Publication Ratel has filed a legal claim against the portal Orda for plagiarism. The court ruled that Ratel's copyright had been infringed. Orda must now pay Ratel 3.69 million tenge for using content without referencing the source.
As reported by the Shishkin_like channel, in May the publication Ratel (Ratel Media LLP) filed claims against two media portals for using material without the editor's permission and publishing it without links or attribution.
One of the media portals unconditionally admitted guilt and compensated the damages to Ratel's editorial team in a pre-trial settlement, while the second portal - Orda (OrdaMediakz LLP) refused to pay compensation and acknowledge the fact of borrowing another's material.
Consequently, Ratel Media LLP took the matter to court, seeking to recover compensation from OrdaMediakz LLP for the violation of exclusive copyright. As a result, the Inter-district Economic Court of Almaty ordered Orda's management to pay the publication Ratel a sum of 1,000 MCI (3.69 million tenge).
It is reported that the court's verdict has not yet entered into legal force, and OrdaMediakz LLP has the right to appeal it.
It is worth noting that this is not the first time the media has accused the Orda portal of plagiarism. As the Shishkin_like channel emphasised, journalists often prefer to resolve copyright infringement issues without going to court.
However, it seems that reaching an amicable agreement with the management of the Orda portal is not always possible. The editor-in-chief of the Shishkin_like channel, Dmitry Shishkin, himself recently faced a similar situation.
In November 2023, Shishkin stated that the Orda portal had copied an article with his original translation from him without citing the source, passing it off as their own publication. The offended editor-in-chief of Orda, Gulnar Bazhkenova, filed a lawsuit against him for defamation and protection of honour and dignity.
During the court proceedings, it emerged that the Orda portal had not for the first time borrowed materials from various media outlets and authors without permission, as a result of which the court dismissed Ms Bazhkenova's claim.
The editorial board of the FBRC sincerely hopes that disputes over copyright protection in the media community will eventually cease. We urge colleagues to treat each other's work with respect, and in case of misunderstandings, to resolve all matters amicably.