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Article Theft

It seems there is a website out there called BuzzyCode. Naturally it is a software development website and it contains lots of information about how to do certain things in software. All very well and good so far, except for one thing. There is a lot of plagarised work on the site.

A few days ago, the site was discovered by a member of Code Project, and he soon discovered that it contained a lot of ripped off articles that were originally written by people who are members of Code Project. Some members of Code Project managed to speak to (or otherwise communicate with) the people that run the site and it would appear that their story doesn't add up.

Original Real Author Plagarised Copy
PleaseWaitButton ASP.NET Server Control Mike Ellison Stolen
ASP.NET Query control Mike Ellison Stolen
Dynamically Loading a DLL - MC++ Nishant Sivakumar Stolen
Displaying an empty value in a combo box in a C# Windows application using MS Access Johann Lazarus Allegedly Stolen
A Sample Chat Application using Mike Schwarz's AJAX Library K.sundar Allegedly Stolen
Passing an Object between Two .NET Windows Forms Larry1024 Allegedly Stolen
Ye Aulde Application Starter miklovan Allegedly Stolen
Pocket 1945 - A C# .NET CF Shooter Jonas Follesø Allegedly Stolen

Heck they even seem to steal from each other (or perhaps forgot that an article had already been copied and added it under a different author's name). For example: http://www.buzzycode.com/ShowArticles-id_493.aspx and http://www.buzzycode.com/ShowArticles-id_596.aspx are almost identical  - Mostly the formatting is different.

Finally, in a wonderfully ironic twist their website contains an article on reasons to offshore development to India which contains this titbit: "Indians are also known for their honesty and integrity therefore you can be rest assured that all intellectual and other virtual property will not be infringed upon and belong to the original party." Maybe they should have added "except those that set up this website"

More information can be found on Code Project as many threads started up regarding the problem:

Thread Date
BuzzyCode JOTD 16:31 31-Aug-2007
Grumble mumble 07:09 31-Aug-2007
Vasudevan Deepak Kumar 04:47 31-Aug-2007
BuzzyCode = dotnetspider 07:48 30-Aug-2007
Who is BuzzyCode.com ???? 09:39 29-Aug-2007
Hey Nish - Look at this 06:24 29-Aug-2007

(Note: Times are local to Toronto, Canada)

In short, the website in question hardly shows the community spirit it claims to. If they are indeed unaware that they there are a large number of plagarised articles on their site (which is what they claim) and they genuinly want to do something about it by the time they get through deleting the copies I don't think there will be much left.

Print | posted on Saturday, September 01, 2007 10:36 PM

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# re: Article Theft

Hey Colin,

Here's a possibly partial list of articles stolen from my contributions to CP (I've also posted them on your CP thread) :-

Smitha Vijayan's articles that are plagiarized on buzzycode :-

http://www.buzzycode.com/ShowArticles-id_2262.aspx & http://www.buzzycode.com/ShowArticles-id_1542.aspx
copied from
http://www.codeproject.com/csharp/mdiformstutorial.asp
[the last 2 sections "Points of Interest" and "Acknowledgement" were removed]

Nish's articles :-

http://www.buzzycode.com/ShowArticles-id_1307.aspx
from
http://www.codeproject.com/managedcpp/cppcligenerics.asp

http://www.buzzycode.com/ShowArticles-id_1310.aspx
from
http://www.codeproject.com/managedcpp/cppcliintro01.asp

http://www.buzzycode.com/ShowArticles-id_1309.aspx
from
http://www.codeproject.com/managedcpp/cppclioverriding.asp

http://www.buzzycode.com/ShowArticles-id_1308.aspx
from
http://www.codeproject.com/managedcpp/cppcliarrays.asp


http://www.buzzycode.com/ShowArticles-id_1455.aspx
copied from
http://www.codeproject.com/managedcpp/MfcWinFormsOff.asp

http://www.buzzycode.com/ShowArticles-id_1457.aspx
copied from
http://www.codeproject.com/managedcpp/trickbuttonmcpp.asp
[This is a combo article I wrote with Chris Maunder]

http://www.buzzycode.com/ShowArticles-id_1405.aspx
copied from
http://www.codeproject.com/managedcpp/mcppshortcuts.asp

http://www.buzzycode.com/ShowArticles-id_1348.aspx
copied from
http://www.codeproject.com/managedcpp/managedexceptions.asp

http://www.buzzycode.com/ShowArticles-id_1350.aspx
copied from
http://www.codeproject.com/managedcpp/csadoread01.asp

http://www.buzzycode.com/ShowArticles-id_1352.aspx
from
http://www.codeproject.com/managedcpp/csarrays01.asp

http://www.buzzycode.com/ShowArticles-id_1356.aspx
from
http://www.codeproject.com/managedcpp/csdeleg01.asp

http://www.buzzycode.com/ShowArticles-id_1358.aspx
from
http://www.codeproject.com/managedcpp/mcppsingleinst.asp

http://www.buzzycode.com/ShowArticles-id_1367.aspx
copied from
http://www.codeproject.com/managedcpp/mcppserialize.asp

http://www.buzzycode.com/ShowArticles-id_1397.aspx
from
http://www.codeproject.com/managedcpp/cswget01.asp

http://www.buzzycode.com/ShowArticles-id_874.aspx & http://www.buzzycode.com/ShowArticles-id_1548.aspx
copied from
http://www.codeproject.com/csharp/csenums01.asp

http://www.buzzycode.com/ShowArticles-id_887.aspx
copied from
http://www.codeproject.com/csharp/csharpintro01.asp

http://www.buzzycode.com/ShowArticles-id_888.aspx
from
http://www.codeproject.com/csharp/csevents01.asp

http://www.buzzycode.com/ShowArticles-id_1407.aspx
from
http://www.codeproject.com/managedcpp/mcppthreadsync01.asp

http://www.buzzycode.com/ShowArticles-id_1449.aspx
copied from
http://www.codeproject.com/managedcpp/mcppinputbox.asp

http://www.buzzycode.com/ShowArticles-id_1451.aspx
from
http://www.codeproject.com/managedcpp/mcppoutlookgui.asp

http://www.buzzycode.com/ShowArticles-id_1452.aspx
from
http://www.codeproject.com/managedcpp/mcppwinforms02.asp

http://www.buzzycode.com/ShowArticles-id_1453.aspx
from
http://www.codeproject.com/managedcpp/mcppautocombo.asp

http://www.buzzycode.com/ShowArticles-id_1454.aspx
from
http://www.codeproject.com/managedcpp/mcppwinforms01.asp

http://www.buzzycode.com/ShowArticles-id_1311.aspx
from
http://www.codeproject.com/managedcpp/mcppthreads01.asp

9/2/2007 4:08 AM | Nish
Gravatar

# re: Article Theft

Colin,

I have blogged about the 'Website Plagiarism' too. I have tagged in three categories. The URL is:

http://viewsreviews.wordpress.com/2007/09/02/website-plagiarism-next-generation-copyright-infringment-trends/

I have also made my stand clear with respect to Spider group.

Deepak Vasudevan
9/2/2007 4:26 AM | Deepak Vasudevan
Gravatar

# re: Article Theft

Hi,

I am Tony John, representing dotnetspider.com. We have no association with BuzzyCode. However, we do business with Logic Labs, who are accused to have some association with BuzzyCode. I have posted some additional comments in CodeProject thread - http://www.codeproject.com/lounge.asp?select=2209099&df=100&tid=2207100&forumid=1159&msg=2209099

- Tony John
9/2/2007 6:33 AM | Tony John
Gravatar

# re: Article Theft

@Tony John: In my blog post above, I have been careful not to say anything that I don't have evidence for. For example, a number of articles are marked as allegedly stolen because the formatting on BuzzyCode matches the formatting and colour schemes of Code Project (so it is obvious that the original came from CP) but since I've not had confirmation from the author I can't say one way or the other.

It is good however that you've made your position clear because at first glance some people did manage to make an association between your website and BC.

9/2/2007 10:34 AM | Colin Angus Mackay

# re: Article Theft

<<<<<<<<<<<
>>Tony M John wrote (on CP)

>> I have absolutely no relation with the BuzzyCode and I have never
>> seen that site in the past. Today I learnt that it is owned by the
>> same company that do offshore services for me. But unless it affects
>> dotnetspider's reputation or business, I am not going to worry too
>> much about it since it is not directly related to my business
>> relation with Logic Labs.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Hello Tony,

As long as you continue to be associated with a company that has been involving in mass plagiarism, your company will be seen as part of the group too.

In fact a couple of CPians used IM-chat to talk to BuzzyCoode tech support - and the tech support initially introduced himself/herself as DotNetSpider tech-support. So it's clear that the same people are tech-supporting both websites.

Nobody in their right mind will trust a company like Logic Labs - because of what they are doing with Buzzy Code. So by using Logic Labs as your partner in offshore outsourcing, your company and website is losing public trust too and will be seen as part of the fraudsters.

If you were sincere in your comments that you were not aware of buzzycode (which is strange since it's linked to from the Logic Labs web site), then you should immediately detach yourself from that company and also indicate to the public that you were not aware of the illegal activities that Logic Labs has been doing. Until you do that, as far as the public is considered you will be a part of the nexus.
9/2/2007 2:22 PM | Nish
Gravatar

# re: Article Theft

Nish,

I found that Logic Lab's partners are involved in several other business including real estate and resorts. I am advertising their training division (which is a respected institute in Kerala) in one of my websites for no charge. In return, they allow me to have one student at a time study there for free. I use that opportunity to help some poor students.

BuzzyCode does not seem to be a official business of Logic Labs (according to Logic Labs), but it is run by some of the members associated with them.

Do you think it is possible for me to trace all their business before I deal with a business partner ? Even if I try to switch to some other offshore partner, someday someone else is going to find some other problem with them and I will be running all the time.

I did some personal investigation on BuzzyCode. What I understood is, it is a one of a million websites in the world which does steal content in some or other way from other websites, which is obviously not legal. But what I am wondering is, does it really deserve the time of you and other respected CPians ? It is not at all a respected or recognised website. Looks like it got some popularity now !

Colin/Nish,

May I request you to remove my contact information from one of the above comments by Nish ?

Anyone interested to find the contact details of dotnetspider.com can go through the spam filter and find it here - http://who.godaddy.com/WhoIsVerify.aspx?domain=dotnetspider.com&prog_id=godaddy

The USA phone number (XXX XXXX 7601) listed above is not mine any more. That is my old telephone number and the new owner of that number is already tired of answering calls asking for "Tony John" for last several months.

- Tony John
9/4/2007 6:03 PM | Tony John
Gravatar

# re: Article Theft

Tony, I cannot remove the personal details without removing the whole post. I am therefore going to copy the relevant bits that do not pertain to yourself and put them in this comment.

The following was originally posted by Nish:
***********************************

buzzycode.com is registered to

Paul V Joseph (paulj@logicslab.com)

Logic towers,
St.Alberts College Lane,
Banerji Road
Cochin 682 018,
Kerala, India

+91 484 239 3141

logicslab.com is registered to

The Director (logic@logicindia.net)

Logic towers,
St.Alberts College Lane,
Banerji Road
Cochin 682 018,
Kerala, India

Not sure if Paul V Joseph is also the Director
9/5/2007 12:56 PM | Colin Angus Mackay
Gravatar

# re: Article Theft

Don't get mad, get even. http://www.searchtempoblog.com/?p=137
10/17/2007 12:27 PM | John Hacking

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