Recently, I accepted an invite to “link in” with a gentleman named Amlan Basu, who describes himself as a director and screenplay writer from the Master Screenplay Writers Academy out of Maharashtra, India. I then noticed that Mr. Basu was posting about ten screenwriting-related articles a day, most of which were informative, instructive and laden with screenwriting and filmmaking advice. I immediately thought two things; one-this guy seems to really know quite a bit about the craft and industry of screenwriting, even though I’ve never heard of him before, and two- he’s prolific in his article writing.
I reviewed as many of the articles as I could- and there were about fifty at this point, in a very short period of time- when I came across one that read very familiar to me. While checking it out, I realized this “article” was a word-for-word plagiarized writing of a blog article I had written years before. I then began checking each and every article that he posted and claimed to have been written by him. At no point in any of these articles was there a disclaimer indicating that the article was “reprinted from”, or “reprinted with permission from”, or credited in any way to the original source, or the original writer. Many of the articles were stolen from the blogs of Ken Miyamoto and off the Screencraft website, but the articles were plagiarized from all over the screenwriting world, going as far back as 2010.
This is not the first time I’ve encountered and uncovered plagiarism in the screenwriting world. A few years ago, I discovered that a self-described screenwriting “guru” had posted a blog article written by another (published)screenwriter, and attempted to pass it off as his own. While highly questionable, we can’t prove it was anything other than a one time mistake. I also exposed a couple of screenwriting job newsletters who claimed certain jobs as ones that they had recruited, to the point that they wanted their clients to respond to the ads stating that they found the post through their newsletter. It was discovered that they were actually cutting and pasting from a number of different FREE sources, then selling this information through their newsletter(s).
Mr. Basu, however, takes plagiarism to a whole different level.
I reached out to Mr. Basu and informed him that I was aware that he had plagiarized my own blog article and reposted it- without crediting me- and ordered it removed immediately. I also informed him that I had checked all of his other “articles” and that he needed to immediately remove any and all postings on LinkedIn Pulse and everywhere else that he copies from other sources without providing the original source material proper credit. We’re not talking an aggregate site that accumulates screenwriting articles re-posts them on a different site, with author credit. We’re talking a straight line, cut-and-paste job.
Amlan Basu of “Master Screenplay Writers Academy
Mr. Basu responded, indicated that he would “consider removing the articles”. The next day, all but three of his first articles were removed, but then, he added two more posted Pulse articles. A quick and easy check of these articles revealed that they were compiled, word-for-word, from various Quora responses by screenwriters in a question posed on one of their forum discussions. You’ll notice, from his “article”, the advice he provides sounds very disjointed and random- and that’s because it is. It comes from several different people over several different months. It’s still all stolen words and concepts.
I reached out to Mr. Basu once again, and he responded by telling me “You can do it what you want. May I have taken some lines from Quora but my own views also there.”
He added “I have a credit of several full length script and I am teaching the screenplay writing successfully!!!!”
Ironically, in advertising his screenwriting master academy, he refers to himself as the “yardstick of originality and excellence”. This couldn’t be further from the truth, but I suppose when someone calling himself a screenwriter and director is plagiarizing original written material from other writers, it’s not a stretch to think that they’d make fraudulent advertising claims as well.
Further irony, in checking his Twitter account, on March 13th, he tweeted “Plagiariism (sic) is the malpractice for writer”– misspelling and all.
You can’t make this stuff up, folks.
His Master Screenplay Writers Academy (MSWA) blog can be found at mswainfo.blogspot.in. It has dozens upon dozens of screenwriting articles, none of which are credited to the original source. If you or someone you know writes a lot of screenwriting articles or advice columns on screenwriting, you might suggest to them to peruse this website and see if their written articles are being stolen and passed off as someone else’s work.
More than likely, they’re not even aware of it.
UPDATE: When last checked, Mr. Basu removed all but two posts, adding a third that was obviously his original article. One look at this article- less than 100 words, and clearly obvious that English is his second language- you’ll know immediately that it is more than likely original to him. We are pleased that Mr. Basu saw the error in his ways in attempting to pass of other writer’s hard work as his own and instead has decided to do the right thing and write original material. We will be keeping an eye on his posts to make sure he stays on this track.
thescriptmentor 