Social media has also brought people closer, albeit virtually, even when geographical distance puts them apart. A good example of this is my Facebook chat group which is aptly named Steel Bogambilyas (Bougainvilleas), not to be confused with the Hash Tag Titas of Manila -- although we sometimes have similar dramas, hahaha. This group is composed of me and four other women, all alumni of Dr. Alejandro Albert Elementary School in Sampaloc, Manila. Three of us are based here in Manila, one is in the US, and another is in Ireland. Time zones are not a problem as anyone among us can just leave a note to be deliberated or commented on by the rest later. We have actually defeated the challenge of distance and we remain friends after 40+ years. (Oops, carbon-dating myself.)
However, there is also a dark side to social media, and it's getting more sinister by the minute. It is the playground of serial killers, rapists, child molesters, pedophiles, trolls, bullies, and other lowlife characters.
Now, it's also a breeding ground for plagiarists.
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Several months ago, a former colleague of mine from my newspaper days told me to block this person from my Facebook account -- a certain Mildred Gay Manaug. It seems that this person has been copying some of his Facebook posts, and has also started to copy mine. That time, I didn't take his warning seriously, primarily because I think I was furiously trying to beat a deadline for one of my online writing assignments and didn't have time to check.
Fast forward to yesterday and he asked me again if I already blocked this Mildred Gay Manaug from my account. (Obciously, he already knew the answer to that.) Turns out that she has been vigorously copying several of my posts in the past few days -- even the shallow reposts. I finally got to check her out and lo and behold -- she had at least two of my most recent posts on her wall, WITH NO ATTRIBUTION WHATSOEVER!
It's funny that of the two posts she copied from my wall, one of them had a personal context that only those closest to me may understand:
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| My original Facebook post from yesterday. Do take note of the number of hours since it was posted - 5 hours ago. |
I almost fell off my seat when I saw the exact same words -- hash tag included -- on this Manaug character's wall:
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| Exact same photocopy -- with hash tag! |
A former student of mine also checked her wall out to find even more "photocopies" of my posts on her wall. It's amazing what she did with my two posts on Leni Robredo. These are my original posts. Once again, do take note of the dates and time lapses:
Then take a look at her own "styling." This is from my former student's mobile phone:
As soon as I saw her glaring transgressions, I moved at once to curtail this intellectual property bandit. I sent her a very strongly-worded private message then proceeded to block her from ever seeing my wall again. However, I thought to myself that maybe blocking isn't enough because even if she stops copying from me, she would still copy from others. Thius, I unblocked her and proceeded to report her to the Facebook admin.
This is where the sticky part started. There is a Report button in the drop-down list pertaining to privacy settings, but the choices as to why I was reporting another Facebook user were very limited. She wasn't using abusive content. She wasn't posting offensive material. But SHE JUST STOLE MY WORDS, and it wasn't in the selection to be ticked off!
There was a link on intellectual copyright, though so I clicked on it. Then Facebook warned me immediately that to do so is very tedious -- and I didn't need tedious! She could change her settings before I could make the final report, and by then, she could be untraceable already.
So I ditched the idea of reporting this Manaug character to Facebook and instead, made screenshots and posted these in my wall with the screaming heading, PLAGIARIST!!!
And since Facebook also doesn't allow me to reblock this person immediately after I unblocked her, I still need another two days before I can block her again. Pffffft!
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While I was making that strongly-worded private message, the chat box showed commonalities between me and this Manaug character. I balked when I saw that she happens to be a fellow member of this big freelance writer group!
This group is supposedly a virtual place for sharing of ideas among freelance writers. Some even manage to get gigs through this group page. I could only imagine this Manaug character taking an online assignment, Googling for articles with a similar topic, copying/pasting, then raking in the bucks for her "very original" written work. Thus, I felt that it was my duty to warn other members of this poser.
I made two articles featuring my original work and screenshots of her plagiarism which I posted in my personal FB wall and in the freelance writers' group page. The group president immediately took notice and asked me questions about my post on this Manaug character. She was even tagged so that she can be given the chance to defend herself from my accusation. However, instead of defending herself, she immediately changed her account settings and eventually disabled it.
She was virtually caught red-handed!
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I thought that after that fiasco, my problems with that poser were all over. My friend -- the one who alerted me about this Manaug -- told me to still be vigilant. When he also sent a strongly-worded message to this person after he caught her shoplifting his posts, she also deactivated her account for around one to two weeks. Then when she reactivated it, she was back to copying/pasting his posts again. Only then did he block her.
This person obviously has a terrible psychological problem: she just couldn't help herself from copying from others!
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Before my own realization, allow me to first explain what plagiarism is. Merriam-Webster.com defines plagiarism as "the act of using another person's words or ideas without giving credit to that person; the act of plagiarizing something."
So in this case, if you publish or publicize someone else's words without the author's permission then present it as your own, you are, by all means, a plagiarist.
However, looking at our laws on intellectual property, social media has yet to be included as another venue for plagiarism to flourish. Our Constitution mentions the publication of plagiarized material, but not the posting of plagiarized material online. Ergo, online publication has yet to be discussed thoroughly and given parameters.
This is definitely one aspect of the Constitution that deserves an upgrade to include in its scope online intellectual property. Without this, how many more Mildred Gay Manaugs would be coming out of the woodwork and stealing ideas from those who actually used their smarts to create their words?
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After this fiasco, I am not exactly sure whether to be flattered that someone is actually copying my posts, or to hunt down this Mildred Gay Manaug and bitch-slap her until she bleeds.
All I know is that I'm changing my privacy settings on my Facebook.
I used to be very generous with my opinionated thoughts because I'd like to believe that I could still inflict change in a good way, or at least keep the general public informed about issues of the day.
Now, I felt like I was robbed of something. Those were MY posts, MY ideas!
Lord knows if she's even making money out of her stolen ideas and words.
Someone terribly needs a psychological evaluation. And a Pacman-intensity uppercut.
And it's not me.
(#)
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