Special Ops? Who is she trying to kid?

When something goes wrong it seems that most Ukrainian public officials always try to find someone else to blame, and this in most cases, is due to one or two factors: The first being their pompousness and the second being their incredibly low level of professionalism, and I mean professionalism in all of aspects, one of which is moral.

When Ukraine's Presidential Administration was contacted regarding the issue of plagiarism in the incumbent “President's” book Opportunity Ukraine by many Ukrainian journalists trying to get to the bottom of the matter, it seemed like its spokes people would be mum on the issue. However, it didn't take long for Hanna Herman to break her silence, though not by offering an explanation, but by launching an assault on the journalists of Ukrainska Pravda who broke the story of about Ukraine's latest plagiarist and absurdist.

Not only did she launch an attract against journalists of Ukrainska Pravda, there were other media, agencies which, most likely due to pressure from the current regime, committed some of the big Public Relations gaffes in the light of this poorly thought out communications project.

The first of these was pointed out by one of the UP journalists who broke the story of plagiarism within Opportunity Ukraine when he brought it to his readers' attention that the TCH the news program of the 1+1 TV station had deleted a report on the plagiarism of the president and his highly paid professionals. According to Mickie Kennedy, founder of eReleases notes in his article “You Can’t Just Delete Online PR Gaffes” one should never delete PR Gaffes.

Secondly, don’t deny it. “Just apologize quickly and move on,” states Kennedy. So what does our legend in her own mind and the mind of those she works for do, she denies it, and goes one step further, she takes a stab at the Fourth Estate in society. Unlike Bohateryova who seemed to not “stress too much. [because] these types of stories tend to have very short self lives,” based not only of the advice of Kennedy but any PR professional. Bohateryova, or her speech writers, clearly lifted the words of Steve Jobs for her own purpose and remained as silent as a single butterfly in the night sky.

Herman, in her attack on one of the journalists, stated on her blog, “The absurdity of accusing someone for every paragraph in a so called “investigation” presented on UP … I have come to the conclusion...that this is a strike against me.” Yes, Ms. Herman apparently it is a strike against you and your lack of morality and respect for intellectual property, not to mention that it is impossible that the incumbent President is capable on his own of drafting anything close to what was lifted from the works of others. As some journalists have already stated, when he shows up with a package of papers in his own hand writing as the manuscript for the book, then maybe the civilized world will understand.

But what really took the cake in Ms. “Double-Speak” Herman, was the following phrase. “I am convinced, that for this special operation, serious strength was put behind it” and further states that a fair amount of monies were spent for such “disinformation” Ms. Herman, who are you trying to fool? Your financiers? It is clear in my eyes that you have become a pig at the trough of those with a lot of money, and you don't want to stop your feeding frenzy. Everything is very simple, not citing sources in any publication and passing it off as your own is a punishable offense in any civilized country.

Oh, I must apologize, not to you or the regime, but to those who respect the Rule of Law. You and all the other sold out cronies, can do anything you wish. The special operation that you speak of could only have been carried out by you personally, maybe you wanted to discredit the incumbent president and find favor with someone who would pay you more. We all know that THEY have no problem of bumping off their own when the time is right.

Ghost writers, plagiarism and “Opportunity Ukraine”

With the recent appearance of a book entitled Opportunity Ukraine, apparently penned by Ukraine's current President Viktor Yanukovych, one thing is clear. Ukraine has in its core changed very little since Soviet times. The mindset set of copying someone else's creative work and passing their work off as one's own work remains deeply entrenched.

It is completely normal for a leader of any country to want to present a positive image of their country; however, Ukraine's image is not at all enhanced with the appearance of such a publication. Particularly in the eyes of astute individuals, and journalists in Ukraine who have picked up the fact that this book is nothing but plagiarism.

While this is important, there are a few other things that most would never even think of that are just as important.

Does anyone honestly think that Ukraine's incumbent president is capable of putting pen to paper, and actually writing? Let alone an entire book? If there is anyone out there who thinks so consider the following few points, and then consider if this was in fact possible. But on the lighter side, let’s not forget that for the current powers that be, it’s all a show! They really think it is Hollywood. They saw it in the movies, and usually B-Movies of the gangster genre, on the way they should present themselves and behave.

Firstly, and without even considering his questionable past, it is fact that individuals who occupied the positions which Viktor Fedorovych has held seldom wrote anything, they had minions who would do that 'dirty work' work for them. This was the way the system functioned, and to quite a great degree still functions today. Not that it is much different in many big bureaucracies in western democracies, but for the most part the mentality of understanding creative and intellectual property is well entrenched, and it is not uncommon that many politicians use their staff and even ghost writers in order put forth their own ideas.

Secondly, the book “Opportunity Ukraine” was published in English by Mandelbaum Verlag out of Vienna, Austria, a publisher that publishes primarily in German, with less than a handful of titles in English. In trying to present Ukraine in a positive light, would not one want to publish with a reputable English language publisher? But then again, most reputable publishers would want to stay as far away from plagiarism as possible. This was a simple business transaction, we pay you, and you print it.

Thirdly, the book's plug on the publisher's page states the book “is not a memoir. It is a manifesto of deep belief in one's motherland” and then later goes on to state:”This is a practical guide for prospective investors! Naturally, those who come to Ukraine first will reap the most benefits.” Unless it suggests on how to cuddle up with the oligarchs, how can anyone take these sales pitches serious, in a country where Rule of Law is ignored and handful of wealthy individuals, who have no scruples in using any means necessary to achieve their riches are the ones who are really in charge. Yes, those that were in Ukraine first have reaped the benefits, but that was primarily an inside job.

Ukrainians no doubt are viewing this publication with extreme skepticism. Are the ghost writers happy with their final product, maybe they weren't paid enough to disparage the work of its clearly plagiarized passages or at least to follow normal civilized norms of citing sources? Though most likely they see nothing wrong with the practice of plagiarism!

This is not the first time that highly placed public officials have tried passing the words of others off as their own. Not one of them has even been held accountable for their actions. Ukraine truly has potential, but until, such simple things such as intellectual property are not respected, how can one expect the nation to flourish and prosper.

Vasyl Pawlowsky
Independent Consultant

Newton's Third Law of Motion

A week has passed, and clearly the reaction to my blog posting Nothing like plagiarism... and IP rights ignored was very similar to Newton's Third Law of Motion: "Every action has an equal and opposite reaction."

As a result of that post, the "target of my diatribe" as Orest put it, was his blog called Ukrainian Musical Matters. Why was his blog a target? Simply because it stuck out like a sore thumb, like a red flag in front of a bull, one which broke the first two tenants of blogging of the Blogger's Code of Ethics:

• Never plagiarize.
  
• Identify and link to sources whenever feasible. The public is entitled to as much information as possible on sources' reliability.
  

While I never doubted what Orest's motivation for starting his blog were, and they were noble, time consuming and provided those interested in Ukrainian music a resource in English, he seemed to miss the point that no matter when you make a statement publicly there are bound to be those who quietly absorb the information provide, those who on occasion comment, and others who will be critical. How one interprets the criticism being thrown their way is totally up to them, also is their reaction.

Orest's reaction to close down his blog was his choice, however, he had a number of options:

1. He could have simply ignored my blog post;
   
2. He could have simply admitted he had made a mistake and began citing his sources;
   
3. He could have rebutted, and clarified what the goal of blog and continued investing his time in providing information in English.
   

Orest himself stated: "I should have included attribution to the articles, but that was my mistake." See his comments on: "A small bump in the road...to Koktebel" Yes, Orest it was your mistake! But your reaction was a little bit drastic! And while you never claimed that the articles were yours you still did plagiarize, if you accept one of the definitions as being: "use (another's production) without crediting the source". While you may have not plagiarized in the academic sense of the word, you never provided sources of your material.

Orest suggests that I do the following:

"Maybe you should head on over to: www.ukrainians.ca, www.muzon.com, ftp.uar.net, ftp.ifra.net. These internet sites have massive archives of Ukrainian music available for download for FREE. I'm sure a few rights are being violated like copyright infringements, illegal distribution, unlawful storage..."


If the laws on IP and such had any teeth in this country, I would have done so long ago. However, this is not the case, but if Orest was aware of these sites then why had I never seen a post on his blog related to these issues. Problems are not resolved without open public discussion as well as discussion in which those involved at all levels participate in order to arrive at a solution.

The problem in the industry in Ukraine is that most musicians have their own agendas, if they are signed to a label, it usually mirror's the agenda of the label, whether they are aware of it or not.

The industry in fact is very anti-Ukrainian, as are radio stations and TV stations, when it comes to Ukrainian music. To them Ukrainian for the most part is that what they consider Ukrainian, music that they can label and ghettoize! Nonetheless, music flourishes in this country, with some bands better than other, some with a following and others without, and this they manage to do in a country that is completely lawless. But until, musicians here in this country start to work together in tackling infringement upon their intellectual property Ukraine will still be in the backwaters for years to come. But one way I see this happening is leading by example, the fact that Orest took material from band's websites with little complaint from them, is that they are not of the mindset to think about intellectual property, they are artists for the most part, and few even think of their music and creativity as a business.

The issue of putting Ukrainian culture in a ghetto is a topic I touched on in April of 2007 in my posts: The will of the people and Getting back on track..."They ask us, if we have a culture".

Now that Orest has more time to sit down and have an Obolon as he has closed down his blog, thanks to me, maybe it will provide him the time to have it settle in: there are many things we do that are thankless and under appreciated. Unfortunately, he reacted the way he did, but that was his personal choice!

Nothing like plagiarism... and IP rights ignored

Plagiarism seems to be a disease that is inherent here in Ukraine, and not even just here! Now before all you Ukrainophiles, jump down my throat for being anti-Ukrainian let me continue.

Have you ever been on the Kyiv metro? For those of you who have, you have most likely seen the advertisements for term papers, theses and the like! And you can purchase all of these for a price. Sure similar services have sprung up worldwide since the advent of the WWW created by Tim Berners Lee, but the wide extent that this exists not only in Ukraine's capital, but throughout the country, can only lead to the degradation of society as a whole.

Those who follow Ukrainian politics can surely remember the case of Volodymyr Lytvyn, who had completely plagiarized an article originally by Thomas Carothers published in the 1998 Winter edition of Foreign Policy.

The plagiarism by public officials clearly erodes public trust in them, but what does that have to do with the music industry in Ukraine, readers may ask. It has everything to do with it, as well as those who purportedly provide insight to the industry.

Over a year ago I was listening to one of the local Kyiv radio stations, and it was not long before I heard at least three songs that were clearly ripped off melodies. One of these was a song by Scriabin, in which the very catchy melody of Peter Gabriel's Games without Frontiers simply mixed into the song, and their were others, but that is one that stuck in my head.

Though this is not the only instance that touches on the realm of intellectual property. A number of years ago my friend Myroslav Levytsky, noted that a film which had been produced simply used his compositions as part of a soundtrack to a documentary film. Recently, a TV show aired on Tonis on the green tourism used the music of another musician and group I know well, and while they don't exist any more, they still hold the rights to the material and should be compensated for its use. In neither of these cases was there reference to the music, the composer or band which holds the copyright. Surprisingly enough, one of the productions was done in the west, by our diaspora. However, there was a case of a young film maker from New York who about a year and a half ago asked me to speak to Foma of Mandry to use a 15 second piece of one of their songs. Foma, agreed after I told him of the subject matter, the song, and how much would be used, including mention in the credits at the end. How civilized and professional for a change!

Now back to the material that caught my eye! But before I continue I must digress. Back in 1999 when I arrived in Ukraine, I would frequent a place called the Cowboy Club on Passage in downtown Kyiv. Currently, this same locale houses Dockers ABC.

There I got to know the members of a band called Unity. The lead vocalist was a woman named Gaytana. There were many nights that I sat with the band after their sets and often left at the crack of dawn. Time passed and the Cowboy Club shut down. Later I would run into Gaytana at Art Club 44 on Jazz nights on Sundays. Over the years we became friends, and in the spring of 2003 or 2004, after not seeing her for a long time, I had been cast for video shoot for Marija Burmaka's song Dity Sontsya which Marika, and kindly gifted to Gaytana. Unfortunately, Eddy Klym of Lavina Music's ego somehow nixed the video, even though have earlier agreed with the concept and took an hour or two out of his busy schedule to bring his daughter down for the shoot on the banks of the Dnipro River, early on an April Saturday morning. It was cut down from a creative piece, to a piece concentrating on T&A, primarily those of Gaytana.

So it would come as no surprise to you dear readers, that when I saw the blog entry Gaitana (Part I) on Ukrainian Musical Matters it caught my eye.

As I read the material, and as an information specialist/librarian by training and knowing the style of writing of many publications in Kyiv having worked in journalism here, I wasn't so concerned about the material, but as to its source. Clearly, Orest at Ukrainian Musical Matters didn't have lunch with Gaytana at the Soho Steak House. So as I went through the article I was waiting for some type of citation. I found none! So here it is! The material was originally published in What's On a Kyiv-based publication.

So Orest, please explain to us all your position of ethics, IP rights and the rest! After our last little foray into the politics of language, and you clarifying to me who you are, I am starting to think that maybe plagiarism is genetic. Though it could have been simply an honest mistake!