John Ribeiro, IDG News Service
Thu Mar 8, 11:00 AM ET
“Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO – news) apologized on Thursday after recipes from the blog of an Indian housewife were used without permission on Yahoo’s India’s new Malayalam-language Web portal.
The reproduction of the recipes, which were taken from a blog in Malayalam run by a housewife in Kerala, in Southern India, sparked an online protest among bloggers.”
You can read the press release – here.
Great news and I think this is a huge victory to our food blogging community. Our protest worked!
Updated on March 9th:
Looks like I have spoken in haste. Yahoo released a press statement but yet yo apologize to Surya Gayathri personally and new revelations of content and image theft by several Yahoo portals have come forward.
We are going to kick this protest up a notch!
You can find and follow the discussion at Dining Hall and Food Blog S’cool – food bloggers community websites.
Again, my sincere request to the editors of Indian newspapers and web magazines. Please put a stop to this frequent shameful and painful content theft. Its really beneath you. Acknowledge us food bloggers and respect our work. Respect the copyrights law. Please request permission before using the content from our blogs. We would be more than happy to lend the content, really who doesn’t want to get featured in a hometown newspaper. Let’s work together and make it pleasant.
hope yahoo and its subcontractors learnt something.
– bee
Comment by bee — March 8, 2007 @ 3:38 pm
I think the lesson is for us. Standing up for our rights and supporting each other in our struggles not only strengthen us and it actually shows results.
Comment by Indira — March 8, 2007 @ 3:48 pm
Great going – I hope all of us – corporations, sub contractors, us -learnt a lesson from this. Permission is readily given, when it is asked for. And secondly, solidarity goes a long way.
Comment by Sangeeta — March 8, 2007 @ 3:52 pm
Props to Yahoo! too, for apologizing.
No, they shouldn’t have done it in the first place, but huge companies with thousands of employees, are bound to do wrong occasionally.
And it’s refreshing to see a giant corporation respond to a handful of bloggers who raised a complaint.
Comment by Joe Grossberg — March 8, 2007 @ 4:37 pm
I am so glad that the protest had a positive outcome…cheers to all of us, especially to Inji Pennu and Surya Gayathri.
Comment by Trupti — March 8, 2007 @ 4:44 pm
Yeah!!!!!!
Now that was quite a new :).
They really had no option but to apologize, given the strong protest/reaction in the blogosphere :). Hail the bloggers!
Comment by musical — March 8, 2007 @ 4:46 pm
On second thoughts, after reading the official release, am not too pleased with their response! Not even once is the blog or the author’s name mentioned. She has a name, her blog has a name, would anyone at Yahoo cite that, please! instead of just refering to her as “the woman” etc.!
Comment by musical — March 8, 2007 @ 4:52 pm
Way to Go! I am so proud of this news. Three cheers to Surya Gayathri and Inji Pennu! One thing is clear – together we cna move mountains!
Hope there is a lesson learnt in this for everyone!
Cheers
Latha
Comment by Latha — March 8, 2007 @ 5:28 pm
Great news, even a giant like yahoo has to bow down if they make a mistake…
Comment by Nandita — March 8, 2007 @ 9:30 pm
Bonjour,
j’ai poser un comments hier et je ne le vois pas sur le site.
L’avez vous reçu?
Comment by Gene — March 8, 2007 @ 10:01 pm
bonjour,
je réessaie même en français, car je ne maitrise absolument pas l’anglais mais j’imagine qu’il y a de frtes possiblites pour que vous puissiez me lire.
De l’île de la Réunion, je survole votre site et je m’y arrête en buvant des yeux toutes les photos qui me donnent envie.J’adore la cuisine indienne et c’est a regret que je ferme la page en esperant àchaque fois qu’un jour ce site soit traduit en français.
Longue vie a ce site et continuez a me faire rêver
Comment by Gene — March 8, 2007 @ 10:15 pm
Finally….an apology!
Comment by sumitha — March 9, 2007 @ 12:59 am
Yay !! Yayy !!!
Comment by Revathi — March 9, 2007 @ 11:43 am
Great news for all food bloggers!!!
Comment by Aahaar — March 9, 2007 @ 11:47 am
🙂
The might of Bloggers’ solidarity, Three salutes to thee!
(But I am still a bit confused if the local content provider is trying to fool both their client (Yahoo India) and us bloggers on the other side, by a misappropriately placed statement that is still not upto a proper apology!
Hope Yahoo will arrange some third party translators to help them understand Malayalam text!
Despite the vague lines pretending to be ‘the apology’, there has been also reports of Yahoo apologizing to an Indian house wife in some responsible news media. It is not clear whether these reports are based on any real facts. No symptoms of such apology seems present on either at the affected blogs or at the Yahoo’s own site bare the pretentive statement mentioned above.
I feel that the affected bloggers can still pursue their struggle, if they wish so, through every means they find suitable including legal options.
Neverthless, certainly, our mission has already been a hitherto unseen success by it’s very popular appeal and the tremours it generated!
Comment by Viswaprabha വിശàµÂÂവപàµÂÂà´°à´ — March 9, 2007 @ 12:15 pm
This is wonderful news, I’m glad that Yahoo has apologized. Thanks especially to Inji and Surya Gayathri for organizing the protest.
Comment by mandira — March 9, 2007 @ 12:33 pm
Indira,
Where have I been all these days without paying homage to this fab site? To a foodie like me (with a Telugu hubby!), this is like manna from heaven. Have bookmarked and blogrolled u already.
I also write for Desicritics.org and read about your protests re Yahoo! plagiarism and the win and wrote about it for DC – the post can also be found at my blog here: http://desigirlposts.blogspot.com/2007/03/desi-bloggers-take-on-yahoo-india.html
Well done! Please drop me a line if I have made any contextual errors!
Comment by Desigirl — March 9, 2007 @ 12:57 pm
Indira, please check out
this. Yahoo didn’t get it at all. this apology is just a eyewash.
Comment by shilpa — March 9, 2007 @ 1:16 pm
Hi Indira,
That article can now be found at desicritics.org . we have also submitted it to the following sites.
http://digg.com/tech_news/Indian_Food_Bloggers_Take_On_Yahoo_India_s_Plagiarism_And_Win/
http://www.indianpad.com/story/39201
Comment by Desigirl — March 10, 2007 @ 12:13 am
Indira, Also submit this to Digg.com – It is a very high traffic site. Try submitting to slashdot.org too.
Since this involves a tech site/portral + IP, slashdot and Digg readers will defn be interested
Comment by SG — March 10, 2007 @ 1:16 am
Indira,
As an avid reader of your food blog, I have been following the “Yahoo-Plagiarism” story as it unfolds.
I came across this website: http://creativecommons.org/
This is a charitable organization that specializes in copyrights and strives to bring about a copyright system that values innovation and protection equally. Its a global organization and has a unit in India as well.
Let me know if I can be of any assistance as well.
Thanks,
Maya
Indira replies:
Hi Maya, thanks very much for posting the link to creative commons website. Lot of good information there. I will forward your comment and link to the coordinator of this protest.
Thanks!
Comment by Maya — March 12, 2007 @ 11:58 am
This is disgusting. I would look at writing a press release to send out to the print nationals in the US/UK and India.
In fact, I am happy to help do this. Mail me.
Comment by sylvia — March 22, 2007 @ 1:27 pm