Dear Editor in Chief, Ms. Meenal Baghal and Ms. Sudipta Basu,
I am writing this letter to you as an open letter on my website, as I have no way of getting the desired response from your team.
As you can imagine I am extremely irritated and frustrated at the lack of response or help I have received from your team for a matter that any leading newspaper should take seriously.
I was informed by a reader that your supplement the Pune Mirror illegally stole one of my photographs from my blog and published it in their section YOU on May 8th. Not only did they have the audacity to crop the picture so that my watermark and copyright statement, which is printed on each one of my pictures, is obscured, they also simply copied and pasted my text from the article. A true case of copyright violation.
Original Photo "Crimson Beetroot" from this post dated March 13, 2008
So, I ask you, is this how you do daily business over at the Times of India? One would expect a lot more from one of India's leading daily newspapers. How is it possible for you to be taken seriously internationally? I cannot ever imagine The New York Times or The Washington Post ever stooping to such petty theft. They would have had the dignity to actually ask – I might have just said yes if you had taken the time.
But you choose to steal, not only my pictures but also several other bloggers' pictures. However, what you probably did not realize is that we as Food Bloggers are a close knit community and we talk. We are aware that the Mumbai Mirror, also one of your supplements, simply lifted her pictures too.
The worse part of the story is that you do not even respond to our mails. We have written to Ms. Meenal Baghal and Sudipta Basu on several occasions, with no serious actions taken. One just tried to push the blame on the other. How shameful to see how you place customer care!
I have been trying for over 2 months to deal with this situation privately without making this issue public. However, I kept hitting against hard walls. I hope this letter will make you take notice, maybe even make your Board of Directors also take notice and if nothing else at least others will be informed of how you choose to do business.
For me after this experience your newspaper belongs in the trash for lack of creativity, lack of dignity, lack of honesty, and lack of true journalism.
Meeta Khurana
All photographs and written content on What's For Lunch, Honey? © 2006-2008 Meeta Khurana unless otherwise indicated. | All rights reserved | Please Ask First
