Admit it!

As you all are aware, the scenario goes like this: Yahoo! India stole food from a blogger's virtual kitchen and served it on Yahoo’s table. When the victim found out about this and questioned it, Yahoo shamelessly removed the food from their table without even apologizing. More here.

Doesn't sound good, right?

I have seen similar kinds of copy-paste plagiarism by several others, including some of my blog's contents in a blog titled andhramirchy, and many, many more.

Since I have decided to join the protest coordinated by Inji Pennu or Ginger and Mango and a few others, I thought I would take this opportunity to share my two cents concerning a couple of things that hit my mind while reading my fellow bloggers’ posts regarding this issue.

One of them was “Why do you blog”. Why do I blog? You may call it a hobby, or a vent. This is one beautiful way to express ourselves and connect with others of similar tastes. Seeing a new post on a fellow blogger’s blog is just like getting an email from a dear friend. When I started blogging, little did I know that it would turn into a hobby. I enjoy reading others’ blogs and love sharing mine. I just can’t stop myself. Why should I???

Another one was “The recipes are not anyone’s own. why would you want to copyright it?”. True. We don’t claim it as our own. We spend time taking photographs. Husband might get mad, and kids might think mom is crazy photographing food! We take all that trouble, and spend more time scrutinizing the pictures. We spend even more time uploading it to blogger and drafting the recipes. Since measurements are not that particular in Indian cuisine, it is really hard to give away a recipe. So we measure the ingredients and take notes whilst we cook. Finally we share it in our virtual kitchens. And I think we have all the rights to claim the fruits of our hard work as our own. Please understand it’s not the recipe we are claiming as ours, but our time and hard work I just mentioned above. Unfortunately we can’t keep the doors of our blogs closed because that would stop a lot of loyal readers out there from seeing it. But that doesn’t mean you can creep in just like that and do a copy-paste business. It hurts to see the contents of our blogs republished in other places without our knowledge. It really hurts!

Well, I was talking from a food blogger's perspective!

With all due respect to yahoo, I am joining in this protest against copyright infringement. Some of us are already victims of plagiarism, and the rest don't even know what to expect in the future.

Our blogs are so dear to us, and we need protection against any unauthorized use of our blogged materials. We want to make sure what happened to Suryagayathri wouldn't happen to one of us in the future. If Yahoo! apologizes to the victim, we would call it a victory. Otherwise also it is a victory if it could create a better awareness among all of us about the protection of creative works and copyright infringement.

Dear Yahoo, the stolen food appeared on your table, and so many of us have seen it before you removed it.

Admit it!