Remembering the blog aggregators that were plagiarists

Crawling for references

Looking at my blog statistics today after noticing a sudden spike that had already doubled the number of views yesterday, I checked on the traffic sources and impacted pages with piqued interest.

The prominent page appeared to be someone searching for all the blogs I had written about my dear friend Dick van Galen Last who passed away just over a decade ago.

However, I could not help but notice another blog that represented a dispute about blog aggregation in July 2007. I had noticed that a site many bloggers of that time subscribed to was down, the Nigerian Bloggers Aggregator (NBA) referenced hundreds of Nigerian blogs, showing the headers of the latest blog and linking back to the source blogs.

When aggregation turned sour

Blog - The Nigerian Bloggers Aggregator - down too long already

It appeared the owners of the blog, which was free allowed it to fall out of maintenance with an error pertaining to the lack of disk space. The domain is now parked, but not in use.

A carpetbagger cohort in the demise of this NBA aggregator decided to launch the NaijaLive SuperBlog that the movers with all good intentions executed quite badly. They published our blogs without reference, attribution, or citation whilst taking commentaries to our content without feeding back to the source blogs.

After a bit of back and forth, I asked for my blog to be removed from their curation because I thought what they were doing was unprofessional and unethical.

For the passion of blogging

Revisiting the whole sordid episode today, it is interesting to note that the NaijaLive SuperBlog did not live up to its promise, it is now an entertainment site without anything particularly entertaining there. Oluniyi D. Ajao still has his blog running now as Tech dot Africa and Global Voices Online ran a piece about the dispute.

It is a shame that I have not found a service that provides the kind of blog aggregation we are happy to subscribe to, and many of the competing platforms then have failed. For many, it is was a passing fad for which they had no passion or purpose, they simply coasted on the content of others to gain influence and maybe credibility.

My blog remains a non-commercial and personal vehicle of expression, we were not looking for popularity or traffic to boost our egos, we just knew and enjoyed what we were doing and simply demanded the courtesy of being informed of having our content curated and presenting the same content differently only after agreed consultation.

The blogs below take you back to the history and events that ensued. The NaijaLive is lost because for all their bluster, they could not keep their side of the bargain.

Blog - NaijaLive - PS. Aggregation not poor duplication

Blog - Naijalive: After all the comments

#LindaGate: It was mainly about Plagiarism

“Plagiarism is the copying or paraphrasing of other people’s work or ideas without full acknowledgement. Intentional plagiarism may incur severe penalties, including failure of your degree.” University of Oxford. [1]

Conflicts of lessons not learnt

As one predicted on Monday, enough evidence was presented to Google to have the gossip blog pulled down.

There is no doubt that the lady would regroup and re-launch, however, it is unlikely that the hard lesson of life and experience has been learnt going by the rebuttal she posted yesterday.

Unfortunately, many were quite conflicted and confused, abandoning the objective for the subjective, she played victim and we were suckered.

Nigeria in a big world

We must recognise that anything we do online today is no more confined to Nigeria, we are part of a global village, and there are rules and standards to play by. We are constantly put up to global scrutiny in terms of our attitudes and conduct.

The many things people got away with on the Nigerian streets would find sanction and excoriation when given a global review on the Internet. It behoves us to know how those rules work so as not to be caught out by them to the extent that we might suffer dire consequences.

Breaking the rules

The Linda Ikeji Blog, broke the rules with impunity and the blogger was deluded into thinking the small fry that accused her of infringements could do nothing to have the blog taken down. Now, she knows better.

What we must never lose sight of is the reason why the blog was taken down - PLAGIARISM - and the blogger was an unrepentant plagiarist, we should not be confused or conflicted about this fact and truth.

Plagiarism is wrong and it is worse when material you did not originally produce is falsely passed off as yours on the one hand and you use that material directly or indirectly for financial gain.

Measuring character over success

We also have to check our values and appreciate that success mainly measured by wealth, power, influence or following without character or virtue is fleeting. Our measure of respect for a person which might include position should really be of a higher standard of being seen and known to do the honourable thing, having integrity and a modicum of humility.

A person of integrity has no need of things to express that innate virtue and it can be learnt if we have a teachable spirit.

We need to understand how the seemingly grey areas can blacken and besmirch what we have painstakingly built and invariably bring ruinous reputational loss.

Know the bad behaviour

Moral equivalences are no excuse for bad behaviour, we need to declare conflicts of interest and maintain the transparent standard of full disclosure so as to avoid being labelled hypocrites and worse still, dishonest or frauds.

If whatever we publish is not originally ours, we must, acknowledge, attribute and reference or we are plagiarists. If we need to seek permission and we receive no expressed consent, we risk being labelled thieves.

In all truth

Plagiarism however is no trivial matter; students have been rusticated and indicted criminally for cheating, journalists and politicians have lost their jobs for being plagiarists, it is dishonest and reprehensible; careers and reputations have been ruined because of it.

‘Plagiarism is the "wrongful appropriation" and "stealing and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions" and the representation of them as one's own original work.’ Wikipedia. [2]

It is the greatest slight to be proven a plagiarist and there is no badge of honour in copying and pasting the work of others and passing it off as yours. What is wrong is wrong, and nothing can excuse plagiarism nor should it be tolerated when exposed.

Finally, lest we forget, the Linda Ikeji Blog was taken down on proven evidence of serial unrepentant PLAGIARISM whether people had a hateful, jealous or envious agenda is beside the point. Google acted on evidence of misappropriation of material, intellectual property abuse and infringement, not on sentimentality.

Read up on plagiarism.

[1] University of Oxford – Plagiarism

[2] Wikipedia – Plagiarism

I acknowledge to my observation that the first use of #LindaGate was by Funmi Iyanda.

Opinion: You can't honestly celebrate plagiarism

The truth in hypocrisy

The use of moral equivalences to deflect justified criticism and possibly shut the critic up is a well-used attack strategy as much as is the use of argumentum ad-homimen to take ground from someone who posits or comments.

In some ways, hypocrisy is a good thing if we cut to the truth of the issues. Like the example in the bible whether a man had a speck in his eye and the other had a beam in his eye is beside the point, fundamentally, the truth is, both the speck and beam do not belong in the eye and they both need to be taken out.

Ethics and rules

Which brings me to an issue that came up on my Twitter timeline this weekend about the fight by a media analyst to have material lifted off his forum properly acknowledged and attributed when used by others.

The other being a very popular Nigerian gossip columnist whose penchant for plagiarism with impunity is without parallel.

Whilst the media analyst had none of the following or popularity of the gossip blogger, he knew the rules and had a number of times warned the gossip of infringements before following Google’s rules to have copyrighted material taken down from the gossip’s website.

Criminal lack of foresight

The looming danger was that the gossip could easily be proven to be a repeat offender and consequently have her popular money-spinning blog taken down by Google and that would be the death of the golden goose.

Sadly, there are too many narratives to this matter and the least of them is the influence or the commercial opportunity the gossip blog offered the owner. Success measured by how much you make by gossip and abusing copyrighted material might count for much in Nigeria, but beyond those borders, it is disreputable and reprehensible, nothing to be celebrated at all.

Beyond this, it is unfortunate that the gossip never developed her business model beyond the rudimentary once she began to make money that what she now has is put at great risk for what one might uncharitably term, foolishness.

Portability is security

For instance, I used to have my blog hosted by a small company and it was referenced by their own URL to which I prepended the name of my blog. 7 years into my running the blog on that site, I was given 18 months to take my material elsewhere because they were we no longer interested in the business of hosting blogs.

Probably by prescience, I had started an alternative blog elsewhere, some years before, but had not published much apart from an introduction. I then painstakingly moved each of over 1,500 blogs to this new location over the next few months.

At the same time, I published simultaneously on both blogs to keep the old going and introduce people to the new. One mistake I decided not to commit again was to leave the name of my blog dependent on the URL provided by my host.

I registered my own domain name and that is now the identity of my blog. If at any time the content collateral of my blog is threatened, I simply have to move the content to another hosting service and transfer my domain name to that location.

Foolish to a fault

It then really beggars belief that such a successful gossip blog never considered polishing their act and adding a touch of professionalism to their product. Something that non-commercial blogs like mine have done for years.

However, making your blog portable by being able to move the content and retain your domain name regardless of where the content is hosted does not excuse the fact that both clout and reach has been used to ignore ethical practice in commercial dealings.

Check your values

Being a blog does not exculpate the blogger from charges of plagiarism, if the content you are publishing is not originally yours, you must reference, attribute and acknowledge and the indictment of plagiarism is even worse if the blog has commercial value.

There are things to comment the gossip blogger for, but this particularly is not one of them and the lack of foresight to protect the blog from being yanked off the Internet for being an abuser and infringer of copyrighted material is damning to the point of being just plain stupid.

For those who find the gossip a role model of sorts, the only thing to caution is check your values and check your value system.

Plagiarism: An apology from someone with a stake in The Nigerian Telegraph

A result of sorts – An apology

After a long day of making the case about my blog being plagiarised by The Nigerian Telegraph, I finally got someone with a stake in the newspaper to engage me and chat about the issue.

The apology for ‘our mess’ is what makes the apology worth its weight.

@TunjiAndrews Before I accept this apology, do you have a vested interest in @TelegraphNG to arrogate that responsibility?
— Akin Akíntáyọ̀ (@forakin) November 4, 2013

The apology came from the Finance Editor of the Nigerian Telegraph.

@forakin @TelegraphNG :-) Yes, you may want to view my profile. I may not know who did it, but, its our mess
— Tunji Andrews (@TunjiAndrews) November 4, 2013

Our Twitter exchange appears below, and though I asked to use our conversation in a blog, his view was if I must. I guess I should because if I make an accusation of plagiarism and receive an apology, it is only right to blog about it.

Obviously, along the lines of Do The Needful when it comes to plagiarism, I do expect The Nigerian Telegraph to take down that article. I created a Storify of some of the tweets, titled, Closing the loop on plagiarism.

It is serious

Along the way, I was admonished, maybe that is a strong word, advised to forgive and forget – No, you do not forgive plagiarism and it is very difficult to forget because this goes to the heart of the principles that underpin and undergird an organisation and the personalities that run it; it is a matter of honour and of integrity.

However, I am ready to accept the apology and the promise that it never happen again because the person who made the apology is someone I respect for his views and opinions on Twitter. He is the Finance Editor of The Nigerian Telegraph; I believe he also appreciates the reputational risk of being associated, albeit remotely with an organisation tainted with the proven allegation of plagiarism.

The Twitter Conversation

I believe I used the word ‘Plagiarism’ fairly and justly, and I am ready to move on. The Twitter trail of that event appears below.

My first observation

I cannot believe my eyes, my news reader just picked up something from a Nigerian newspaper, I've been plagiarised but it's disappeared.
— Akin Akíntáyọ̀ (@forakin) November 4, 2013

Then I asked

Why would anyone choose to plagiarise Akin Akintayo? Don't they know him?
— Akin Akíntáyọ̀ (@forakin) November 4, 2013

After which I wrote this blog and asked for an apology

Plagiarism: The Unforgivable Face of Nigerian Journalism http://t.co/gPtfkCShUn Dear @TelegraphNG I expect an apology.
— Akin Akíntáyọ̀ (@forakin) November 4, 2013

Then I broadcast the tweet

I rarely do this, but if we are to get standards to matter more in Nigerian journalism, we have to start somewhere.
— Akin Akíntáyọ̀ (@forakin) November 4, 2013

@IfeanyiUddin The media is probably the most public forum of interaction, if change starts there, the information gets to it the audience.
— Akin Akíntáyọ̀ (@forakin) November 4, 2013

@IfeanyiUddin It does, but even a little voice in the wilderness has some purpose, I hope.
— Akin Akíntáyọ̀ (@forakin) November 4, 2013

@IfeanyiUddin I mean, we should give voice to the change we want regardless of how small our voices are.
— Akin Akíntáyọ̀ (@forakin) November 4, 2013

@forakin No problem there. But we must see the limits of the possible!
— Ifeanyi UDDIN (@IfeanyiUddin) November 4, 2013

When I originally wrote the blog, I thought is was written for The Nigerian Telegraph by a Chidi Okoye, but later found that it was signed by the Editor and online at this URL http://telegraphng.com/2013/11/culture-impunity/

This is just reprehensible, I left a comment on @TelegraphNG about their plagiarism and they have refused to publish it.
— Akin Akíntáyọ̀ (@forakin) November 4, 2013

Then it became a cause

.@TelegraphNG Should not let their newspaper become a cause, I have been blogging for 10 years, I have a good Internet footprint.
— Akin Akíntáyọ̀ (@forakin) November 4, 2013

Many hours later, after posting a comment on that article, which they moderated but never published, I returned to make my case.

I accused @TelegraphNg of plagiarism this morning with proofs, they are still tweeting but I have still not been acknowledged.
— Akin Akíntáyọ̀ (@forakin) November 4, 2013

This represents the societal malaise in Nigeria. The powerful act with impunity and the masses cry themselves hoarse getting no justice.
— Akin Akíntáyọ̀ (@forakin) November 4, 2013

Then I got this response - What is the issue?

@TunjiAndrews This is the issue http://t.co/gPtfkCShUn They lifted parts of my blog and presented it as theirs. @TelegraphNG
— Akin Akíntáyọ̀ (@forakin) November 4, 2013

It got an apology, but I needed to know who it was coming from.

@TunjiAndrews Before I accept this apology, do you have a vested interest in @TelegraphNG to arrogate that responsibility?
— Akin Akíntáyọ̀ (@forakin) November 4, 2013

He is the Finance Editor for the Nigerian Telegraph, I do consider him a friend on Twitter.

@forakin @TelegraphNG :-) Yes, you may want to view my profile. I may not know who did it, but, its our mess
— Tunji Andrews (@TunjiAndrews) November 4, 2013

@TunjiAndrews I see, I had not checked your profile recently. Am I allowed to use your responses in a blog? @TelegraphNG
— Akin Akíntáyọ̀ (@forakin) November 4, 2013

I then asked to use the exchanges we had in a blog, at least to say I have received an apology.

@forakin @TelegraphNG If you must.
— Tunji Andrews (@TunjiAndrews) November 4, 2013

@TunjiAndrews Well, if I make an accusation and have received communication, I guess it is best to close the circle. @TelegraphNG
— Akin Akíntáyọ̀ (@forakin) November 4, 2013

@TunjiAndrews My investigation fingers a Chidi Okoye. I don't know if he is a @TelegraphNG engagement.
— Akin Akíntáyọ̀ (@forakin) November 4, 2013

We concluded the conversation thus:

@TunjiAndrews That is fine by me, I consider you a friend, I asked for an apology, that is the least I wanted from @TelegraphNG
— Akin Akíntáyọ̀ (@forakin) November 4, 2013

Do The Needful; That means after the apology, restitute by taking that article down.

This is a promise.

@forakin @TelegraphNG Thank you for this. I will see to it that it doesn't ever happen again with you or any one else
— Tunji Andrews (@TunjiAndrews) November 4, 2013

@forakin @TelegraphNG Big word sir. What does this word mean 'Plagiarsm'? :-)
— Tunji Andrews (@TunjiAndrews) November 4, 2013

I use the word 'Plagiarism' fairly and justly.

@TunjiAndrews I don't use the word 'Plagiarism' lightly, but I use it fairly and justly. :-) @TelegraphNG
— Akin Akíntáyọ̀ (@forakin) November 4, 2013

Plagiarism: The Unforgivable Face of Nigerian Journalism

Update - Later

I eventually received an apology in the evening – [The Apology Blog]

Update

At first, I gave the Nigerian Telegraph the benefit of the doubt thinking my blog was plagiarised by someone writing for them, but now I have found the story Culture of Impunity published by the Editor without attribution. This is unacceptable. The rest of the article is as originally written apart from a new graphic at the end of this blog.

Reading me elsewhere

I would not know if it was a pang of conscience of the writer or the eagle-eyed editorial team of the Nigerian Telegraph that decided to pull a story titled Culture of Impunity written by one Chidi Okoye, but I have evidence than my material has been plagiarised.

Yesterday, I wrote a blog titled, #StellaGate: Do The Needful song, this morning going through my news feeds of Nigerian newspapers, I happened upon the ‘Culture of Impunity’ article, and I could see my words jump back at me and I know I never syndicated my piece nor gave anyone permission to use it.

This is plagiarism

I followed the link and found it was dead, at least to check if any attributions, acknowledgements or references were made to the source material on my blog, but I could find no such link. I can safely assume this was blatant plagiarism.

Google Search defines Plagiarism as “the practice of taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as one's own.”

To prove my point, I searched for a section of text on Google and it did present the fact that the text had appeared on Nigerian Telegraph and this at least five hours before my search according to my newsreader.

The evidence

This is what I searched for, “After numberless claims and counterclaims from many government agencies with none of the at least five stories lining up” and much I have had issues with Nigerian journalism, this is no doubt a new low and a low blow, a real shame indeed.

I will let the graphics attached do the talking.

This is from my Feedly newsreader where I discovered at the end of the first paragraph that the text looked familiar. It was written by Chidi Okoye for the Nigerian Telegraph.

This proves that the text fragment that I searched for with its unique phraseology and punctuation did appear on the Nigerian Telegraph website. Mine at least 17 hours before this, if we compare timings on my newsreader and this result from Google.

Do the needful

The graphic below shows the sections edited or lifted directly from my blog. I am first embarrassed for The Nigerian Telegraph, a new news media outfit that I have followed from their inception, and I expect an apology from them for this unfortunate incident.

The page on the Nigerian Telegraph with URL and authored by the Editor.

Sahara Reporters has infringed my copyright

Prologue: I first wrote this blog on New Years Day in indignation about the copying of my blog and the savage commentary that followed the publication of my blog on the Sahara Reporters website, I then pulled down this blog because I did not feel despite my right to go on the warpath with Sahara Reporters.

The study of the comments on my material then became the source of the blog I wrote for Nigerians Talk titled Nigeria: Can we engage politely?

The demands I make in this blog are not being exacted, this blog has been revived, just for the record.

Attribute as per the rules

When I published a blog noticing Sahara Reporters had come of age, it was published under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Netherlands License with clear terms that should be followed when my work is being used anywhere else. I live in the Netherlands and have run my blog for 6 years.

I found out that my material was ripped off my blog with the complimentary Culled from Akin’s Blog though the presentation of the article may have surreptitiously suggested I wrote it on the Sahara Reporters web site.

For all intents and purposes, I like to convey my ideas in forums where I have complete control of the material, that is why none of my stuff is found elsewhere except on my blogs and when I write for forums like NigeriansTalk.

Courtesy demands

Whilst I consider Sahara Reporters an effective guerilla news agency it is not beyond extending the common courtesy of seeking permission from bloggers before using copy they have not originally created and if that organisation could not seek permission, if should have read the terms of re-using original copy and followed the instructions as given.

Unfortunately, it shows the tendency to ignore dictates of due process, a lack of attention to crucial copyright and usage instructions, an absence of discipline where an article of commendation gets pilfered on the premise that the writer has automatically given permission for usage to the subject of the commendation – No, it was never explicit and could never have been read as implicit either.

Sahara Reporters might well be disestablishmentarian in Nigeria, but it is not above the rules of engagement in the global usage of material they have not created.

My blog suits my material best

On reading their publication of my blog, it clearly does not convey fully everything I wrote, the links with their references are missing, the sources I used for my copy do not appear in that posting and falls short of how I would present my views if I were invited to present my views on that forum.

If Sahara Reporters were to have done the minimum it should have been a link with a very basic excerpt pointing users to my blog, to have shorn my material of its setting is definitely a rip off and not to have attributed appropriately amounts to copyright infringement in the least, a less charitable situation would be to accuse Sahara Reporters of piracy.

To make it clear, I seek no further forums than that which my blogs give me in the expression of my opinion where I have complete control over the publication and the commentary it might generate, one is not amused to find that principle abridged without my consent.

To redeem Sahara Reporters

I would expect Sahara Reporters to do the right thing of the following options; remove my material forthwith from their website; expressly seek my permission to use my material or read and follow the instructions regarding attribution of material on my blog. An apology would be expected and if either of the last two options is taken, the full material with the links and sources as appear on my blog MUST be published.

Gaining global recognition does not automatically confer respectability but it demands journalistic responsibility; that comes with you continuing your sterling work of investigative news gathering and your sticking to the rules as they apply with the material you obtain.

Finally, I am Nigerian, I love Nigeria, I like Sahara Reporters and the work they do, that is why I have twice commended their activities in my blogs, and the rules are there for a purpose, following those rules are not grievous to the meticulous and honest journalist.

Thank you!

No permission is given to copy any part of this blog; and this notice overrides the provisions on the attribution license.