Posted by tamago at SC
Originally posted by ^tamago^:
[b]Blog with disputed photo lifted
Wiki content
Netizens hit out at KL legal team in Pedra Branca case after
plagiarism is uncovered
Straits Times, The
(Singapore)
22 November 2007
Home
IN THE HAGUE (NETHERLANDS) - A PICTURE Malaysia produced to argue
its case in the Pedra Branca dispute has sparked a controversy on
the Internet.
Several netizens, notably Malaysian bloggers, are chiding the
country's legal eagles for relying on an anonymous blog that has
been shown up for plagiarism.
Some have also gone onto the blog www.leuchtturm3.blogspot.com to
post harsh criticisms of the author, who pleaded with them
yesterday not to use four-letter words.
'My younger sibling, who is 11 years old, also visits my blog and
these words are not appropriate for her,'' he wrote in a posting
titled 'Why the anger?'.
Malaysia had cited the blog as the source of a photograph it
produced last week in an international court, to show Pedra
Branca's supposed closeness to Johor.
Singapore, in its response, raised questions about the blog and
this was reported in The Straits Times on Tuesday.
The report led the writer of a Singapore blog called Simplyjean to
analyse the blog.
Simplyjean found its author had lifted chunks of text from
Wikipedia, whose contents can be edited by anyone.
The discovery fired up several Singaporean and Malaysian
blogs.
One blogger, Malaysian Jeff Ooi, yesterday bemoaned in a post his
country's use of a suspect photo from an anonymous blog containing
plagiarised content to 'present its case at all places, the
International Court of Justice'.
Another Malaysian Tony Yew said on his website
muststopthis.blogspot.com: 'How lame can our guys be?
'Putting up an argument with plagiarised work from Wikipedia!
Sheesh...there goes Pulau Batu Puteh!'
Pulau Batu Puteh is Malaysia's name for Pedra Branca.
Singapore and Malaysia are appearing before the International Court
of Justice (ICJ) to resolve their dispute over the sovereignty of
Pedra Branca, an island 40km east of Singapore and which stands at
the eastern entrance of the Singapore Strait.
On Monday, Singapore's Attorney-General Chao Hick Tin said the
photo Malaysia produced was shot using a camera with a telephoto
lens, which exaggerated the closeness of Pedra Branca to the Johor
coast.
In questioning the blog, Mr Chao saidthe photo had been put up just
four days before the start of the ICJ hearing.
In the blog, its author claims to be a lover of lighthouses and
'leuchtturm' is the German word for lighthouse.
Simplyjean found the following sentence on the design of
lighthouses was lifted from Wikipedia: 'Often these are cylindrical
to reduce the effect of wind on a tall structure on less stable
soil. An example of this is Pulau Batu Puteh Lighthouse.'
The only change the author of leuchtturm3 had made was to use Pulau
Batu Puteh Lighthouse in place of Cape May Lighthouse. But it was
done in a way that anyone who clicks on the hyperlinked words Pulau
Batu Puteh is led to a page on Cape May Lighthouse in
Wikipedia.
Meanwhile, some netizens posted criticisms on the leuchtturm3 blog
of what they called the 'doctored picture'.
Yesterday, its author confessed he knew little about Singapore or
Malaysia and hoped to visit the region one day when he had the
money.
As for Simplyjean, its writer confessed in a post that the Pedra
Branca case held little interest initially. 'But when they decided
to bring the blogosphere into the news, then I felt that I had to
do some justification for the community.'
Simplyjean has this message for the person behind the leuchtturm3
blog: 'To the author (and all other implied parties), you
suck.'
[email protected]
Copyright, 2007, Singapore Press Holdings Limited[/b]
