Stealing the Ideas is The Idea

                                  Plagiarism is the worst kind of Theft

Whoever may steal whatever is most precious in the world is not as condemnable as the thief of literature. And there are lots. This is one of the most heinous, shameful and despicable kind of theft invented by the mankind. The original creator remains anonymous and thief who is apt in the management skills climbs the stairs of success. Constant repetition of a lie, and finding that no one has disputed his claim of authority, boost his self confidence, and he trusts the distrust created by himself.

Recent charges of Plagiarism against Chetan Bhagat by Dr. Birbal Jha an academician of Bihar (author of Englishia Boli) has once again raised the controversy which once began with "Snapshots from hell" which was copied into "Five point someone". Contemporary Indian authors have started claiming that they may not be sold as much as him, but at least they are original.

The irony is, just by changing few narrations, dialogues, descriptions and sequence of events the copyright authorities can be manipulated to issue you a copyright certificate of a duplicate or plagiarist work. So plagiarism is different from copyright infringement, since the later is a punishable offense. In modern age where communication is so fast and Global exposure is instant, such plagiarism is brought to light later or sooner, though by that time plagiarist has already enjoyed the fruit of his labor(?).

Unfortunately, such charges are levied against successful people, most of the plagiarist are not exposed till they are successful. Many films are made on the same subject simultaneously, but one is successful and others are flop, that is how if the same story is written by two different authors, one may sale like hot cake and other would stale. Language, thought, idea and expression and their representation in any literary work could also be a coincidence and judiciary may pronounce a clean chit to the offender.

There are of course different kinds of plagiarist depending upon the intention by which offense has been committed. A student while doing a research project or dissertation may omit to mention the source of his citations (University of Illinois at Chicago) or a Journalist may hide the source of his information, multiple publication of his own work by an author are various kinds of theft of artistic creativity.

So extrovertly a reader is the best judge to compare two works and decide if one is a copy of another, and introvertly  the conscience of an author can judge if he has lifted the idea and transformed it into a viable project in his own name. Many authors are the writers who consider it as profession to earn money and fame, while the true purpose of the literature is to create a work that develops a better understanding of human nature and the Universal determination of it. Once we acknowledge this, there would remain a chance when World would be a peaceful place to live without war, killings, poverty and hunger.

Remember what T.S. Eliot said "Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal. Bad poets deface what they take."

© Vipin Behari Goyal

Read  more at­­­­:  http://vipinbeharigoyal.blogspot.in/

COPYRIGHT LAW IN INDIA

                 COPYRIGHT LAW IN INDIA

Indian English Writers started feeling the necessity of registration of the work when they constantly faced plagiarism, whether it was music industry, film production or literary work. It is a theft and rather a worse kind of theft. The pain and agony of original, creator are beyond words. The thieves are tactful, shameless and prepared for a long legal battle, being rich they can afford it. The poor creature has already lost half the battle when his work is stolen. He has to prove that he is the creator of his own masterpiece.

Every writer suffers from the trauma of apprehension that his work will be stolen. Which is also not unreasonable. Though theoretically the copyright is automatic as soon as the original work is created. But when you will fight a legal battle it would not be enough to say so. All over the world, there was concern over growing plagiarism so when Berne Convention, which started in 1886 was revised from time to time and is now applicable in 162 countries out of roughly 190 countries and protects literary and artistic rights of creators resident of any of these countries.

There are lots of legal complications when any controversy arises. Like in famous trial of "Three idiots" it was established that even if the economic rights are assigned away (and in this case, Bhagat assigned away his rights to any movie based on the book), the moral rights continue to vest in the author. Though it is different issue how much of the "Five point someone" was an original work, and what was the percentage of its resemblance with the work " Snapshots from Hell" by Peter Robinson. I personally think it was more than 3-5 %.

Government of India under Ministry of Human Resource Development has opened an office which registers all kinds of intellectual properties. So if you are a writer and have written a book, whether it is published or not you can get a certificate of registration of your book. Never send your manuscripts to a publisher without getting a copyright certificate. You can apply online for registration on the following website

http://copyright.gov.in/

It is users friendly website. Though I had to exercise some patience, but I was able to get the certificate for the manuscript of my novel based on Hindu Mythology "Apsara~Nina Bonita" 

eBooks are not considered as published work.

https://www.facebook.com/latatheapsara?ref_type=bookmark

The future of English fiction writers in India (2)

The future of English fiction writers in India (2)

                                                                                 [Mehek Bassi - Indian English Author]

The interesting generalization about Indian English Authors who have become famous recently is their background. They have a higher technical degree and work in Banks/Financial Institutions. What makes them author? Except that they were born to be authors. They had a natural talent for the art of telling a story. Whatever novels have been written and published in the last one decade which one of them fall in the category of English Literature?

Encyclopedia Britannica defines “English literature, the body of written works produced in the English language by inhabitants of the British Isles”. Many famous authors of English Literature settled outside the British Isle like James Joyce, D.H. Lawrence, Aldus Huxley, Christopher Isherwood, Robert Graves, and Graham Greene etc. The books written by Indian authors are classified as Indian English Literature or IEL. In India English has a status of second language. English as a second language (ESL) is the use or study of English by speakers with different native languages.

The countries like Great Britain, USA, Canada and Australia form an inner circle where English is the primary language. India and Singapore, are extended circle of English where it is the second language in a multilingual society. The third category is of countries like China and Japan, which form expanding circles where English is getting popular as a foreign language.

Unfortunately it is not the Hindi our mother tongue and national language, but English is the lingua Franca that connects the whole country. Much powerful literature has been written in regional languages which need to be translated in English. The business of publishing books seems to have more moral and ethical responsibilities, which again is a debatable issue. But one thing is sure that the future of Indian English fiction publishers is co-related to the future of Indian English writers.

The future would not be decided by The Great Authors like Vikram Seth or Arundhati Roy as they do not have mass appeal. Their novels were read by book lovers, who was already reading foreign authors. The English novels of Chetan Bhagat and Amish Tripathi etc. found a niche market.

A niche market is defined as “the subset of the market on which a specific product is focusing. So the market niche defines the specific product features aimed at satisfying specific market needs, as well as the price range, production quality and the demographics that is intended to impact.”

English should be the first preference to write if you can think, imagine, read and write in English. English like any other language is not monopoly of any nation.

About a thousand years back the nobility of England spoke French and read Latin and ordinary people spoke Old English which evolved as Middle English under the influence of Germanic, Romance and Celtic languages. Modern English has come a long way in last hundred years and it will be New English in coming hundred years.

English is the universal language by chance. Now it belongs to all equally. Books written in one part of the world in English are as good as written in any other part. So let us not confine language in the man-made boundaries of nations.

Kudos to the authors and publishers!!!

Salute to the whistleblowers and torch bearers!!!

The niche market is hungry and few books that have come so far are only appetizers.

Give them healthy food, lest they fall for junk food.

                                                                               ~Vipin Behari Goyal
Other related articles:

The future of English Fiction Writers in India (1)                                                      

The Facts about Self Publishing a novel

Copyright laws in India