Citizen’s journalist borrows my article
By Ria Sharma

I am a great believer in Citizens Journalism as practiced by IBN.  News site mynews also does a great job. Mynews.in describes itself as “a website of the people, by the people and for the people. Every citizen is a reporter/broadcaster for us and can contribute news. You can also participate in debates, forums and polls.”

To their credit, Mynews has a well designed website and has some great stories.

On November 26, I noticed Mynews had published the following story under my byline with substantial changes to the article I had written for Techgoss on Nov 25.

This is the MyNews article.  And by contrast the Techgoss snippet at the end of this article

“
Mynews.in Posted On: 26-Nov-2009 11:32:23
Microsoft intimidates blog
By: Ria Sharma  

Taking initiative to battle against piracy, Microsoft has come up to curb it with the help of American government. The company, which has cash reserves of tens of billions of dollars, and a wonderful pool of talented lawyers  who are capable to turn things in favour of company.

Bountii, an American company, had started to confer services through search engine , which is capable of to tell low shoppers and accurate pricing with any existing price comparison service. It  dominated in electronics and appliances and so covers much of the tech market. The company was founded in the Summer of 2007 by Samir Meghani and John Puskarich, which was received help by  Y Combinator, a venture firm that specializes in funding early stage startups.

 ‘Bing Cashback’ launched by Microsoft offered idea to bestow discounts to consumers who buy online.  The problem with site was some security flaws.

Proclaiming security flaws by  Bountii for  Microsoft Bing Cashback website, Microsoft indicted the lawyers and rather than  fixing the security flaws and thanking Bountii, Microsoft reacted reversly and asked the site to take down the blog post.

The public hadn’t taken it in healthy way as they had to take in court if they tried to cheat Microsoft then they should be taken to court. The expert distinguished it as a play down of powerful company which threats as honest blogger to a company which raised question of security flaws.
“

My news item for Techgoss has now been published in Mynews.in without attributing source.  If you had asked me politely,  I would have given it to you for free because I believe in citizen’s journalism as well.

Techgoss uses news first published on other sites as well.  But it always attributes and links back to the source website.

Mynews, please sack the fake Ria Sharma for taking you for a ride. And Microsoft, if you want to sue, please send a legal notice to both the Ria Sharmas.

(Techgoss had published the following article on Nov 25, 2009)

Microsoft threatens blog
By Ria Sharma

Technology giant Microsoft has cash reserves of tens of billions of dollars.  And a small army of lawyers at its command.  It had the advantage of moving first into the market, great leadership, good products and the American Government’s help in its battle against piracy.

American company Bountii is a price search startup that has built a search engine capable of finding shoppers lower and more accurate prices than any existing price comparison service. It specializes in electronics and appliances and so covers much of the tech market. Bountii was founded in the Summer of 2007 by Samir Meghani and John Puskarich. Initial investment was provided by Y Combinator, a venture firm that specializes in funding early stage startups.

Microsoft USA launched a ‘Bing Cashback’ offer where the idea was to give discounts to consumers who buy online.  Only problem?  The Microsoft ‘Bing Cashback’ site had some security flaws.

While Bountii publicly pointed out the security flaws in this Microsoft Bing Cashback website, Microsoft sent the lawyers in.  Instead of fixing the security flaws and thanking Bountii, Microsoft forced it to take down the blog post.  For good measure, Microsoft even ejected Bountii from the Bing Cashback site.

Not surprisingly, the public is not amused.  If Bountii had tried to cheat Microsoft then they should be taken to court. But their only crime was to point out security flaws. Many internet users perceive this as a big powerful company intimidating an honest blogger.

Bountii has blogged about the Microsoft legal threat and given the reasons why they had to back down.