Is a Winner of The 10th Philippine Web Awards Guilty of Plagiarism?
By Rico, 6:06 pm Wed Nov 28 2007 - News - 76 Opinions
A few hours ago, an anonymous source provided Technograph with evidence of apparent plagiarism by Einsteinarts.com. The Arts and Portfolio winner of the 10th Philippine Web Awards uses the same platform located at 24-7media.de/os/popup.html. The “fully functional web template” is currently being sold for $3,000.
Einsteinarts.com/main.html:
24-7media.de/os/popup.html:
Technograph approached Einstein S. Gan, the owner of the site, for clarification. Mr. Gan admitted that his portfolio site was an imitation, but stressed that it was purely accidental and that he “didn’t really knew [sic] about the 24-7media site.” He also claimed that he “added all my own actionscipts, icons, content, background, etc for my own site. I know the skin still looks very much the same to the site you have provided…That’s because I was using it as a template for my own site.”
The guidelines of the PWAs clearly state that “The entry must not be plagiarized in terms of content and design from a copyrighted source, such as another Web site.” Is Einsteinarts.com guilty of plagiarism? If so, then Media Gateway Inc., the organizers of the Philippine Web Awards, have broken their own rules. Admittedly, the definition of plagiarism in the visual sense has been confused by the proliferation of free website and blog themes. Technogra.ph uses the Semiologic theme, a highly-customizable platform that many other websites use.
In any case, it is clear that Media Gateway should look into this matter further. At the very least, they need to clarify their guidelines for next year’s competition. Read Technograph’s other articles on the 2007 Philippine Web Awards.
Update: Einsteinarts.com is down.
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Funny HAHAHAHA!
4:04 pm Thu Nov 29 2007
My advice though, a new web competition should be heralded by those concerned. Then that one will give the PWA a run of ideas and their money, what do you think? If that one proves to be more credible and trustworthy. Look at Carlos Palanca for instance, the integrity is intact after all those years. If the juries didn’t find anyone qualified for the 1st Place, no awards is given. That is what we all need!
Funny HAHAHAHA!
4:04 pm Thu Nov 29 2007
Reality check: current or contemporary Philippine designs, graphic arts, new media or even brand communications, are not that solid good, that we can take pride. They aren’t at par with even our counterparts in Asia like Japan and South Korea.
We still have to prove a lot of things. For one, the educational system is amiss. Then those who can be called good ones are not purely Filipinos or purely educated in the Philippines but abroad. These people may have already worked with those creatives abroad. Do we have right now what we can call a nationalist creative graphic arts and design? I bet none! How do we learn then? Didn’t graphic artists started copying or imitating who they believe are good? Who they believe are their mentors? Mentors are usually books, websites, design studios abroad. So the whole point here is that … we have a very very very …. very long long way to go … in other words, marami pa tayong kakaining bigas … that is the poor plight of the Filipino graphic artists … sad to say … but that is true … and the case of Einstein is one case in point …
Funny HAHAHAHA!
4:04 pm Thu Nov 29 2007
The sad reality too … it was hard to be funny ha ha … when our design culture is in a poor, poor state …
Mark
4:04 pm Thu Nov 29 2007
Pao congrats dude! as what you’ve said a while ago Go Bosconians!
Paolo
4:04 pm Thu Nov 29 2007
Salamat Mark!:)
10th Philippine Web Awards Winner Disqualified; First Runner Up to Receive Trophy
4:04 pm Thu Nov 29 2007
[...] 11/29/200710th Philippine Web Awards Winner Disqualified; First Runner Up to Receive Trophy An email sent to the contestants of the 10th PWAs announced the disqualification of Einsteinarts.com, formerly the winner of the Arts and Portfolio category, after the organizers decided that it “was an imitation of an existing template design being offered for sale.” Technogra.ph originally broke the story yesterday afternoon (see: Is a Winner of The 10th Philippine Web Awards Guilty of Plagiarism?). [...]
Funny HAHAHAHA!
4:04 am Fri Nov 30 2007
BTW, My name is Albert…
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Wow Pare! » Blog Archive » Plagiarism in The Philippine Webby Awards
3:03 pm Fri Nov 30 2007
[...] Plagiarism? [...]
Jesus Christ!!!
12:12 pm Sat Dec 1 2007
based on what i’ve read here, kestrel and the photo gallery practically begged for the trophies to be given to them. have some dignity for god’s sake. having received them in this manner, do you now feel a sense of pride for “winning?” i doubt it. and from a competition that boasts a paltry 3-5 entries per category? please. this competition is a punch line at best. the fact that you’re crying over something like this is pathetic. get over it!
Punongbayan & Araullo
6:06 am Sun Dec 2 2007
http://punongbayanaraullo.googlepages.com/
Brought to you by Punongbayan & Araullo
huhu
10:10 am Mon Dec 3 2007
People’s Choice Award is a good idea, casting votes thru SMS, kaya lang, sana one texter (one number) can only vote once. This was pointed out by Marikina even before the awarding.
Kaya for the one who said this.. “Sorry for crying out loud. I know this is totally OT here. But I have been wanting to say this in the first place over at the mails, but was afraid it would affect our standing in the finals.” – this is pathetic.
In elgu category? who do u want to win? yng may “bebot” na music background? yung may blog? pwd nman maging maganda ang design pero functionable pa rin, di lahat may flag, chineck ko eh! And it was not in the criteria. I think it was a toss between City of Balanga and Marikina City. Wala naman flag City of Balanga.. meron ba?
the criteria was clear, kung may prob kayo sa criteria, di sana di na kayo nag-join.
” do you think that functionality and usability just the same? ” – sana di ka na sumali, ayaw mo pala ito eh.
Kung NCC siguro award giving body, baka di nanalo ang marikina, meron palang Memo eh. haha.
Sa mga sasali, kung alam nyo binili nyo template, wag nyo no isali. but i believe einsteinarts.com, cool dude.
to the PWA, maraming dapat i-resolve, hope you fix it. to the losers, stop looking for mistakes of others or blaming others, try looking for improvements on your site, join or do not, who cares!
at yung iba pa, magtayo kayo ng sarili nyong award giving body…
Punongbayan & Araullo
11:11 am Mon Dec 3 2007
@ huhu
are you from marikina? are these the kind of people the marikina government hires to man its agencies? because your comment does describe you as an asshole. i couldn’t even understand your rebuttal. at least point your argument to a person so we can follow the conversation.
you said: “In elgu category? who do u want to win? yng may “bebot” na music background? yung may blog? pwd nman maging maganda ang design pero functionable pa rin, di lahat may flag, chineck ko eh! And it was not in the criteria.”
since when publishing a website in blog format becoming a problem? and who’s talking about the flag? a lot of government websites uses this format. about the NCC circular, you are just negligent about it. it was their for years already and yet you have not acted on it.
you said: “I think it was a toss between City of Balanga and Marikina City. Wala naman flag City of Balanga.. meron ba?”
well, well, well. it seems that you were an insider in the recent PWA “re-warding”. it seems that you had wasted people’s taxes for the people’s choice award. it is just right for the PWA to “reward” you the people’s choice, after all, they’re making a good profit from you.
you said: “People’s Choice Award is a good idea, casting votes thru SMS, kaya lang, sana one texter (one number) can only vote once. This was pointed out by Marikina even before the awarding.”
that was a pathetic excuse. yes you were right in saying you’ve contested the SMS voting. but then, were you not digging your own grave during that time? or it was just a strategy so that people can erase in their minds that you have millions to stash for SMS voting.
and, oh, by the way, are you sure your website is designed in-house? because if i believe you as one representing the marikina website, it seems that your site is outsourced. that is, you had it contracted with a web solutions company for a fee. that might be the reason why you didn’t know of the NCC circular. tsk tsk tsk…
these hypotheses keep me thinking now…
huhu
1:01 pm Mon Dec 3 2007
not from marikina, not from PWA neither,
and I didnt contest the SMS voting, just read it one forum.
actually i’m hoping QC joins…
think all you want, it is free.
everybody’s entitled to his opinion.
I am from Proj 8, QC, 29P Pat Senador St.
Anyway, i don’t want to be rude or anything, I just want to be positive here (although iba ang naging dating), some sites really deserve the win, and let’s not take it out on them that easy. Baka di naman PWA ang sinasaktan nyo, mga taong gumawa ng sites ng mga nanalo.
Maaring marikina didnt deserve it, maybe not, but who are we to judge, i like yung isang finalist ng elgu actually, except lang tlga sa bebot, parang mali yun background. well, anyway, it’s just me.
punongbayan, i think you know it all..
and pls enlighten me, can someone answer this, i want to create a web site focusing on sideline jobs, if i’ll buy a template for it, and isali ko sa PWA, ma-didisqualify ba?