"The Hindu" has been the trusted Newspaper in Chennai for several decades and it is the newspaper of choice for millions in this country now that is being published in several metros all over the south.
I have great regard for this newspaper and it has been the choice in our family since the day I knew newspapers.
Over the years I have had my own difference of opinions on several of its articles particularly the ones that serve as last minute fillers. However nothing beats what was published today. Turn to Page 7 of the Friday Review to the article on the famous Chariot Race from the epic movie Ben-hur. Someone called K. Rajgopal claims to have written the article but it is in fact A WORD FOR WORD, LINE BY LINE copy of the same article in Wikipedia. I am not sure if Wikipedia can take The Hindu to court but if the article is on their online version then this can be a case of copyright infringement. You can view The Hindu's online version and they have replicated the page online too. Strangely it even carries a copyright message at the bottom of the page claiming authority of the content.
It is such a shame to see a reputed newspaper as The Hindu resort to this and why the copy editors couldn't detect it. Such callousness from the "The Hindu" is unpardonable. Everything verbatim has been copied that even mistakes from the text on Wikipedia have been copied over. If Mr. Rajgopal at least knew how to correct the text in print or better still re-write the text he could have avoided this disgrace. Check out the line, "In reality when the jump was planned, the character being flipped into the air was not, and stuntman Joe Canutt.....". The error "the character being flipped into the air was not," is incomplete on the article in Wikipedia and it so in print on the article in The Hindu too. This is not careless but irresponsible work.
If it was missed in print Mr. Rajgopal could have saved himself if he only knew how to edit the article on Wikipedia. It is a pity that he doesn't know that too. As of now the error on the text in Wikipedia remains as I have explained here or maybe Mr.Rajgopal is already racing to have it fixed after reading this article. Even then the act of copying cannot be concealed. Can it?
I have great regard for this newspaper and it has been the choice in our family since the day I knew newspapers.
Over the years I have had my own difference of opinions on several of its articles particularly the ones that serve as last minute fillers. However nothing beats what was published today. Turn to Page 7 of the Friday Review to the article on the famous Chariot Race from the epic movie Ben-hur. Someone called K. Rajgopal claims to have written the article but it is in fact A WORD FOR WORD, LINE BY LINE copy of the same article in Wikipedia. I am not sure if Wikipedia can take The Hindu to court but if the article is on their online version then this can be a case of copyright infringement. You can view The Hindu's online version and they have replicated the page online too. Strangely it even carries a copyright message at the bottom of the page claiming authority of the content.
It is such a shame to see a reputed newspaper as The Hindu resort to this and why the copy editors couldn't detect it. Such callousness from the "The Hindu" is unpardonable. Everything verbatim has been copied that even mistakes from the text on Wikipedia have been copied over. If Mr. Rajgopal at least knew how to correct the text in print or better still re-write the text he could have avoided this disgrace. Check out the line, "In reality when the jump was planned, the character being flipped into the air was not, and stuntman Joe Canutt.....". The error "the character being flipped into the air was not," is incomplete on the article in Wikipedia and it so in print on the article in The Hindu too. This is not careless but irresponsible work.
If it was missed in print Mr. Rajgopal could have saved himself if he only knew how to edit the article on Wikipedia. It is a pity that he doesn't know that too. As of now the error on the text in Wikipedia remains as I have explained here or maybe Mr.Rajgopal is already racing to have it fixed after reading this article. Even then the act of copying cannot be concealed. Can it?
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1 comment:
I wonder how the Editor passed this off just like that. It's a shame. I think overworked journalists retort to east tactics as this one. BTW, it's in 2008. I guess today this would've been impossible.
Sharp reader!
Joy always,
Susan
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