Some Thoughts on My Blog

The Blogger's note:

My most learned e-buddy, Dr. J B Lim, has been very kind to have earlier given me a written blanket consent to post into this blog whatever articles written by him and copied or forwarded to me (see the last email of this post). He assured me that there is no question of “plagiarism” as explained by his email reproduced below.

I take this as an honor and a privilege and must openly express my utmost salutation to Dr Lim for being such a kind, generous and noble gentleman ever willing to share his knowledge and wisdom with anybody and everybody free of charge, in great contrast to the selfishness of a certain individual who claims “copyright” of emails received by him and has alleged me of “plagiarism” or “disrespect” for publishing such emails. This is the difference between a great soul and an ugly one.

I am determined to continue to post into this blog any interesting and educating articles that will benefit the readers. I am also not going to take Dr Lim’s blanket consent for granted but would still seek his permission to allow me to publish his works whenever necessary.

Four (4) masterpieces on Astronomy, Mathematics and Medicine have been recently received from Dr Lim and I shall post them here one at a time in due course with his express consent.
A quotable quote to share with everyone:
Life ends when you stop dreaming;
Hope ends when you stop believing;
Love ends when you stop caring; and
Friendship ends when you stop sharing!

Friday, 19 August, 2011 2:13 PM
From: lim juboo

Dear Ir. Lau,

There is no "plagiarism” in your blog. This is so very clear to any reader because my name clearly put in print there. You are just publishing the work of an author with their names clearly printed there just like any publisher of any book, magazine, newspapers or scientific journal. That is not plagiarism?
On the top of it, I also gave you the ‘copyright’ in person and in writing. Additionally, my articles were all under a separate column in your blog.

In fact a lot of my other articles were also ‘stolen’ by other people into their website. But I could not be bothered because once it goes into the Internet, it is free for everybody. Knowledge and info are all free, except when we acquire them in school, college or in a university where we need to pay tuition fees. But not when we disseminate them inside a website or a blog.

Just go ahead if you wish. I am not charging anybody. But if people are afraid, then I shall put them inside my blog where I have been inactive.

Just do as you wish. There is no problem with me. Have to go now.

Regards

Jb lim -----------------------------------------------
A previous email to the blogger:

From: lim juboo
Date: Thursday, 21 July, 2011, 8:21 PM Dear Tai Onn,

We are all just writing for fun and nothing more. We are all merely exchanging current news, information, sharing ideas and what ever updates we know. None of us demand payment for our effort even though we spend a lot of time writing to each other.

All our exchanges have no commercial values except for educational purposes which are absolutely free-of-charge, albeit some may consider it as intellectual property which cannot be copied by others.

Political mail mainly:
However, most of the e-mails I receive are 95% about local politics which is very irritating to me. There are far too much of political mails sent to me. I hardly have the time to read all of them. I scarcely get an official mail that requires my attention. Yet I really do not mind the political squabbling and stories again and again people send into my inbox. Pictures, graphics, short jokes are easier for me.

I myself am enlightened by your thoughts and experiences in your blog. You have done a great job sharing your personal experiences for others to enjoy. It really does not matter where you get the materials, because we all do copy from each other.

Learning from other’s knowledge and experiences:
Knowledge must come from somewhere. Most are from the labours of other people. The Internet is filled with information even though not all of them are reliable. They may not be dependable because just about anyone can post anything into the Internet or inside their blog. But we cannot stop them. They are free to express anything they wish whether right or wrong.

As far as my articles are concerned, they are free for anyone to copy or quote. I really have no objection even though they may not acknowledge my work. My articles are not flawless either. Oftentimes there are many mistakes which require correction. Even if others copy what I wrote, I still do not claim intellectual property or copy rights. Many articles I send out as e-mails I don’t even bother to put them into my own blog.

Just to spend time sharing:
I just write for fun, sometimes purely to answer someone’s questions. Sometimes it was just to impart others people’s findings for others to read. Sometimes they are just to share out my previous working experience, now that I am retired. I don’t get paid for all these. I write just to spend my time usefully to keep myself socially, psychologically, mentally, and spiritually fit. I help my wife daily to do the morning housework. This is just to keep me physically fit.

Neither do I pay my wife for the housework. They are the demanding duties of a wife and a mother to the children. After housework I play with my computer. That’s when I write to share my thoughts with everyone who cares to read. If we can share, we contribute; if we are unable it is still okay to just to receive. We don’t ask for any payment. In our infinitesimally short life we must not be selfish. Whatever we have in life cannot be carried with us into the next life. So why harbor and prevent others from using what we can give and let them have them?

You have not stolen:
You have not stolen anything from me. You did ask my prior permission. Now and then I could not even be bothered to say ‘yes’ to you because a previous blanket consent should suffice.

You have acknowledged appropriately:
Not only that, there was not a single instance where you put my article into your blog without acknowledging my name as the author? All my articles in your blog carry my name as the original writer. You never claim them as yours, or insert your name there. So what is the problem? I think we are all getting very childish like children snatching toys to play. There is no harm sharing together be they be toys, articles or others.

Good enough:
The fact you always put my name as the author is more than good enough. In fact I must thank you for this courtesy. That itself suffice for me as it would for anybody. You are only like a publisher of a journal, book or a magazine who publishes articles of others.

No publisher claims credit for articles published inside their publications. All publishers acknowledge the author and names of the contributor inside their publications. Isn’t that sufficient? What else do we expect the publishers to do?

In similar vein, what else do I need to demand from you? You are just like a publisher; except your publications are in the form of a blog. What difference is it, whether in hard cover of a book or in soft cover of a blog? You don’t expect me to demand royalty for intellectual property from you as some commercial organizations may do?

Free for everybody:
All these are free, completely free of charge once we put our ideas for others to copy and publish. There is no objection or any charge. You can see a lot of people, mainly from the United States write a lot of articles and info and post them into the Internet, into their own, or into other people’s blog or websites. Google in fact is a form of a world wide publisher. We too are the same using our blogs. So what is the problem? We do this voluntarily, and is absolutely free without charge. They all too do this not demanding anything from the readers. Neither does anyone pay them for their effort. They just freely share that’s all.

Your attractive blog:
In fact you take far more trouble than me with all those attractive pictures, illustrations, photos and even music. I have read some of your own blog articles and I found them original and interesting. In fact you should continue with them especially when they are so illustrative. I can hardly compete with your artistic talents. My own blog is plain Jane text writing in comparison.

We share knowledge and pass on info:
Knowledge is something common to everybody. After all, we all do have a certain level of education. We learn to read, write and speak since school. We pick up knowledge while we were in schools and later further them at a university. All these realization are not our own. They were the discoveries of others, and we merely learn them from others. In this way we copy knowledge from one and another. There is nothing wrong with that? In turn we pass what we gather to our children and to others. What is wrong with that? In fact this is encouraged.

Only research is original:
If we want to write and publish our own ideas and not copy from others, then the only way is to conduct our own research and have them published inside a journal. That way it is original and nobody else can claim that discovery is theirs.

But how many people are capable of doing research without copying some of the previous work of past researchers? All of us depend on the previous work of other researchers before we can come home with their own ideas. Even then all of us quote previous work of other researchers before they can further their own research.

We as researchers do quote others workers names:
Even then, we all quote the names of other researchers or the authors of a publication. This is what you did in your blog with my name inside. This is perfectly legitimate. So what is the problem? You did not claim the articles as your own? In this way copying ideas, discoveries and quoting publications done previously are very normal. This is normal education.

So I do not think you have done anything wrong. I am aware of what you put into your blog but you have already asked my consent, and I have already said yes to you. It is a blanket go-ahead for you.

My own blog:

Of course I have not bothered to post them into my own blog. In fact I wrote a few articles into my blog years ahead of you, but I did not trouble myself to activate it with new entry every now and then until I saw yours.

I was thinking if I don’t activate my blog constantly, Google might remove my blog and whatever past articles I put inside would all be deleted forever. That was why from time to time I insert them into my blog just to keep it active, else everything will be removed in entity. It would be a wasted effort when all previous articles were just wiped away due to cold storage.

I think some has been unnecessarily criticizing you. The best way I think is for you to remove my name from my future articles, and just write this statement: “Permission has been given for this article written by a retired research scientist-doctor to be posted here. But he requested anonymity”. (see note below)
This way my name is not there, and no one can say anything. I do not mind either because I write just for fun only to share. I do not get paid or demand royalty for this. So it is okay whether or not my name is quoted. Anyone can take anything from me. I do not lose. I give you this permission.

jb lim

Note: The blogger has replied to Dr JB Lim expressing his insistence on acknowledging the authorship of every article posted herein or else he preferred not to post at all. And that is the unyielding principle of the blogger.