It is widely believed that the Indian MEDIA has scant respect for copyrights. Although it is unfair to generalize, I’ve starting to believe that it is indeed true.

We’re a niche online media portal covering events & stories in Bangalore city. Time and again I’ve noticed that mainstream media uses OUR content (photos, research data, etc.) in their stories and never gives us credit (forget about taking permission!)

Let me provide a recent instance:

Bangalore Mirror issue of February 24th 2010, Page 7, which bore the story ” Tweeting to Save Carlton Towers”.

Bangalore Mirror has used 3 of MyBangalore.com Copyright images in the above mentioned story .

Images in context
1.A shocked survivor
2.A Fireman in Action
3.A victim being brought out of the building.

These images have been very prominently featured in our story which have been captured by our Staff Photographer Manish Gunjan.

The story was published on February 23rd, 2010 Titled:
Pictures: Fire in Bangalore’s Carlton Towers
http://mybangalore.com/article/0210/pictures-fire-in-carlton-towers.html

As anybody can tell, this is a case of blatant rip-off and copyright violation. Can you believe that the honorable Bangalore Mirror belongs to the Times of India Group?

It is extremely unfair to pass off somebody’s work as your own. I have no idea, how many images/stories are being used on a daily basis – they could be anyone’s, but I do know that this nefarious practice is increasing and there is nothing we can do about it.