The "Cut, Copy Paste" (CCP) phenomenon

"Cut, Copy, Paste”, perhaps the most musical jingle ever invented for CS/IT branch in particular. Add a dash of typical Indian mindset; you will have a most "made for each other" inseparable combo ever known in world. Still in doubt?? Maybe we can take a closer look.........

The original need for it

The basic requirement for CCP was to overcome the various tedious clerical jobs which required a set language pattern particularly in bureaucratic atmosphere and the application forwarding areas. It was done to make the work less tedious on the person sitting on electronic terminal and reduce the human-prone mistakes done due to repetitive task. Increased productivity was the main target that time. Gradually with the growth of computers in education, technical and mass communication areas, the idea spread as an easy bypass of intellectual labour to the human mindset. People started claiming credit for other person's intellectual effort for reaping gains with least effort. Internet also added more fuel to its widespread abuse with its easy accessibility platform.

The Indian Scenario

Indians have quickly absorbed the CCP phenomenon thanks to our education system and the basic mindset "Most profit with least amount of effort". Even back in the days of "manual xerox" we have a track record of taking references from school's library jotting down dutifully all the details about the material given in reports and assignments. Some even didn't bother to pay author's credit in "Bibliography" section. Some even didn't bother to do that!! Just with the plain copying "word by word" with the "trusty" friend's notebook did the fine job.

Maybe our education system has been culprit. People just don't get motivated because of the lack of interest shown by teachers or lecturers themselves. In most of the cases, the report file is thrown carelessly in archive section and after a short viva; marks are allotted based on candidate’s performance. Here also, in majority of cases, street smart "confident" looking but with no project contribution guy usually gets away with good marks. While the shy introvert but academically sound guy is left with moderate or average marks as he couldn't speak much in group viva where the "smart" guy dominated. Little wonder then why CCP effect is so common in India. It's seen as a "messiah's" gift for average student who is smart enough to get the limelight focused on him (for earning short time fame).

The monetary effect

It's a popular phenomenon to see that CS/IT projects (priced according to content and quality) are freely available online or in small firms where the programmer sells his/her software or project just to initiate and earn money while gathering publicity through the "Word of Mouth" as a bonus. It also gives him to expand his parallel business in the process. As the saying goes, if there is a practicing doctor available in town, there is no shortage of patients. This is also one of the multiplier effects of CCP.

Living with the CCP phenomenon

Although there is much said and criticized about CCP, we can't just ignore its obvious advantages. To know more about a technology or an upcoming issue, we need to read the similar articles, newspaper clippings, commentaries by the pioneers of the said field and their expert views. We need to do intellectual labour a lot before arriving at a specific conclusion. Hence, the required research material needs to be present before us to draft our opinion about the matter with few unique observations (if made) during the process. CCP's importance can't be ruled out here. It would be nice to give due credit to the author work references in the article.

Online article forwarding too many addresses, invitation forwarding, orkut jokes forwarding, New Year greetings, festival greetings are few areas where CCP has also become a necessity. Moreover, sharing resources, files over the LAN and copying also constitute a major chunk of this phenomenon. Requesting everyone to update their phonebooks due to your changed number is also innovatively applied CCP over chat lines,

In academic stream also, innovative use of CCP can reap much benefit to the scholars and lecturers alike. Few hard working students who have made their file presentation really nicely can be showcased as a model structured effort in presentation of project to the upcoming batches for reference. At least, that will encourage the majority to learn the style of nice presentation which is so beneficial in long run. Students should be encouraged to give citations, references wherever possible in their reports/projects. This instills the work ethic in them.

A few tips to protect the original intellectual work

Technical Methods:-

1. Embed a Header / Footer note in your each MS Word document or PPT presentation and secure the document by read - only feature
2. Password protect classified research work. Moreover installing a watermark will also help to disprove an illegal claim
   
3. Run a plagiarism Detection tool to check for any accidentally copied material before paper submission.
4. If an application is to be protected, embed some hidden features (for verification purposes) which are not mentioned in manuals.

Legal Methods

1. Get a copyright mark for your software/application or paper to give maximum protection to your intellectual work
2. Get the document digitally signed by Certifying authority for online theft protection.

With these protection methods, I hope that the hard intellectual work done by a team or person may not go in vain and proper justice can be reclaimed easily. The best prevention would obviously, be educated about your Intellectual Property rights and the vigilance to defend them. CCP is no doubt a very good facilitator to ease our job but in no way must be allowed to abuse the intellectual labour of somebody to reap benefits to nobody.