E-Ladies: Navigating the Wired World
Chapter 207: Episode 207: Plagiarism Cannot Be Avoided on Any Platform

Chapter 207: Episode 207: Plagiarism Cannot Be Avoided on Any Platform

Internet operations, no matter what, cannot avoid one thing, that is, internet plagiarism, unauthorized reproduction, even if the content reproduction is explicitly prohibited, there are still those envious accounts that simply take the content as it is.

There’s no need to even think about it, makeup tutorials are definitely a hotbed!

Since the makeup account had been handed over to Song Yantong, who had professionally studied makeup, to manage, her professional makeup skills and tips elevated the account’s quality by more than one notch.

Moreover, since Song Yantong herself was very good at Photoshop and had a knack for layout, every piece of content she turned out was top-notch, consistently at the top of the repost rankings.

Since it was premium content, the covetous eyes were certainly not few; there were a few accounts that almost targeted the makeup account specifically, snatching away the pictures and copy as soon as something was posted.

"S... why don’t you just add a full-image watermark, as long as it doesn’t affect reading the text, these people are getting too rampant..." Zhou Xueyin, looking at the screenshots sent by Lee Ji-nyeo, was on the verge of tears.

"Adding it might not even work, as they would copy it exactly... and it’s probably, they are using a program that instantly rerips our content as soon as we post it," Song Yantong shrugged her shoulders.

She used to manage Weibo operations for another company, but it was a bit far from home, and her boss always gave her trouble, so she resigned.

She happened to be a friend of Guo Yu and was then referred for work here.

Right off the bat, she made the popular account even more explosive, prompting Zhou Xueyin, quite surreptitiously, to decide to double her salary upon official hiring.

"Since they don’t feel ashamed, then let them take it, just add to the images and copy: ’If you want to learn more makeup techniques, remember to follow the ’Learn Makeup with Me’ account.’" Zhou Xueyin said indignantly, "If they don’t feel ashamed, then why should we worry? Let them promote us for free, isn’t that great?"

"Exactly, put our account watermark on the pictures, and include some guiding words in the copy, unless they bother to Photoshop everything!" Lee Ji-nyeo chimed in.

"There’s no other way, given it’s an open network world, anyone can just take anyone’s content, not caring about copyright at all," Song Yantong said helplessly.

"Ah! How can this be! Isn’t this like the guilty party filing the suit first?" Bai Ying suddenly screamed from somewhere.

"Yingying? What happened?" Everyone gathered around her.

"It’s just, this picture, I found it on an external site, and now another account is complaining, saying I copied her picture?" Bai Ying said angrily, "Everyone uses the same site for resources, is that necessary? Just because I have more reposts, they file complaints against me?"

"Don’t be upset, don’t be upset, what are the comments saying?" Zhou Xueyin consoled Bai Ying.

But consoling aside, they still needed to understand the context of the issue.

Zhou Xueyin opened the comments, and abusive words flooded in like a tide...

They were all centered around accusing Bai Ying of copying from another account, but completely disregarding the fact that the two had posted a day apart. If anyone was to be accused of copying, it should be the other party copying Bai Ying.

"This is clearly that account’s troll army... just delete them all..." Zhou Xueyin waved it off nonchalantly.

"Sister Yinyin, I dare not delete it. If I delete this, more water armies will come later, and if they really target this account, wouldn’t all my efforts over the last half a month have been in vain..." Bai Ying was so anxious she was nearly in tears.

"Don’t worry, don’t worry. Weibo really doesn’t have enough features; you can’t even block comments from non-followers! If this were a forum, you could just close the comments, and there would be no problem. Let’s leave the issue of plagiarism for the platform to judge. From now on, we’ll just find another platform to post content..." There was no other choice but to proceed this way in resignation.

Now, Zhou Xueyin could only guarantee that the text was original; she couldn’t guarantee the originality of images since they were all sourced from foreign websites. There was certainly a possibility of repetition, as aesthetics within the industry didn’t vary much.

"Switch to another platform... I’ll try..." Bai Ying said hesitantly.

Zhou Xueyin was aware of the difficulties in sourcing content, but now it was more convenient than before; at least no one needed to go out and scout on the streets. Everyone could easily handle a week’s content by sitting in the office.

Therefore, she would never compromise when it came to work attitude...

The Weibo platform was quite fair, and didn’t accuse Bai Ying of plagiarism, otherwise, she would have been banned from posting for 5 days.

How many days would it take to recover from the traffic loss of those 5 days?

Thank goodness the platform was wise; otherwise, the account would have been beyond saving... Zhou Xueyin thought luckily.

The domestic environment for original content was not optimistic. On one hand, you had to keep an eye on others not copying your work, and on the other hand, you had to avoid clashing with someone else’s content. Trying to do honest work was indeed difficult.

After ending a day’s struggle and returning home, Wei Jingzhu had already finished his classes and was back home: "Dear Yinyin, how was your day? Tired?"

"No, did you take the wrong medicine today? Why are you so attentive?" Zhou Xueyin looked at him suspiciously.

Since everyone had settled down, they gradually moved out of the house in Zhongguancun, of course, taking their cat with them.

Now, in this two-bedroom apartment, only Zhou Xueyin, Wei Jingzhu, and their Holstein cat Kuro were left.

"No... no, aren’t I always like this? Just today, my homework wasn’t hard, so I had some time to chat with you." Wei Jingzhu was massaging Zhou Xueyin’s shoulders and back.

"Right, the thing you were going to tell me about Zhongonline being up for sale again, I forgot to ask later. What happened?" Zhou Xueyin just remembered this piece of gossip.

"I heard it from Xinyu, he said that CBIS’s contract has expired, and they’re not planning to renew. They just pulled out their investments and left. And since Zhongonline hasn’t gone public yet, they are looking for a listed company to back them up, but it’s not yet decided which one..." Wei Jingzhu recalled.

"Oh... let them be, whoever they find doesn’t matter to me! Heard that 51buy is also on the verge of dissolving? Stupid cows! Barely over a year and they’ve managed to ruin their site? Impressive indeed!" Zhou Xueyin said mockingly.

"Don’t even mention it; it’s all because of Zhao Caiyun’s mess. Initially, your clients all disliked the idiot. After that incident, they all terminated their contracts. With his abilities and eloquence, he couldn’t bring in new orders anyway; so why wait to shut down?" Wei Jingzhu said contemptuously.

"Good! It’s good they’re shutting down! I’ve also heard those clients complaining, and they’ve even come to me asking for help in managing their Weibos. But our own account hasn’t even picked up yet; how dare we manage theirs..." Zhou Xueyin thought, lacking confidence.

"Just secure the spot! You aren’t up and running yet, but take their money first! Besides, content management isn’t something that needs to be filled up in a day or two; it takes time. If asked, say it’s the content filling stage! Once your account picks up, you can start driving traffic for clients, it will still be on time!"