(2Hot To 8List are lists that for various, often obvious
reasons, need to be published on a personal capacity, rather than as something
that de facto represents the website I love to write for. I hope you enjoy it,
because whether or not they ended up on the site, I still worked pretty hard on
them, minus the epic graphic design you've come to know and love from the
8List.)
.:8 High Profile Incidences of Plagiarism Involving Pinoys
Recent Memory (Aside From Mark Solis and Rappler):.
Not that it makes his contributions to the civil rights
movement any less, but Martin Luther King actually committed plagiarism back in
the day. It doesn’t make plagiarism any less right, nor should it make Mark
Solis feel that he is in good enough company to have the nerve to expect to
keep the $1000 prize money he got for ripping off somebody else’s photo. Solis’s
attempt at justifying what he did is pretty much the same justification
snatchers and hold-uppers have for robbing other people blind.
Of course, everybody’s got to eat and survive. But not
everybody has to resort to thievery. Also, what’s Rappler’s excuse?
via rappler.com
Robin? Are you writing for a website now? Oh, right.
I have always been touchy over the subject of plagiarism.
Ask me in person next time, and maybe I’ll tell you why. Here are 8 recent
cases of plagiarism that did raise a few eyebrows, and proves that indeed,
plagiarism is a crime that anyone, from any walk of life, is capable of doing.
8. Karlo Espiritu Writes for the Filipino Freethinkers About
Objectivism, Gets Objectively Blasted
They never claimed to be saints, though.
The Ripoff: One of the earliest celebrated articles on the
Filipino Freethinkers website way back was “What’s
So Wrong With Objectivism?” supposedly written by Karlo Espiritu.
Unfortunately for Mr. Espiritu, a vicious detractor then proceeded to expose
this article as a sham. I won’t pretend to understand or care about the
intricacies of Randian philosophy, but this was a pretty big controversy for
the Freethinkers at the time.
The Defense: Karlo Espiritu played the worst possible card
in his defense – the “there are more important things to worry about than this”
card. You will see a lot of this from others who have tried to make it seem
like intellectual dishonesty is no big deal at all.
The Aftermath: Over time, the editorial process in the
Filipino Freethinkers website became more stringent, and great care is taken in
making sure sources are cited properly. Mr. Espiritu, on the other hand, has
never written for the site again.
7. A Supreme Court Associate Justice Plagiarizes, Then
Threatens Anyone Calling Him Out Over It With Contempt
via Inquirer.net
Awww. Who's oppressing you now, Mr. Justice?
The Ripoff: Anyone will tell you that “intent” is not
necessarily a determining factor whether someone is innocent or guilty of
plagiarism. Accidental plagiarism, if we were to be most charitable, still
needs to at least be corrected. After all, how can ignorance be an excuse in the
eyes of the law? Anyone can tell you it isn’t, but not this Associate Justice of the Philippine Supreme Court, no siree.
In Associate Justice Mariano Del Castillo’s eyes, the
decision he rendered over a case involving comfort women is perfectly
kosher, no matter how many passages he may have lifted from A Fiduciary of Theory of Jus Cogens by Evan Criddle and Evan Fox-Descent, Breaking the Silence on Rape as an International Crime by Mark Ellis, or Enforcing Erga Omnes Obligations in International Law by Christian Tams.
The Defense: Well, damn. Aside from blaming his word
processor for not informing him that he was plagiarizing (Damn you, Clippy!), Associate Justice Del Castillo threatened anyone who called him out
on the controversy with contempt. You show ‘em who lays down the law, sir!
The Aftermath: We now have legal precedent to
show that people who “did not intend to plagiarize” could very well get away
with it scot-free if they managed to prove it. That’s right: we can now make
that amazing novel about a wizard boy who grows up in a wizarding school and
name him Harold Potbringer, and just say we never “intended” to plagiarize J.K.
Rowling. Money!
6. Cueshe Rips Off Silverchair, But Still Manages To Suck
More like Cuesh*t, amirite?
The Ripoff: In “their” “hit” single “Stay,” the “band” known as Cueshe decided to “pay” an “homage” to both Silverchair’s “The Greatest View” and Simple Plan’s “Perfect”, but still somehow create horrible “music” while they’re at it. Read the Pinoy Exchange thread to see for yourself.
The Defense: Despite the fact that people can totally hear
something once and have it affect them subconsciously, Cueshe claimed they were
“unfamiliar”
with the music of Silverchair and thus could not have possibly copied “The
Greatest View,” in their very brief defense of their music.
On the other hand, I wish I could also claim I were
unfamiliar with the “music” of Cueshe, myself. Blech.
The Aftermath: Nobody seems to care nowadays that this
ripoff happened. Thankfully, nobody seems to care about Cueshe nowadays,
either.
5. Department Of Tourism Rips Off Polska, Excites
International Porn Sites
Don't worry about ripping off Poland. Nobody would ever know.
The Ripoff: In what was probably the most ill-advised
tourism slogan ever since “Come to Abbottabad! Bin Laden’s chalk outline is
still here,” the DOT decided to run a campaign called “Pilipinas Kay Ganda,”
which had a
logo that looked veeeery suspiciously like Poland’s own tourism effort.
The Defense: Finger-pointing, mostly. Not only was the logo
a ripoff, but in promoting the campaign, they used the unfortunate URL:
beautifulpilipinas.com, which was only one letter away from a porn site. No,
we’re not giving you the URL for that.
The Aftermath: The
campaign just quickly died
a natural death. And then, “It’s More Fun In The Philipines” came along, and
aside from an
allegation that it was ripped off from an old Switzerland tourism campaign
(That was quickly discarded when Switzerland itself approved of the campaign.),
this one became a runaway success
4. Orange And Lemons Sings About How Great It Is To Be A
Pinoy – By Stealing The Melody Of An English Band
So ironic, it's like rain on your wedding day!
The Ripoff: “Pinoy Ako” was probably
the biggest OPM song the year it came out, as it supported the phenomenal first
season of Pinoy Big Brother on TV.
Except there was very little “Original” or “Pinoy” about this music, as it
turns out. In 1985, English band The Care released a song called “Chandeliers,” and, well,
just listen to it mashed
up seamlessly with the O&L hit.
The Defense: “It’s unfair!”
Apparently, if they cry hard enough about it, they could pretend they were
innocent, as they then proceeded to explain how they knew exactly what they
were doing when they ripped off Chandeliers just enough for it to still not be
considered outright plagiarism.
The Aftermath: In 2006, Orange And Lemons insisted that the
controversy made their group more popular than ever,
and that it was a positive for them. A year later, they
disbanded. Huh.
3. Ogie Alcasid Writes Awesome Song For Regine Velasquez,
Promptly Gets Copied By Jang Hye Jin
I don't understand a word, but I'm still mesmerized.
The Ripoff: I think it’s safe to say that Ogie Alcasid is
one of the best songwriters of our generation, and “Pangako,” the hit song
he co-wrote with Manilyn Reynes and interpreted by Ogie’s now-wife Regine
Velasquez, was one of the best songs he ever wrote. Apparently, the people
behind Korean artist Jang Hye Jin thought so, too.
The Defense: After initially feeling flattered, Ogie then
felt robbed by what happened. Thankfully, Ogie’s recording company pursued
their talent’s rights, and upon being caught, the Korean recording company
didn’t seem to put up any fight over it and simply offered to retroactively buy
the rights to “Pangako.”
The Aftermath: All’s well that ends well: Ogie still writes
great songs, and Hye Jin’s still hot.
2. MVP Makes Great Graduation Speech About Being a Self-Made
Man, But The Speech Wasn’t Exactly Self-Made
via WWE Wikia
This is why we have graphic designers in the 8List.
The Ripoff: MVP, in 2010, was the guest speaker for the
Ateneo’s commencement exercise. After a rousing speech, it turns out many
elements of his speech were lifted from Barack Obama, J.K. Rowling, Conan
O’Brien, and even Oprah Winfrey. This resulted in immediate backlash.
The Defense: Would you believe it? MVP owned up to the
mistake by assuming command responsibility, even if it was obvious a
speechwriter made the speech for him. Ateneo tried
to keep him around, though, because Fivepeat.
via Interaksyon
What's a little plagiarism between basketball buddies?
The Aftermath: In an effort to make it clear that the university
is totally not willing to look the other way for people who donated a building
or two to the school, they took it out on several students by charging them with plagiarism. But not MVP, no
siree. After several more issues, though, MVP has completely distanced himself
from the Ateneo.
1. Senator Tito Sotto Argues Against the RH Bill By Citing a
Blogger’s Sources, But Completely Bypasses the Blogger Who Compiled Said
Resources
via ph.yahoo.com
"What's a little plagiarism between basketball buddies?" - Tito Sotto
The Ripoff: In an impassioned privilege speech against the
RH Bill where he magically acquired a brand of birth control pills before
they existed, few people were surprised when it turns out that a
significant chunk of his speech came from an
article by blogger Sarah Pope.
The Defense: Where do we begin? Sotto insisted that he
quoted Sarah’s sources, and not Sarah herself, while completely missing the
part where his transcripts have exactly the same typographical errors as
Sarah’s entries, and the part where his own staff admitted they didn’t go
through the actual texts Pope was referring to. Unlike MVP, Tito Sotto waffled
back and forth with assuming command responsibility over his speechwriters’
errors, and capped his self-pity driven “I’m the victim here” defense with a
passive-aggressive shot at Sarah Pope and most of the people calling him out: “Ba’t
ko naman iko-quote yung blogger? Blogger lang yun.”
The irony? One of the first people to point out
his plagiarism would be the
Filipino Freethinkers, who clearly learned the value of intellectual
honesty after #8 happened.
The Aftermath: The
funny thing is, in an attempt to defend himself from all these allegations, the
embattled Senator made another privilege speech to explain himself, where he
plagiarized Robert
Kennedy. Then we found out he added
the libel clause to the Cybercrime Law, since the people getting on his
nerves were mostly online, then… okay, I’m tired now. Let’s just say he got
away with it, because somehow, instead of the 11
women who die in childbirth in the Philippines every day, it’s the well-off,
powerful, TV actor-turned senator who is apparently the “victim” in this
picture.
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