When Blogs Become Unacknowledged Mainstream Media Sources
Blogs being scraped and plagiarized by other blogs is one thing, but what do you do about the beast that is mainstream media? It’s very disappointing for this type of thing to happen, since television and newspaper companies often consider themselves far more legitimate and reputable than anything that comes from the Internet.
Yet we are experiencing an emerging culture of taking things without asking permission, much less giving proper attribution. It could be a bunch of different reasons, mostly revolving around ignorance, but what does that say about supposedly educated professionals in the fields of journalism and mass media? Where are these people’s ethics?
This is a lesson for both providers of content and those who are in need of it: Just because you can find it on Google doesn’t mean you can use it for yourself. If the TV stations strongly oppose putting their shows on YouTube, then they should treat online content with the same respect they expect. Konting respeto lang.
Similarly, if you put anything on the Internet, it is bound to be plagiarized. Certain measures can be taken to avoid this, but the most desperate of people will still find a way to steal your content: remove watermarks, paraphrase sentences, et cetera.
I’m sure bloggers would be honored for their writings, photographs, and other creations to be featured in “the real world”. There’s a reason why Creative Commons emerged as a more generous alternative to copyright. And for those who don’t already know, we have a local group that has ported the Creative Commons licenses into the Philippine legal context, so creators are more protected than ever. The problem is, people don’t read. We don’t read street signs, we don’t follow instructions. We just go online and take whatever it is we need without worrying about the consequences. CC licenses are already easy to read, but we don’t take time out to understand what “non-commercial use” even means! Because chances are, we won’t get caught anyway.
Then again, the Philippine blogging community is growing more assertive and formidable each year. And this dilemma is one of the best ways we can prove that. Act now, fellow Pinoy bloggers!
