newspaper has the right to sue someone who lifts entire articles in the same way this article was lifted from KY’s blog. [That's why newspapers pay places like Reuters & the BBC for the privaledge of reproducing articles].
Copying part of the post [up to 10%] and “quoting it” would not be copyright infringement as long as it was relevant to the post the person was writing. Same thing, “quoting” part of an article etc is covered by fair play under the copyright act. So just quoting parts of a newspaper article is permitted, but lifting the entire article is NOT.
If anything, this is very lazy journalism.
Copyright act of 1968 would very clearly state this as a case of copyright infringement.
My suggection is for KY to contact the relevant Editor at that newspaper and point out that he would like the paper to contact him in future if it is going to lift entire articles off his blog. After all, he has the right to demand financial compensation for the work if he wants and could take them to court (if he so wishes).
KY clearly has a copyright notice at the bottom of his blog, and as such the work is NOT in public domain.
Any questions?
Well at least they did not steal the whole thing without putting your name. Thats the worst that could have happened.
Be proud about it. Congrats dude!
‘Then again, ‘fair use’ as a concept has never been legally instituted so it’s a moot point until a judge decides.’
WRONG. Fair use is well defined in the Copyright act and subsequent amendments that mention it. MANY lawsuits have occurred over what is considered Fair Use and what is not.
For instance, Fair use allows a student or teacher to copy up to 10% of a work for STUDY purposes and no more. Ther term ‘WORK’ can vary depending on how the work is classified. For instance, you can copy 10% of a SONG onto a tape for music study. However, if the entire album (for some unknown reason) is classified as a ‘work’ then you can copy 10% of the album. (Very doubtful a musician would compile their work that way though).
But, in instances of Poetry books, sometimes the entire collection is considered a ‘work’, and as such you end up reading a photocopied poem in class from your teacher from a book. Other times the poems might be works on their own … in whcih case you will probably find the school will buy the relevant book for students to use.
Fair use also includes use of work for ‘satire’. The satire must provide some sort of ‘social commentary’. This came about because politicians were stealing popular songs and making up lyrics to put their opponents down … when it was pointed out it was coyright infringement the wonderful politicians changed the law. Because of this comedy acts can often use popular songs now a days to parody all sorts of things. This has been the subject a many lawsuits, because every so often a songwriter will complain that no ‘social commentary’ was made by the comedian/s using their work. The comedians then have to prove in a court of law that some form of ‘social commentary’ ws in fact being made. Ones that fail end up paying royalties / settling out of court / or copping a huge fine for copyright infringement.
Any questions?
hey.. congrats to you…
wah thestar so gor fun…. have to complaint la… send them a complaint mail.. hehee
even if they don’t intend to pay u, imho at least a courtesy call to inform u wld have been good
plagiarism…
maybe they will give you free subscription for The Star for one year?
you absolutely should get a food column. considering how many times the mainstream media refers to you for food blogs.
and i bet you do a better job compared to another that we shall not mention !
CONGRATS lar… SUPERSTAR d u..
eyeris I think you need to read up on your copyright laws, bloggers generally quote a paragraph which is allowed under fair use clause of copyright law.
Quoting a whole article is not, if bloggers do that they yes they are infringing the copyright of the publication and putting themselves in an actionable position. If The Star decided to be bothered about it, that’s up to them.
As Dabido states, fair use is well defined in legal terms and what the paper has done is legally wrong, if I take an AP/AFP/Reuters article and publish in my newspaper and ‘Credit’ them…they are gonna SUE MY ASS if I haven’t paid the licensing fees.
As Suan said…blogs don’t get paid, so how is it fair?
And FYI, 2 wrongs don’t make a right
eyeris,
We never sell for RM1.20 maa
dcyk,
oOo that’s bad.
xin,
Hahaha.
davidlian,
Ya very rarely enforced in this country. College students are still photocopying text books!
vialentino,
haha thanks.
Dabido,
Very good points, but that’s Australian law right? Not sure how relevant it is here.
vincent,
Thanks.
marolgal,
Thanks. Haha, I was just highlighting it, not really complaining.
johnny ong,
I agree.
kelvin,
Quoted, not plagiarized.
fara,
Help mee!
jolyn,
Hahah thanks, you’re far too kind.
I think you should make a complaint with The Star. How can they publish something without your consent? Where’s the ethics in that? The reporter should be suspended!!!
Hi there, me agian. Good la free promo coverage off the cyber world for you. Wider readership somemore.
ST: Laws? what laws? When did I mention anything about laws? haha.
Agree that with Dabido that this is extremely lazy journalism and I would explore the possibility of taking action.
Most cut and pastes bloggers do would definitely be considered fair use, but here we have a paid “journalist” of a commercial paper using your post verbatim. It’s not just one or two quotes here but the entire article is ripped off yours, plus it gives the impression that you were consulted for it.
Other thing – I noticed that they used the photo from your blog as well. If they didn’t get approval from you for that you can DEFINITELY take action.
btw i was their first “VICTIM” when the sunday star started featuring food blogger’s posts. very lame to just c&p. i did made a comment in my post and the journalist emailed me privately using gmail to apologise. i told her she shld have ask least ask permission or inform in advance. she had the cheek to tell me NOT to kick fuss at her editor else it will cost her the job!
anyway she did inform me in advance at the subsequent post she lifted. looking at the journalist names for the past few months, her name no longer there. i gather she must have quit. i hope this renita will contact the predecessor over what transpired between me and her over this issue.
as if lifting blog post not enuff, they even stole my pic from flickr and remove my watermark to be used in their Video!!!! i raised hell and the editor apologise via email. sighhh who ask me not to be as femes as Mr Manager who got a call from Mr Wong himself for apology!!!!
after this incident, i guess non of them wanna pick anything from my blog to be featured anymore LOL
KY – Copyright is international law.
The Copyright act of 1968 is the one which all the Commonwealth countries were using at the time of 1968.
Still, copyright and copyright infringement is ‘classified’ / ‘defined’ the same in all countries.
Length of copyright varies depending on the country (which is why Mickey Mouse is in Public domain in Russia but not USA), but the definition remains the same.
Fair Play is pretty much the same throughout the world as well, and where it’s not it is pretty much not enforced.
Australian Copyright laws has some amendments in the 2000′s (to make it more American friendly) but the 1968 Copyright laws came from the UK which were heavily based on laws from the 1860′s (give or take a few decades there – this isn’t an exam, cut me some slack if I am year off!)
which were used through out the Commonwealth (or Empire if you go back far enough).
I think I could safely ‘guess’ that not much has changed between English rule and Independent rule in Malaysia as far as copyright laws are concerned. You’d have to have good reason to amend them, and I can’t think of any off the top of my head unless you’ve followed the US system, in which case definitions are the same.
So I’d say is very relevant (unless some legal person over there can show me how and why it would have been changed).
[Yes, I am very good with Aussie Copyright laws and when I can't remember I have a copy of the 1968 act lying around somewhere as well as some books on it relating to the music industry. Am also very international copyright conscious].
Depending on which section your article is being featured in, they will ask or will not. The column they put your article in is, I believed, Sunday Metro’s bloggers column, where posts of many bloggers are compiled and then published as it is in the papers. As for other section, like Metro Central, they have to ask as it is featured as news but not under bloggers column.
Also, the point raised by Eyeris is valid too.
However, I still personally feel that they take bloggers and people’s effort for granted. Sorry to hear that anyway, KY.
wah lao… KY, TheStar where can b so cheapskate one, copy & paste ur post without letting u know? kanineh, they should give u a column like nicolekiss lar…
The blankness is to stand out from the crowd.
You are right dude. It’s totally inappropraite and it clearly infridged your rights by editing your personal work. Go and contact the Star and try to get some form of compensation in order to make the most out of this situation. Haha. Maybe get them to do what they do best- manhandle publicity. Get them to publicise your blog. HAHAHA. damn i wish they would do that for me!
wow wow u just made Nuffnang proud haha!
darn it….know I wished I had paid more attention in my “IT Act” class last time. I’m very certain we learnt the Copyright Act for Malaysia. I just don’t know where that book is now….wait…let me go find it, k?
Jason – ‘Depending on which section your article is being featured in, they will ask or will not.’
Irrelevant which part of the paper they put it in. It’s still copyright infringement. They can’t just declare part of their paper ‘special’ and decide it is a copyright free zone for themselves. Copyright has to do with the ‘Right to make a Copy’ and no one is entitled to make a copy of something copyrighted without the copyright owners permission. In this case KY owns the coyright and they need his permission to make a copy anywhere.
Ahh.. that’s why, sometimes we see blog postings appear randomly.
At least something like The Star, but those that steal postings for other beneficial use really is a pain in the ass though
Same thing happened to me too. I was flipping when I saw my name staring back at me. For few seconds i was blur then I shouted, hey, it’s me! They don’t inform you anymore like they used to. I think the lady before Renita left?
simpliciti,
Haha I don’t think it’s that serious.
AkiraSabine,
A little bit, ya.
eyeris,
There is no law in this country!
Tim2,
Ya the photo part is a bit more dubious.
babe_kl,
Ooo, removing watermark is bad.
Dabido,
Ah, I see. Interesting.
Mikemmery,
Hahah help me get one.
balistafear,
Hahaha such great ideas!
ruionkoh,
racoon,
Do it!
Dabido,
True, true.
Precious Pea,
Left or maybe promoted?
[...] it never cross my mind to have my blog post use by others especially the media. Just take a look at KY’s blog. TheStar used his post heavily and without inform him up front. For me, it is still ok since [...]
too famous already lolz
*When i grow up i wanna be famous, drive new car, etc*
michy,
Hahaha, not at all!
JustJasmine,
And you shall