Sunday, January 30, 2005
Identity theft
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Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, they say. Imitation is also the sincerest form of irritation, I say. While hopping around the blogosphere I stumbled upon this blog - R@gZ. I say stumbled cos it was much like that. Caught me completely off-guard and left me saying — Huh! What the heck was that?!
Yes, this chappie has stolen my tagline, sidebar sections & titles, style definitions, icons, complete posts and even my profile! Okay, so he ‘loves Archana’ and plays table tennis, big whoop! Everything else about his personality is me! BAH! Oh wait. Not *everything* is from me. To Mr Copycat’s credit, he did mix it up a little. He’s also stolen content from highly visible bloggers like Lazygeek. Tsk tsk.
Now, I did say in my copyright notice that I would heckle and mock people who did this, but sheer laziness (and 5 tons of snow) came in the way of my writing about it.
But Rajesh J Advani has been so nice (and patient) to have not only written a detailed exposé on him, he’s also done screenshots of both my blog as well as the copycat’s. This is particularly cool considering that I will be changing my design in a few days, so this thievery has been recorded for posterity! Hee haw! So yes, please go read his Tehelka-style scoop :) Incidentally, Rajesh has suffered plagiarism plenty in the past, so he’s a much better person to write about this than I.
Also, Amit Varma (of India Uncut fame) has been so kind as to mention my woes. What happened in the Rohan Pinto story though, (follow above link to get the scoop on that) makes our friend R@gZ, a much smaller menace.
Web designers often imitate each other’s work in terms of content and design. We run into a site that does a tweak we like and try to use it in our own work. Copy some code, change some colors, some fonts, some backgrounds etc. Copying source code from a site, pasting it into a local document, proceeding to break it down and understand it, and then reapplying those fundamentals to our own design — a lot of us do that. This process of deconstruction and reconstruction is not usually considered plagiarism or thievery. But to steal a site completely — code, layout, colors, graphics, content — simply replacing minor words here and there (and in some cases not even that!) is not only blatant plagiarism, its plain stupidity! Anyone with half a brain can see the obvious, so what exactly do the copycats hope to achieve?
Here’s a thought — Wouldn’t it have been hilarious if the guy stole my copyright notice too? :)
Lol. You know what, Inspite of all the hard work the poor guy did to copy your stuff, he couldn’t get anywhere closer to your blog :). Web design needs a lot of creativity, and copycats don’t have that.
btw, If you remember, I was the one who ‘copied’ the Archives[+/-] idea from you :D.
Looking forward to your new look.
Vardan
Sunday, January 30, 2005 @ 9:00 PM
Condolences on the identity theft, and congratulations on your rising popularity, since you now have the beginnings of your own ‘Megha impersonator club’. In fact this dude can take his act to Vegas as a lead-in to the Elvis impersonators, and prolly make some money :D
In addition to Rajesh’s comprehensive expose, I stumbled across a lapse in our copycat’s concentration. Here it is:
http://devdutt10.m6.net.16.m6.net/App/copycat.jpg
Looks like the dude screwed up on some of the wrap classes in the header.
I have a feeling Megha fans will have this guy tarred and feathered in short order :D
Sunday, January 30, 2005 @ 11:53 PM
oh wow ! that blog is “makhi ki makhi..maine likhi” type copy. well…projecting some one else’s personality as your own is so very condescending…I only wish he realizes that.. Though copied word-2-word, the blog lacks the finesse and the class that this has.
Just a thought on the lighter side….what if he had your guest map lifted too…I mean along with the guests :)?? all those guests will anyway visit his blog.. albeit from your blog…..so he would have placed pins for his future guests :p.
Monday, January 31, 2005 @ 12:08 AM
hey hey, that has a brighter side u know. It means that u r a trendsetter. u have such a style that people have started following u, imitating u, copying u….
Hey, just realized, can i have an autograph please…;)
Monday, January 31, 2005 @ 1:06 AM
as they say - imitation is the sincerest form of battery.
Monday, January 31, 2005 @ 2:07 AM
HI Megha, been a regular visitor for quite sometime and really enjoy it. Sorry, but couldn’t help bursting out with laughter when I saw this dude’s blog.
Monday, January 31, 2005 @ 10:15 AM
I cannot see. I’ve been blinded by his stupidity.
My sympathies, Megha. But do go to his blog and check out all the comments made by your fans, in your defence. :)
Monday, January 31, 2005 @ 11:45 AM
Houston….We have a copycat-blog down!! Repeat….we have a copycat-blog down!
Monday, January 31, 2005 @ 2:08 PM
Will reply to rest of comments in a bit, but emergency message needs emergency response :)
[Devdutt] Yeah, I noticed his blog is *poof!* gone as of noon today. Although I have a sneaky feeling that he’s only changed the URL to elude us rather than actually take the blog down! If that’s the case, a Google search in a few days on any of the copied posts will lead us to his new abode. Har har!
(On a more serious note, maybe I *should* complain to Google/Blogger about this chap?)
Monday, January 31, 2005 @ 2:21 PM
You meanies! Now the poor sucker is gone, and I cant have a look at his copy cat site nemore ;o)
Monday, January 31, 2005 @ 3:41 PM
Gotcha. Here’s the dude http://www.blogger.com/profile/3220000.
Also check out: http://ragzp.rediffblogs.com/
Heh heh heh.
Monday, January 31, 2005 @ 3:47 PM
[Mad Van Arthur] Nice of you to have reiterated that! And as for the Archives[+/-] idea, you *asked* before you used it AND you gave credit, so its not fair to compare. When people posted comments on his blog (which he’s deleted by the way) demanding why he copied, he wrote something to the effect of ‘I never copied anything from anyone. Have your eyes checked’ ! Hmpfh, the audacity!
[Devdutt] Yes I guess I should take solace in that. Thankoo for catching the lapse on his part. My *fans* eh? Tsk tsk..
[pingoo] Thank you! Yes, he should just use my counter and my guestmap and my doodleboard and .. wait, I should stop giving him ideas! Yikes!
[shantanu] Yes yes, total visionary I am. Leading the world, showing them the path to betterment and what not *ahem* :) Autograph eh? Grrrrr..
[Sagnik Nandy] :) Nice! Yes, an assault on my sanity..
[Vitalstatistix] Hail to the chief! Nice to see your comment! Yes the chap’s mostly made a fool of himself. No major sky-falling worries there :)
[a-hem] I wince everytime I look it. Its too painful.. *sob* Thankoo for the sympathies. Oh btw, he deleted all the comments people posted giving him grief about his actions. What a .. *sigh*
[Hawkeye] Don’t you go supporting him now! I haven’t complained about him to Blogger yet, although now I have half a mind to do so. Hmmm..
Monday, January 31, 2005 @ 4:35 PM
[Hawkeye] Nice sleuthing! and he’s STILL stolen my tagline! There’s no end to his shamelessness. Argh!
Monday, January 31, 2005 @ 4:38 PM
All hail Megha, the Goddess of Blogdom!
I agree with Mad Van Arthur. Even after lifting your style sheets, the guy could come nowhere close to your blog. Sentences overlapping each other, images covering up text, two sidebars full of colorful crap… the guy was an expert in giving you a headache. I wonder if he could have gotten any worse if he’d tried!
And now he’s gone. Damn! I should have taken some screenshots of his whole page. Would have provided some amusement for your fans here :)
Hawkeye, thanks for the links. Have updated my blog with them. Hope that’s ok.
Monday, January 31, 2005 @ 6:39 PM
OMG!!! that guy is really out of his mind..
i was fortunate to check his site before he deleted it yesterday.. and what a shoddy reproduction of a wonderful blog of Megha’s!!! nowhere near to this..
now, he has the same tagline as megha’s in his rediff blog too… i donno what he’s upto now…
on a lighter note, may be checkin’ out if he can find any other good blogs to rebuild everything ;)
Tuesday, February 1, 2005 @ 1:43 AM
[Rajesh] Shoo! Stop! First the ‘template queen‘ title from Rohit and now this ‘goddess‘ thing. Its too much responsibility and pressure, I tell ya! And don’t worry about not having complete screenshots of his page. You did plenty! Plenty of damage as well :) Many thanks once again for the comprehensive writeup on the copycat. You truly are a plagiarist’s horror-story!
[Prasad] You might be right, you know! ;) Gotta keep an eye on his rediffblog from time to time. Cannot trust the chap! And thank you for the support!
Tuesday, February 1, 2005 @ 2:41 PM
Were the designer for AlgoMantra 2005? The website is really awesome, Keep it up!
Tuesday, February 1, 2005 @ 4:14 PM
[Anand] Ah yes, that would be me, thank you! :) Just curious - how did you find that out? You participating in AlgoMantra 2005?
Thanks again!
Tuesday, February 1, 2005 @ 4:24 PM
Found out from Advani’s blog. See, you are getting publicity without even knowing about it, isnt that something!
Tuesday, February 1, 2005 @ 10:59 PM
[Anand] Ah! I completely forgot that Rajesh mentioned it there. Thank you once again. Glad you liked the AlgoMantra design!
Wednesday, February 2, 2005 @ 12:25 AM
What do you know, that no-good blog lifter is back in a new avatar. He still uses some part of your “Me Myself and Megha” but he got rid of all the stuff he has copied.No wonder he is left with just pictures.(he started a phot-blog).
Check this link. He has 3 blogs to his name.
http://www.blogger.com/profile/3220000
Thursday, February 3, 2005 @ 4:39 PM
My apologies. Hawkeye already provided that link above.
Sleuthing business is so tough. Hawkeye lived up to his name.:)
Thursday, February 3, 2005 @ 6:35 PM
[gvenum] Yeah, Hawkeye did some super-sleuthing about this already but thank you for the link nevertheless! He uses the same profile (that he copied from me) for his Photo Gallery page, but the other two seem to be original. Thank heavens for small mercies .. I guess.
Thursday, February 3, 2005 @ 7:57 PM
Yo Megh,
I’m relatively new to this bloggy blog world, but then, compared to other reactions in the wake of on-going plagiarisms, u’r reaction seems a little sensible! (Duh! I ain’t a sensible person for one!).
Saturday, February 5, 2005 @ 6:14 PM
[Sriram] Oh thank you! I don’t usually use the word sensible when I refer to myself, but its nice to know I create such illusions for my readers :)
As for reactions, I say — to each their own. I can be quite posessive about things I create (design, art or writing) so I wouldn’t blame an author for getting territorial about his/her writing. At least that’s my take on this.
Thanks for dropping in with your comments. Do come by again!
Tuesday, February 8, 2005 @ 2:24 PM