a world of my own

The Background

December 20th, 2009, Chennai:

I was invited to the EMS Janmasatabdi celebrations organized by Madras Kerala Samaajam, Chennai by my friend Sunil Krishnan [He have already published a report on the event using some of my photos in his Malayalam blog] together with my friend Saswat. Eminent media personalities like N Madhavankutty, Sasikumar, K. A. Johny  and Communist leaders like W. R. Varadarajan [who was the then Chief editor of Theekkathir], Hon. minister for Education of Kerala, Comrade. M. A. Baby, Comrade. E.M. Radha attended the function. Though I didn’t get any “good photos” that day, I was happy that I was able to talk to a few of them personally. After I returned from the meeting, I processed all the photos and uploaded some to my Flickr account and contributed some of them to wikipedia articles. As I publish/share my photographs via a Creative Commons by-sa license [even this blog is licensed by the same license], anyone can use my photographs without my prior permission but conforming to the conditions as stated in the license.

Recent Developments

February 19th, 2010:

The CPI(M) central committee (former) member and (former) state secretary of CPI(M) of Tamilnadu, Comrade. W. R. Varadarajan went missing on February 11th 2010 and police is still searching for him.

The Problem

I was very much excited to see one of my work being used by a mainstream media. That excitement was short lived and gave way to an uneasy feeling. I wasn’t given the credit for my work. The copyright violation was first noticed in Mathrubhumi, then in Manorama. Later I found them in few other websites too. Here I have a list of them, and the link to the stolen content.

1. മാതൃഭൂമി
2. മലയാള മനോരമ
3. Our-Kerala
4. Asian Tribune
5. Dinakaran
6. Daily Thanthi
7. Thatstamil [they have removed it now]

The Evidences

I have taken the screenshots of Google news page as well as the content page, as soon as I noticed the content theft and are presented over here. Click the image to see a bigger version.

1. മാതൃഭൂമി
   • Google News

   

   • Site

   

2. മലയാള മനോരമ
   • Google News

   

   • Site

   

3. Our-Kerala
   • Site

   

4. Asian Tribune
   • Site

   

5. Dinakaran
   • Google News

   

   • Site

   

6. Daily Thanthi
   • Google News

   

   • Site

   

7. Thatstamil [they have removed it now and too lazy to upload the screenshot]

The Actions

I have mailed the respective editors/content managers about the matter and waiting for their reply/action. So far, only Thatstamil have responded positively by removing the said image.

Post Script

The photograph is the first result of the Google image search for the query “W R Varadarajan”, which made its way to the news portals. The content managers ignored the copyright warning by the Google as well as the notice on my flickr album.

When will the conventional media starts respecting the copyright and creative commons licenses? If I am right this is not the first incident of this kind.

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So pathetic that we Indians now have a bunch of prejudiced idiots in the editing desks. Instead of reporting the facts, these media are ONLY interested in sensationalizing news there by increasing their reader/viewer-ship ratings. In my last post I have posted how Kerala CM, V S Achuthananthan‘s comments were misinterpreted consciously to create a controversy by TimesNOW. I believe these pro-right bourgeoisie media are ONLY very keen and ‘sincere’ to create unnecessary controversies when a communist leader is involved. Here, I have compiled a few instances (though not limited to) related to Mumbai terror attacks, which our Indian media were reluctant to comment or ‘sensationalize‘.

1. During the 26/11 attacks, our first citizen, Pratibha Patil was on tour to Bali and had returned to India only by 1st of December. No media were enthusiastic enough in reporting the absence of ‘rashtrapathi’ – lord of the realm, when her country was under terror attacks.
2. If you go behind the real reason of attacks, which in turn lead to martyr of Major. Sandeep Unnikrishnan, your search will end in front of 7 Race Course Road who should be held responsible, as the head of government, and also his defense minister, for the unforgivable failure of Indian intelligence system in the Mumbai terror attacks. When did the Hon. defence minister, A K Antony called up the slain major’s family? It didn’t hit the headlines when the defense minister was late to call up and console his soldier’s family and also when, Mr. Unnikrishnan. father of slain Major. Sandeep Unnikrishnan refused to talk to him.
3. It also didn’t become a headline when the yuvraj, Shri. Rahul Gandhi was busy partying midnight during the Mumbai terror attacks till 5 AM in the morning. Also have a look at how Congress party defended the yuvraj’s booze-party. Don’t tell me that you didn’t know about this incident – you didn’t, because most of our media is right-biased to core.
4. Back to Kerala, when the opposition parties lead by India National Congress (I), was alleging of the delay – well there wasn’t any delay anyway. The Kerala chief minister had called up the Political secretary the moment he came to know about the incident, to visit the Major’s house. He had also called up Major’s house, expressed his condolences and assured that he will visit their house at Banglore, the very next day. The million dollar (or rupee) question is how many of Kerala opposition leaders visited the Major’s house till now? The answer is ZERO.
5. There was a protest lead by Yuva Morcha (Malayalam news – It seems no non-Malayalam media had reported it.) at Thiruvananthapuram against the Kerala CM’s remarks alleging that it insulted Major Sandeep’s family. It is quite clear that (in my last post I have translated Kerala CM’s comments), there was nothing in Kerala CM’s comments, explicitly or implicitly, abusive or defaming the Major or his family. Now, in that protest, they hung the picture of Kerala CM to a dog and walked with it. Ironically, these are the people who are proud about their “great Indian culture“, but here they forgot respecting Kerala CM, not his position, but his age – he might be older than most of their grandparents!

It was unfortunate to see the angry youth abusing, hate-mailing/scrapping the Kerala CM for absolutely no mistake from his side, blinded by the misinterpreted reports from the right-biased media and even when I am writing this post, the opposition parties are still protesting against the CM even after both the parties have unconditionally apologized each other and requested to end the controversy. I am wondering when the media and the so-called “patriotic youth” [whose blood boils only when they see an Indo-Pak match or when they see a war movie. They are too lazy to do something for their country but are very keen to get outside India for a job. They firmly believe that they hold the "monopoly of patriotism" . For obvious reasons I call these misguided pseudo-patriotic youth as the "curse of India"] will start protesting for a reduction in Crude oil prices which is the need of the hour. It was increased when the crude oil prices hit above 140$ mark for a barrel, and as of now it is some 45$ for a barrel. The reduced petroleum product price may help in controlling the commodity prices which will be useful for India as a whole. Manmohan Singh government is very reluctant in reducing the Diesel/Petrol prices, which they say, will affect the profit of Petroleum companies. I would like to see a decrease in at least the Diesel prices, which will directly influence (because of the reduction in freight charges) the essential commodity prices.

Suggested reading: On V.S.Achuthananthan and his remarks by clash.

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