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Plagiarism by 2001 Philippine Webby Awards Finalist Inq7.net

Email of the Year
Letter to the Organizers of the Filipino Webbies

Internet Theft/Online Piracy

Date: Fri, 30 Nov 2001
From: "R. Balboa" (xx@xx.com) |
Subject: Re: Plagiarism by 2001 Philippine Webby Awards Finalist Inq7.net
To: "Heinz Bulos" (heinz@wsgroup.com.ph)
CC:
In-Reply-To: <00ad01c16e61$5d17abc0$2100a8c0@168.0.1.wsgroup.iphil.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Length: 2415

Dear Mr. Heinz Bulos:

Thank you for your response rendered useless by its
tardiness.

What a sorry sight. I provided you the URL of the
OFW-News article, Mr. William Esposo's source, which
was http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OFW-News/message/62.
If you had enough courtesy and diligence to follow
the link, you would have read that document which
rightfully names R Balboa as the author of the trivia
lifted by the Inq7 columnist. He maliciously deleted
my name and freely copied everything, word for word,
and passed off the trivia as his "excerpts." Since
you uncivilizedly disregarded that part of my letter
and unethically went on to present one of your 2001
awards to Inq7, the public should now begin to
question the credibility and prestige of the
Philippine Web Awards (PWA). As this clearly shows
that you condone electronic theft, Internet surfers
and other people would get sick if they discovered
that the 'P' in your PWA stands for plagiarism.

--- Heinz Bulos wrote:
> Dear R. Balboa,
>
> Thank you for raising your concern regarding
> possible plagiarism. We take
> these issues seriously, but we always go through a
> fair and objective
> process in resolving them.
>
> We do not automatically disqualify any site based on
> the complaint of one
> party without getting the explanation from the other
> side. Fortunately, Mr.
> Rufino of Inq7.net was quick in responding to our
> query.
>
> What Inq7 basically said was this:
> - Mr. Esposo acknowledged OFW-News as his source,
> unaware that you were the
> author
> - Inquirer's legal department's opinion is that this
> does not constitute
> plagiarism
> - however, Mr. Esposo has agreed to issue an apology
> and cite you as the
> original author in his column, once he's back from
> his hospital operation
>
> We hope you find this satisfactory.
>
> Thank you.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Heinz Bulos
> Philippine Web Awards 2000 (sic)
> http://www.philippinewebawards.com
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "R. Balboa" (xx@xx.com)
> To: (peachie@wsgroup.com.ph)
> Cc: (support@philippinewebawards.com);
> (heinz@wsgroup.com.ph);
> (abode4us@yahoo)
> Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2001 3:58 PM
> Subject: Plagiarism by 2001 Philippine Webby Awards
> Finalist Inq7.net
>
>
> > Attention: Philippine Web Awards Organizers
> >
> > Dear Sir/Ma'am:
> >
> > I have been scanning the list of websites
> proclaimed
> > as (five) finalists for the 2001 Philippine Web
> Awards
> > under "News and Zines" at
> > http://www.philippinewebawards.com/finalists.asp.
> I
> > was shocked to find that Inq7.net made the cut.
> For
> > your information, this website published stolen
> > content in its July 21, 2001 edition. Its
> columnist,
> > William Esposo, plagiarized my "Science and
> > Technology" trivia which I originally wrote and
> posted
> > on my webpage at
> > https://balboa99.tripod.com/health_science.htm.
> >
> > The URLs of the Inq7.net article being challenged
> are:
> >
> > http://www.inq7.net/vwp/2001/jul/21/vwp_2-1.htm,
> > http://www.inq7.net/vwp/2001/jul/21/vwp_2-2.htm,
> > http://www.inq7.net/vwp/2001/jul/21/vwp_2-3.htm,
> > http://www.inq7.net/vwp/2001/jul/21/vwp_2-4.htm,
> > http://www.inq7.net/vwp/2001/jul/21/vwp_2-5.htm
> and
> >
>
http://www.inq7.net/vwp/2001/jul/21/text/vwp_2-1-p.htm
> >
> > I have brought this case of bad journalism to the
> > attention of Mr. Esposo (gregarach@pacific.net.ph)
> and
> > his editor named Javier Vicente D. Rufino
> > (jrufino@inq7.net). Unprofessionally, both of
> them
> > did not honor my request to acknowledge me as the
> > original author of the plagiarized trivia. The
> source
> > cited in the Inq7.net article was the Yahoo
> mailing
> > list OFW-News which illegally copied my trivia.
> > OFW-News had no permission to reproduce my work
> but it
> > did mention my name, R. Balboa, as the author of
> the
> > trivia it published at
> > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OFW-News/message/62.
> >
> > Your "Terms and Conditions" page at
> >
>
http://www.philippinewebawards.com/default.asp?section=terms
> > clearly states that a site should not "contain
> illegal
> > material, such as and not limited to, plagiarized
> > content" and that you may disqualify a site "at
> any
> > time of the awards period." Since Inq7.net
> committed
> > theft of copyrighted material, I ask you to remove
> it
> > from your list of finalists now.
> >
> > Thank you for your consideration.
> >
> > Respectfully,
> >
> > Xx Xx (aka R. Balboa)
> > Editor, R. Balboa's Tips and Trivia
> > http://balboa99.tripod.com
> > xx@xx.com
> >
> > P.S. I originally sent you this message three days
> ago
> > via your online contact form at
> >
>
http://www.philippinewebawards.com/default.asp?section=contact.
> > That webpage promises a response from you
> within 48
> > hours but I haven't received any. That's why I
> have
> > to resort to resending this via email.

=====
R. Balboa
http://balboa99.tripod.com

 

 

 

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