Theft in Times?

I missed out a call from Sudipta to blog about plagiarism committed by leading dailies against bloggers due to my hibernation. However, its better late than never and so here goes. I have personally not had such an experience but that doesn't stop the fact that such a trend should be admonished.

Blogging is one of the few activities that came up with the growth of internet, and true to the spirit of internet, it has been one of the mediums where people can express their thoughts without restraints. This led to the development of some really good writers and bloggers amongst us. However, using the talents of these writers to earn money and not giving them credit for their hard work would take away the freedom to write and express thoughts because we are not sure as to how our work would be used. Further, the shocking thing is that such acts are done by leading dailies and reputed firms. This leads to a question of ethics. Don't these dailies and firms have people on their payroll to write well? Or if they find something interesting enough to be published, don't they have the courtesy to ask for permission first?

The internet has opened up a plethora of businesses and social mediums where people communicate. With it, there arises new problems. But since internet was in its infancy, there were no ways to deal with it. As with any evolving society, the problems are followed by solutions and we have certain solutions like Creative Commons copyrights(you would find it on my site too! So, before you publish something from my post, ask for permission!!). However, these are not taken seriously enough and that has led to all the woe. The top management of these dailies and firms should make sure that such plagiarism doesn't happen for that would affect the long time growth of the company. If I knew that the content of Times can be obtained by reading some blogs(available for free), would I as a consumer want to go and pay for it??? This question, when given to masses, would seriously affect the bottom line of the company. So, before you flick off material from the net, think..... for you may be erasing the bottom line of your company with the simple Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V that you might do.