Magazine Apologizes To Livefist For Plagiarism

I am happy to announce that Geopolitics magazine, which had lifted original work and photographs from Livefist (without credit and passed off ostensibly as its own), has regretted the acts of plagiarism in a gracious full-page apology (above) to me by the magazine’s editor-in-chief K. Srinivasan in the magazine’s latest December 2011 edition. My effort to obtain credit had turned into an increasingly sour exchange between myself and the magazine’s editor Prakash Nanda. However, fair play and better sense has clearly prevailed and the magazine’s full-page apology, pictured above, speaks for itself. The magazine has also said it will be taking a re-look at its processes: highly welcome at a time when intellectual property gains credence in the country.

I should say at the end, that the only thing I asked for (as is clear from the e-mails I have reprinted in my post linked above) was full credit. With the issue now reaching a dignified conclusion, I’m happy to say that I accept Geopolitics‘ apology and am treating the matter as closed.

I’d like to thank all those who showed generous support to my effort to get due credit. Really, folks, thanks!

PDF Page ©Geopolitics online edition


18 thoughts on “Magazine Apologizes To Livefist For Plagiarism”

  1. Hi Shiv. You are right here. You deserve their apology, and glad it didn't come a bit too late. But I wonder whether the magazine's error was intentional or 'normal' editorial error (happens even to the best of us, every desk person will agree). So, as a good journalist who care, do find out what happened to the lowest-ranking person in their office who made this error creep in. It may seem improper for you to 'care' about another organisation's internal matter, but it is only human to do it. Somebody may have lost his/her job because you wanted your credit. But then, life is unfair, so is war.

  2. Shiv,
    You are a very respected journo and I keenly follow you on TV and online, it was sad to see your work getting copied without your permission. Glad to see the apology from the magazine.

  3. By Indian standards that was very dignified of them. So Shiv, would you be open to having your articles reprinted in the future if you were given credit?

  4. K Srinivasan seems like a gentleman, I like his quote 'simply cutting and pasting some items to make life easy for themselves. We are fixing responsibility and punishing the guilty.' :-).

  5. and guess what .. they lifted (without credit) other image(s) in their latest (Dec'11) edition.

    Clearly this is standard practice at their end and will continue to be so.

    The only reason they made a such a visible apology was because Shiv had outed them rather publicly.

    Also, read their 'apology' and the email correspondence to Shiv – Srinivasan's demeanour is rather 'different'; either that or he is bipolar!

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