By Wayne Agramon
I logged on my
Facebook yesterday to check out what’s been going on lately. I was scrolling
down on my news feeds when a particular post from a friend of mine caught my
attention. She was sharing a news article about a student of the University of
the Philippines (UP) who won in a contest using a plagiarized photo.
22 year-old Mark
Joseph Solis is a political science graduate in UP Diliman and is currently a
graduate student of the UP National College of Public Administration and
Governance. His plagiarized photo won first prize at the 2nd Calidad
Humana National Essay Photography Competition organized by the Chilean Embassy.
Solis named his
entry “Mettle of the Filipino Spirit” and passed the photo off as a boy who
helps his father in farming seaweed along a coastal community in Zamboanga. (philstar.com)
Gregory John
Smith, founder of Children At Risk Foundation in Brazil and the real owner of
the picture, said that it was originally taken in Brazil in 2006 and captioned
it “Neptune, King of the Sea.” It was taken on a beach in Rio de Janeiro while
the kids were having fun chucking seaweed at each other. (philstar.com)
The theme of the
contest was “Smiles for the World” to celebrate uniquely Filipino human
qualities or Calidad Humana. However,
there was nothing “human” about what Solis did. He has committed a grave crime
by stealing someone else’s art and receiving an award from it. He is not only a
liar but also thief. (abs-cbnnews.com)
This particular
news garnered a lot of negative reactions online. Solis received a lot of
bashing from people on the internet for bringing shame to his school and
spoiling the essence of the contest.
As a UP student, I
am really troubled by this piece of news. Plagiarism is a crime heavily frowned
upon in the university. Ever since I was in my first year, it has been
repeatedly preached to us students how important it is to respect other
people’s intellectual property.
Plagiarism offenses
include: claiming articles, ideas or artistic works as of someone else as one’s
own; quoting or paraphrasing without credit; citing information without
references; and making something up and passing them as true. Our teachers
always remind us not to do any one of these offenses or risk punishment as
grave as expulsion and stripping off of one’s degree.
In his apology
letter to Smith, Solis cited youth, lack of experience, and inability to see
the repercussions of his actions as reason for why he did what he did. He also
said that he was blinded by prize and the grandness of the contest drove him to
dishonesty. (rappler.com)
Solis has not only
done it once though. On the Facebook group Narinig ko sa UP (Overheard at UP),
netizens claimed that Solis had allegedly done the act at least five times
since 2011. They even posted links of Solis' photographs and the source of the
photos. (cebudailynews.com)
I consider what
happened, however, as a wake-up call for us students. The convenience that
technology and the internet brings also presents a new set of problems. Online
content is readily accessible by a wide range of audience. As more people post
their works on the internet in order to draw attention to their talents, there
is also a greater temptation to commit intellectual property theft.
Solis,
as a student of UP Cebu, would know how grave an offense plagiarism is but it
didn’t stop him from doing it. Youth, inexperience, lack of foresight and a
strong desire to win the prize may be the reasons but we cannot discount the
fact that he knew what the consequences will be he has done it habitually.
Students
should assess themselves if they doing the same thing as Solis did. It may not
be as big in scale as his but they might be doing it in their writing assignments
and creative projects in school. Students should take care to give credit where
it is due whenever they use other people’s work and to cite sources whenever
they make use of information from others.
Students must undertake creative endeavors with integrity and not give in to the temptation to steal other people’s ideas lest it becomes a habit that could potentially lead them to ruin and tear their reputation to shreds.
No comments:
Post a Comment