When I blogged about Openworld, I decided not to mention one presentation at the time. I attended Murali Vallath’s “Oracle Parallel Query Feature in a RAC environment” on Sunday afternoon. I almost didn’t because I know the subject pretty well, but I thought I might learn something or see a new angle I could blog about.
When the first few slides were displayed I thought ‘Mmm, that looks familiar, but there are only so many ways you can explain the same things’. Then there was a lull of a few RAC-related slides but my annoyance grew over time as I started to recognise more and more slides from one of my own presentations. I don’t recall being asked if he might borrow some of my material. Then he described Direct Path Reads as reads into the LRU end of the buffer cache. Clearly, this man has spent a lot of time playing around with PX! By the time I’d sat through 45 minutes of this and then saw a subtley modified version of another of my slides, I decided to leave. Perhaps I should have said something, but I wanted to collect my thoughts rather than react instantly.
I was pretty annoyed but, when I discussed it with one or two others they suggested that I should handle it carefully. On the one hand, I understand their position because it wouldn’t do for me to look like a hot-head, would it? On the other, why should *I* tread carefully? I haven’t stolen someone else’s work. Surely values are being turned upside down here?
Then I discussed it with a few others and I don’t think this is the first time that Vallath has passed off the work of other people as his own. Which is quite suprising from a member of the Editorial board of Select magazine and the Chair of the IOUG RAC SIG.
Anyway, I could write at some length on this subject and I would hope that the directors of the IOUG would take a position on plagiarism but I doubt it somehow. You can decide for yourself. I faked an email address and asked Murali for a copy of his slides (he neglected to submit them to the Openworld site). Here’s a link to his slides and mine. I suppose he could take legal action to make me remove the slides from this website, but I suspect that might be a little tricky. Can you fight for copyright protection on something you stole from someone else?
He probably only copied 90% of one of my 45 minute presentations to fill about 40% of his 90 minute presentation. Mmmmm… That would be why it felt like he’d borrowed 80 or 90% when I left at half-time. Well, I thought I’d check it over myself and here’s a spreadsheet with my thoughts. Slide 45 is particularly entertaining 😉 but I also enjoyed the way he has faked results from V$PQ_TQSTAT queries but hasn’t the intelligence to make the results consistent with the query. LOL ….
The punchline? He’s presenting “Exploiting Oracle Parallel Query Features in a RAC Environment” at UKOUG at 15:40 tomorrow. That should be interesting. I’ve sent a link to this blog to Murali and I await his response with interest.
Have you asked him about this directly? Could his country of origin have something to do with the view of IP ownership? (No aspersions here, just an observation on a possible cultural or even legal difference).
Have you asked him about this directly?
No, just as he didn’t ask me directly if he could lift those slides. Really, he might have got further if he had.
On your other points, I tend to agree with Howard’s comments below. On top of that, I have subsequently heard that this is not the first incident, so any misunderstanding should have been cleared up long ago.
Woah. Not Good. If he knew how much blood, sweat and tears, family time, etc, goes in every slide…
Shame.
Good luck with your presentation today 🙂
😎
I suspect some people told you to go careful not out of an inverted sense of values but because publicly declaring someone is a plagiarist is defamatory.
Of course, truth is a defence to such a charge, and in this case it would certainly look like a goodly proportion of your work has turned up without attribution or acknowledgement and presented as all his own work.
I think the fact that much of it has undergone minor but subtle alteration means this isn’t a cultural difference: someone who was truly culturally oblivious to the wrong would simply have swiped the material and regurgitated it verbatim. Modifying it here and there to disguise its origins speaks of a guilty conscience, however, and thus total awareness of the legal and cultural implications.
Well, it will be interesting to see how this turns out. Says something about the IOUG, I think, if it welcomes plagiarists on its board…
I suspect some people told you to go careful not out of an inverted sense of values …
I think you’re right and I do appreciate people have my best interests at heart. It’s just a shame that I should have to take any care in telling the truth.
Modifying it here and there to disguise its origins speaks of a guilty conscience, however, and thus total awareness of the legal and cultural implications.
That’s what I find most distasteful. I’m really not that bothered about a few slides that I’m unlikely to use again anyway, but the subtle (and incorrect) modifications smack of dishonesty. As does the complete lack of any credit being given.
The slide notes on slide 62 pretty much shatter any defence of either “not plagiarism” or “innocent mistake”
I think it’s slide 61.
Thanks for that though. What an idiot I am – I didn’t even think to look at the notes view by opening it in Powerpoint for edit. Even the notes on the slides are the same as mine.
Howard/all – just wanted to point out that Murali is not a member of the IOUG Board of Directors. He is actively involved in both the RAC SIG and in SELECT. He does have to comply with our copyright statements in terms of participation in SELECT and also when he presents on behalf of IOUG (we have speaker guidelines that state the content must be that of the presenter).
That said without knowing all the details we will make sure to look into this further.
Carol McGury
IOUG Executive Director
Carol,
Thanks for the useful clarification and your commitment to look into this further. As a long-time supporter of User Groups, I think it’s important that their integrity is maintained.
Cheers,
Doug
Its shocking 🙁
I am new to this RAC stuff and have been searching for some books on the subject. Now I wonder how he might have written his book 🙁
Doug: Do go through that book…who knows you find more stuff there 😉
Sidhu
Can somebody please video the presentation tomorrow? Rather than evidence, I just want to see the fisty-cuffs that ensue. My bets on you Doug.
Oops, apologies, maybe an inappropriate time for humour… but it was a boring drive home tonight 🙂
CM.
Now, now Chris, you’ve met me, so you know I don’t have a temper
LOL
Hi Doug
Yes I did attend one of your presentations several years back and yes you are my initial trend setter with this particular topic. while going through your slides the queries are generic and are against standard v$ views and that is what I had borrowed. I did mention your presentation and my start of research was from you during the presentation at OOW. I did not in any means try to copy any of it with the intention that they are my own.
If that was the impression I am really sorry and aplogize for this. I hope I could meet with you in person at UKOUG and discuss this.
Murali,
If this is all you are prepared to admit to …
while going through your slides the queries are generic and are against standard v$ views and that is what I had borrowed.
Then frankly, we don’t have much to talk about. Your reading of the situation reveals what I can only describe as very fragile ethics, as Howard more ably points out in the comment below.
I have a feeling we wouldn’t get on too well. Oh, and flattery will get you nowhere
yes you are my initial trend setter with this particular topic.
I would rather you had the decency to ask first. Why wouldn’t you unless your intention was to deceive?
In any case, you’ve had fair warning now so as the presentation slot today is 30 minutes less than the one given in San Francisco, I’m sure you can just remove my slides.
Hi Doug
While I have written about parallel processing in my first book Oracle 9i RAC, published in 2003. It is true that your presentation and blogs have been the motivator for me to study this further.
Agree,the one slide in specific (slide 61) and several others you mention, I did copy for syntax purposes and the notes just remind not getting deleted.
I absolutely agree, I should have made the references in black and white in the presentation and not just merely mention it during the presentation.
ooops. big words plagiarism .. what can I do to correct this?
I intend to apologize for this in any manner possible..
Once again sorry and apologize once again
Murali,
Stop trying to obfuscate the issue here. This is not about copying a couple of examples. Look at the slides on wait events. Not an example in sight – you just copied my words, bullet points, punctuation, weird capitalisation etc, etc. If you don’t have your own words to say, why are you presenting? What’s the point?
Why didn’t you put a single reference to where the slides came from? That wouldn’t have been difficult. You certainly spent a lot of time coming up with prettier pictures.
Frankly, I’m not interested in your apology either. What I want is for you to stop using slides from my or other people’s presentations. It’s that simple.
The fact you don’t find your behaviour inexcusible says everything I need to know about you. If it was me I’d want to crawl under a rock and never come out again.
As I said in the original blog, I’ll let people judge for themselves.
Now unfortunately I must leave this thread because I need to go and finish my presentation. Putting these things together takes a lot of time and effort, although I suppose that’s dependent on what approach you take.
ooops. big words plagiarism .. what can I do to correct this?
I can’t speak for Doug, but if it was me, I’d start by not compounding your egregious theft of material by prefacing your half-baked apology with “oooops” as if it was some minor, trivial accident.
You’re half-right though. Plagiarism is a big, ugly word because intellectual property theft is a big, ugly thing. Getting the sense yet of what exactly it is that you’ve done?
How do you go about correcting this? Again, speaking personally, I’d like to see you resign the chair of the RAC SIG and your position from the editorial board of Select. I’d also like to see you withdraw yourself from today’s presentation: it can only be excruciatingly embarrassing for you now, anyway.
And I’d like to see you then craft a carefully-worded, sincere acknowledgement of your misconduct on this occasion and post it on OTN, your blog and this blog, as part of a firm undertaking that you will never, ever “borrow” anyone’s material without asking permission *first*; and a similar firm undertaking that you will in future always prominently acknowledge the contributions of others to ‘your’ work when permission to borrow has been granted; and that such acknowledgements will form a written part of the presentation or editorial material itself, not mere verbal acknowledgement to people who happen to be passing.
But that’s just what I’d want. I thing Doug’s suggestion was a bit pithier: hide and don’t come back out.
Come off it Murali.
You very clearly did copy many of the slides, otherwise how would the word “DOUG” ever have gotten into the *notes* to the slides?
If you “borrow” something, as you now acknowledge you did, it is professional courtesy to (a) seek permission first (otherwise it’s theft) and (b) acknowledge the borrowing (otherwise it’s plagiarism). You did neither.
As for “they are standard V$ views”, that doesn’t explain why you couldn’t run your own queries against them and thus ensure that the results you display match up with the query you purport to have issued. The fact that in at least one case the results don’t tally with the query means you merely edited Doug’s work to make it look like a result you’d obtained. That’s not merely an honest mistake. That’s just not honest, period.
No-one, I think, is going to be fooled by your protestations of oversight and misunderstanding. It’s disgraceful plagiarism, pure and simple.
talk about being caught with your hand in the cookie jar! but then to deny it. lol
Murali has been accused of stealing before, and much in his RAC book was lifted from the work of others. If you look at his latest book you will see your parallel content reproduced as shown as his own work.
You should sue Apress. Check http://www.copyscape.com and you will see.
If you look at his latest book you will see your parallel content reproduced as shown as his own work.
Thanks for the tip. Which book are you referring to?
Murali,
>> that is what I had borrowed.
And published in your books too. You also borrowed Madhu Tumma work in your RAC book I hear.
Do you plan to share royalties with the real authors?
Doug can get your books pulled from the stores at your expense.
“I’d like to see you resign the chair of the RAC SIG and your position from the editorial board of Select.”
The IOUG rules require that he resigns.
Apress dows not like copiers either, and he has copied mugh from others and represented it as his own work.
Look closely, and see copied text from others in all his books:
http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&search-type=ss&index=books&field-author=Murali%20Vallath&page=1
In United States, permisison is not required for “fair use” copying, but full attribution is required.
Apress has some cash for you Doug, seek and ye shall find. Also use http://www.turnitin.com for more evidence.
There may be many others with claims too.
IOUG is just a political arm of TUSC anyway, I bet they do nothing, or likely promote him.
Maybe Murali should consider a name change to Milli Vanilli
What a tosser; I hope a suitable settlement is reached. And if your material really is good enough to be published under Murali Vallath’s name, perhaps you should consider a supplementary career as an author?
Keep up the good work; don’t let the bastard(s) get you down.
Regards Nigel
PS say hello to Graham Wood from me… very long time (10 years or more) no see
PS say hello to Graham Wood from me… very long time (10 years or more) no see
I will if I see him! I enjoyed his presentation today … more on that later
It is kind of ironic that his slides have a copyrigth notice.
I know that Murali has also stolen material from Stephan Haisley (and been confronted about it).
So he’s just a fake and a liar. Hollow. Out with him.
Mogens
>>So he’s just a fake and a liar. Hollow. Out with him.
Can’t believe this. who is calling who a liar. what a funny world!
Oh man, this guy is so busted! Judging for myself, directed verdict for the complainant.
Sad.
Total agreement with Howard here.
Must be some cultural thing about lying liars who lie in North Carolina, then. 🙂
(Good one, JamesLast!)
I’ve been following this thread and think it is in bad taste.
Doug, plagarism is a bad thing. However, I wish you would have contacted Murali directly and addressed it. I think its in bad taste to drag someone’s name through the mud on the Internet space (innocent or guilty). Why are people so mean on the Internet? We’re all human beings and can treat each other better.
For additional comments:
1) The comment thread is making negative comments and insinuations about the IOUG and TUSC. I have known both groups for a long time and have found the IOUG leaders and TUSC people to be very professional and of high integrity.
2) I have not looked at the slides of the presentations to know the depth of the issue. I do find dragging someone’s (anyone’s) name through the mud is in bad taste. Reading how these comments are progressing I can see how witch burnings occurred in history.
3) The Oracle user community is an awesome community. Let’s treat others with the respect every one deserves. Let Doug and Murali address it between themselves. I do think Murali needs to address this issue in more detail. If a mistake was made, make the appropriate apology to the user community.
4) I don’t like how the comments are getting uglier and referencing other groups and companies that had no role in these slides or presentations.
Let’s treat each other with respect and dignity. Let’s avoid the mud slinging.
I’ve been following this thread and think it is in bad taste.
I’m not sure whether you think the original blog is in bad taste or the subsequent comments? I may not agree with every comment here, but everyone is entitled to their opinion, including you. That’s what’s good about public debate.
However, I wish you would have contacted Murali directly and addressed it.
I wish Murali would have contacted me before he decided to use my material. Because, the truth is, I wouldn’t have cared very much. But he modified it so that it looked like his own and, having seen him present it, presented it as his own. Now, in and of itself, that might be deemed a minor misdemeanour, depending on your outlook, but I’m entitled to my own outlook too, aren’t I? You don’t have to agree with it. More to the point (and I am going to have to start emphasising this), the turning point in my deciding to blog about this is that I found out that Murali had done something similar before, had been confronted about it on a personal level, denied it and then it was proven. Now, if he’s done it once and doesn’t get the message, maybe publicising such activities might help him understand that people won’t accept this?
In other words, it wasn’t just about Murali and me, it was about a serial offender.
If a mistake was made, make the appropriate apology to the user community.
Do your analysis and you will see this is categorically not ‘a mistake’ but someone subtley altering material so that it looks like their own and not sending a simple email request to ask they could do so. If you think that’s acceptable, then I would question your moral judgements as you appear to be questioning others. If someone keeps making the same ‘mistake’, aren’t your prepared to consider that it’s not actually a mistake, but the way they behave?
Let’s treat each other with respect and dignity.
Well, I think we’ve established that Murali does not have a great track record in treating others with respect and dignity. Unless, of course, you feel it’s respectful to steal and misrepresent.
But, like others who I might not agree with, you’re welcome to make your comments here and everyone is able to see them. That’s the way I like it – open dialogue rather than misrepresentation.
Doug,
I commend you for addressing this. However, you could have taken the high road with your approach and responses. This slide copying is being addressed but definitely not with class.
I think I will avoid presentations by you and Murali in the future.
A sad day for the user community.
Jenny,
As I suggested in my reply to Anonymous above, I know that others have tried to address this issue one on one with Murali before. That was the key issue in me deciding that a public approach was best. He can not say it was a simple mistake, because that’s what he has said in the past to others.
Others might disagree, but I think the sad day for a user community is the initial dishonesty.
Guys Couple of things..
First of all there is nothing new (which is not in Oracle Documentation) in Original Presentation. Doug simply rehashed Oracle Documentation with some change in order. So there is nothing very special to steal or copy.
Then secondly, this Murali character is lazy enough to steal that documentation copy. He could produce much better content (than doug’s original) if he reads the documentation. Come on guys, you guys have not produced anything exceptional like Steve Adams or Jonathan Lewis or similar experts.
One guy copied the documentation and the other guy copied from the first guy..Enough Crap….🙁
I wonder why all those above posts which try to justify plagiarism and to downplay Murali’s role in this are made anonymously?
Well, if I would post a comment supporting Murali, I think I would prefer to remain anonymously too. Somehow, the anonymous posters have a point. Staying anonymously, that is. The rest of their message is moot.
It is not a very smart move to support Muralis behavior publicly. If one reveals his/her name supporting him, members of the honest part of our community might get interested in an uncomfortable way in material produced by the supporting poster as well.
‘Juat another DBA’ could save a lot of money by not attending conferences at all, and stick to the documentation.
Isn’t ‘rehashing documentation’ what the vast majority of all the presentations are about? Many people (including myself) cannot find enough time to read all of the docs and play around with the features. It’s really helpful if someone, who works with a topic much more than I do, reads the docs, enriches the contents of the docs with real-life experience (many times correcting the docs!), and presents days of work and years of experience in a compact presentation.
And then I like to learn it from people who share their own experiences, instead of pretending experience by stealing the work of others.
Alas I had to skip UKOUG this year, after 5 consecutive visits. I’m sure I’ll be there next year. There is no such opportunity as a user conference to learn a lot.
Anonymous posters, stay anonymous and live your life together with Murali, under the rock where Murali should be hiding too.
Carel-Jan Engel
PS Doug, I admire (and envy) you for the relaxed way you appear to be able to handle this. Reading all, following the thread closely day by day, my blood pressure was rising. You’re a cool, decent and great man!
He could produce much better content (than doug’s original) if he reads the documentation.
So why didn’t he? If it’s so easy, he could have just done that and none of this would have happened.
are made anonymously?
and using anyonymous proxy servers. Seems like a lot of trouble to go to post your strongly-held views, but each to their own.