Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by NebY (talk | contribs) at 22:26, 11 September 2014 (→Copyright investigations (manual article tagging): blog copied from Misplaced Pages in order to claim copyvio). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

3 September 2014

Copyright investigations (manual article tagging)

• India Against Corruption (history · last edit · rewrite) from http://www.indiaagainstcorruption.net/blog/ramdevji-06-april-2011-jantar-mantar-iac-email-p9a156ky12txt — Preceding unsigned comment added by Lindashiers (talk • contribs) 08:37, 3 September 2014 (UTC)

• I've never idea if this is a newbie mistake or yet another instance of the long-running disruption by supporters of the India Against Corruption pressure group who have been hauled before WP:ANI and other venues on numerous occasions. In any event, there is absolutely no copyright violation in the tagged section and I'd be surprised if there is any in the article at all (mainly, I must admit, because it was mostly rewritten by me ages ago). - Sitush (talk) 09:56, 3 September 2014 (UTC)

• If you have "mostly written this article" with "absolutely no copyright violation in the tagged section", you must either be Veeresh Malik or Meera Nanda. I came across this blatant copyright violation / plagiarism while researching a paper on Anna Hazare. You can use this free tool or other superior tools. These are the results :

47 matching words were found:

Item 1 : 116 words total, 41% matched "On 29 October 2010 Sri Sri Ravishankar suggested we approach Ramdevji, the populist yogi having millions of followers among the middle classes of small-town India, to be the figurehead for our campaign. But by late Feb 2011 P soon realised Ramdevji's connections to the RSS threatened to damage IAC's credibility as IAC was still an apolitical movement. P demanded we replace him with Anna Hazare, who also brought his large support base along with him, mostly comprising middle-class people from both rural and urban areas and IAC now attracted idealistic internet savvy youths and high-profile support for the campaign from Bollywood stars, and mainstream English-language news media through Madhu's PR contacts."

Item 2 : 133 words total, 35% matched "They approached Ramdev, a populist yogi with millions of supporters among the middle-classes of small-town India, to be the figurehead for this campaign. His connections to the right-wing Sangh Parivar threatened to damage the credibility of what was nominally an apolitical movement. He was soon replaced by Anna Hazare, a veteran social reformer with a history of undertaking fasts in support of his causes. Hazare, too, brought a large support base with him, comprising mostly middle-class people from urban areas and idealistic youths. The urban sophistication of Hazare, compared to Ramdev's rusticity, attracted high-profile support for the campaign from Bollywood stars, the internet-savvy, and mainstream English-language news media. He, too, struggled to disassociate himself from Hindutva symbolism: hence, support from non-Hindus was less forthcoming."

Identical phrases "among the middle classes of small-town India, to be the figurehead for", "connections to the", "threatened to damage", "an apolitical movement.", "large support base", "middle-class people from", "urban areas and", "high-profile support for the campaign from Bollywood stars,", "and mainstream English-language news media". Lindashiers (talk) 07:55, 4 September 2014 (UTC)

Yes, I saw that when the tool ran. I've no idea when it was added but it was not added by me. You could have just fixed the bloody thing instead of creating all this drama. - Sitush (talk) 19:46, 9 September 2014 (UTC)

OK, will fix the bloody section. Lindashiers (talk) 03:05, 10 September 2014 (UTC)

OK, so you fix it, as its very clear that POV hacks, lacking WP:CIR, don't allow experts to edit Misplaced Pages. Lindashiers (talk) 08:05, 10 September 2014 (UTC)

Furthermore, despite your feeble protestations to the contrary, this plagiarism was inserted by you . Lindashiers (talk) 08:12, 10 September 2014 (UTC)

Lindashiers (talk · contribs) has now been blocked. They were part of an extensive, tendentious sock or meatfarm that has been taken to WP:ANI regarding this particular article on numerous occasions and by numerous people. I'm seriously thinking that this report itself might be manufactured, as per my comments at Talk:India_Against_Corruption#The_alleged_copyvio. - Sitush (talk) 17:19, 11 September 2014 (UTC)

Several editors - Writ Keeper, NeilN, DeCausa and myself - have examined this and discussed it at Talk:India Against Corruption#The alleged copyvio. At least two of us are now convinced it's a hoax.

The blog post that's said to be the source is presented as a quotation from Veeresh Malik. It concerns events from October 2010 to late February 2011 and beyond: "by late Feb 2011 P soon realised... demanded we replace him ... who also brought his large support base along with him ... and IAC now attracted ..." It seems to be written with the perspective of more than a few days or weeks, yet it's not only marked as copyright 2011 but also as posted on the blog on 06 April 2011, very soon after late February 2011.

It's shown as having been taken from page 93 of something - perhaps a book or a journal - but no title or publisher is given. Several books by Veeresh Malik appear on Amazon with "Look Inside" enabled; none have 2011 publication dates but they do allow us to see his writing style. Malik did write many articles in 2011 that appear on moneylife.in, many mentioning Hazare - here is one that is dated 06 April 2011. None have the text in the blog post. The books and articles are written in a vivid, immediate and personally engaged style that is quite unlike that of the blog material.

The blog appears on a domain that was registered in July 2014. It's the only entry; it's titled "IAC Chronicles Day 2" but there is no Day 1. The Wayback Machine has one entry for that domain, identical to its current state. The Wayback copy was made on the same day - 3 September 2014 - that the complainant Lindashiers (talk · contribs) made their first edit.

The text's perspective is consistent with having been written at a distance of a couple of years. The succinct summary style is consistent with writing an Misplaced Pages entry. I believe the burden is on anyone accusing Sitush of copying to show that that this blog is a genuine extract from a work written by Veeresh Malik between late Febrary 2011 and 6 April 2011, and not copied with minor changes from Misplaced Pages. NebY (talk) 19:41, 11 September 2014 (UTC)

• The Princess and the Tin Box (history · last edit · rewrite) from http://books.google.com/books?id=4ODhaKpSg7YC&printsec=frontcover&dq=isbn:1582970254&hl=en&sa=X&ei=J38HVKOjCNOWgwSjq4GwBw&ved=0CB8Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false. DrWho42 (talk) 20:59, 3 September 2014 (UTC)