Yuumei's Art-Theft Conclusion?

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253421's avatar
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I don't think so.

At 9:50am Pacific Time, Scholastic finally gave what they thought to be an conclusion. Here is what they wrote:

It has been brought to our attention, and we have confirmed, that a high school student submitted to The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards a painting that she now acknowledges was copied from another artist, Wenqing Yan. The student has apologized to the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, and her National Gold Medal and American Visions Award have been revoked. She is no longer considered a Scholastic Award winner. The work will not appear in our publications and the painting was removed from our online galleries. Contrary to information posted online by commenters on various sites, this student received no monetary prize from our program.

Plagiarism is antithetical to the core values of The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, and as an organization, we take a tough stand on plagiarism. We work closely with parents and teachers to help students understand the ethical and legal implications of plagiarism. Because of the number of submissions we receive, it is impossible for us to absolutely verify the originality of each entry, but we consider this to have been an isolated episode. Students who submit to the awards are required to sign a consent form that confirms the originality of their work. In addition, our guidelines clearly state that "[by] applying to The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, each student undertakes to (a) present original work that (i) has been created by her or himself and (ii) does not infringe upon the intellectual property rights of any other individual or entity…" We share our fans' concern over this matter and take such issues very seriously. The student is well aware of the seriousness of this issue and has expressed her deep regret.

We encourage concerned observers to remember that the student involved has acknowledged that she has made a mistake, and to think about the effects that statements posted online may have. We also encourage parents to talk to their children about cyber-bullying and to read available resources on safe social networking on the Federal Trade Commission's website at www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consu….

We will shortly be announcing another student who will be honored with the American Visions Award for 2010.

Thank you.


Ok, so that was it right? This is done
Um, not it's not.
There was just a tiny problem. They had failed to include the fact that they had not only ignore yuumei when she emailed them almost a month ago, without involving anyone in this matter. Yet, after only 2 days of publicity, they gave us this?

Don't get me wrong, I am not trying to brew a new shitstorm against Kasey Bowman. In fact, I was not really concerned about her in the first place. Bowman is just one of the many children who had lost their way in the faces of fame. However, the fact that scholastic had just tried to ignore the problem and continue to support Bowman until the incident started receiving publicity really bothered me. They're letting these people get away with stealing art, even when this whole situation could have been solved without all the "cyber-bullying" that was happening if only they acted sooner. Now they're acting concerned about her "emotional wellbeing"? How sincere is that?

This "conclusion" they gave is not fair, for both yuumei and Bowman, because who was the blame pushed onto? Bowman and the fans who "cyber-bullied" her (although I have to say some people were taking it too far, the fact that scholastic tried to counter-attack the fans was not very nice). The message they left did not contain an ounce of apology from the org. about their lack of responsibility and sympathy. Let's hope that one day, Alliance for Young Artists & Writers will realize that the people on the internet are not dumb enough to fall for their bs conclusion.
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Dragan67's avatar
This is exactly the kind of shit I've been on about in my other postings on the subject. The biggest abusers of 'intellectual property' laws are the wealthy and their Corporations, and the very second they think they can shove their own dirt under the rug, they're hard at work doing just that (Scholastic, above). This is what happens when a legal entity is created around a group of people whose sole reason for congregating is in the service of profiteering. An entirely amoral system is created. The basic message of 'intellectual property' in it's currently wealth-twisted jurisprudence goes like this, 'Any work-for-hire bought and paid for with our money is sacrosanct; However, we reserve the right to steal anything from you we might want to, due to the fact that in most cases we know that you will have neither the will nor the resources to fight us.'

Until such time as human rights (artist's rights, in this case) are the issue instead of corporate profitability, 'intellectual property' is simply buying into the discourse under the terms set by the oppressors.