My statement concerning the alleged plagiarism of Yuri Lotman

9/4/2013

Viimastel nädalatel on mind -- ja mitte ainult mind -- pommitatud kirjadega Lõuna-Koreast. Kuna täna tuli kaks kirja juba ka Tartu linna volikogu aadressile, otsustasin, et nüüd piisab, ja avalikustan alljärgnevaga oma seisukoha, mis on vormistatud kirjana kampaania eestvedajale Hwang Uiwonile.

Dear Hwang Uiwon,

During the last weeks I have received a number of letters to different addresses from you and other persons sharing your views. These e-mails were sent to my inbox, to my colleagues, relatives, as well as Tartu City Council, my university and even Estonian newspapers. Your letter has been published as a comment also in my home page, and if I understood you correctly, it was not even posted by you. These letters urge me to get involved in the academic process of South Korea. However, your last e-mails reveal that there is also a political background to this matter. At the same time I would like to let you know that I have received an e-mail from Prof. Jungkwon Chin as well, where he explained the situation from his standpoint. I, in turn, contacted Prof. Soo-Hwan Kim, whom I consider the best specialist in Korea in the given field.

After giving this matter careful consideration, I have reached the following decisions:
1. Although the thesis contains some substantial problems and has flaws in referring, I do not see any reason to get involved in the South Korean academic process and I prefer to leave this question to decide to the university of Prof. Chin.
2. I see even less reasons to intervene South Korean political debate and to confuse the academic argumentation with the political one.

I would like to add here another matter that saddens me. The semiotic heritage of my father, Yuri Lotman has not just aesthetical, but also important ethical implications. It requires constant mutual respect and understanding between different people and cultures. The debate that has arisen lately in South Korea over his name, is in strong contradiction with his teaching.

With best regards,
Mihhail Lotman

UPD 09/11/2013. Above is my final statement. I would appreciate CSI (or other "persons of interest") not sending me any more e-mails or comments.

25 Comments

cms

9/9/2013 10:47:51 pm

You are absolutely right.
You don't need to intervene on a pointless thing.

but, please attention to me for only a short time

For example

A Thief stealed your father's treasure.

1. This is stealing from Right point of veiw
2. This is not stealing from Left point of veiw

Both are wong!
It's clear stealing regardless of Right, Left
Stealing other's thing is obvious thieving.

you said 'I don't want to intervene political issue of South korea'

but this plagiarism issue is not poltical issue

Stealing other's sentence without quoation mark(" ") is clear thieving regardless Right, Left, and Political problem

If you send to Seoul University verification request mali,
It's not political intervention.

but It's reasonable request because of the fact that Prof. Chin stealed your father's many sentences.

Please don't close your shining eyes about this situation.

I believe your wise heart.

fuckjin

9/10/2013 01:38:01 am

plz punish copy man
copy copy very bad
he stealed ur father's book
very bad man

true

9/10/2013 11:00:09 pm

Dear Mihhail Lotman.

I am honored to introduce myself to you. My name is Hwang Uiwon, the executive director of 'Center for Scientific Integrity'(CSI) in Korea.

CSI's mission is to build up research ethics by examining scientific integrity such as plagiarism of a thesis. We are quite similar to 'politplag.de' of Germany and 'Retraction Watch' of US.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2013/02/10/pauls-berlin-minister-resigns.html

http://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2012/08/03/interview-with-ivan-oransky-of-retraction-watch/

Moreover, we try to examine the research misconducts including both dissertations and journal articles. We also focus on the plagiarism of professors and intellectuals.

I am writing to you to talk about Yuri Lotman, your relative's book 'The Structure of Art Texts'. It is related to a serious plagiarism issue which happened recently in Korea.

We strongly believe that the bereaved of Yuri Lotman has to achive the right of this. It is extremely important for both the honor of Yuri Lotman, and the research ethics in Korea.

For detailed information of this case, please refer to the following articles. They have been covered by 'Media Watch' and we translated them into Russian for your convenience. Please refer to the attached files.

Professor Jin accused of plagiarism (Korean Version)
http://www.mediawatch.kr/news/article.html?no=241004

"Professor Jin accused of plagiarism " (Russian Version)
http://www.skepticalleft.com/bbs/tb.php/01_main_square/106620

This should not be discounted just because this happened 21 years ago. Professor Jin has been employed by one university thanks to this master thesis. Many Koreans think that he is a great aesthetician. As indicated in the article, there have been victims of his plagiarism after year 2000. Apart from the two people mentioned in the article, there are at least five victims, who quotated Yuri Lotman's thoughts and sentences after mistaking as they belonged to professor Jin.

Surprisingly, Jin is still denying his plagiarism. Seoul University, which gave Jin the degree, is also refusing to go through the examination. By the time many newspapers and a TV news covered this story, they claim that all the research misconducts which happened before 2006 are not the objects of exmanination.
Without the author's confession or the official judgment by the university, this case is normally forgotten in Korea. The clear evidence is only the second proplem.

This issue can only be solved after you take an action. Therefore, we would like to politely recommend you the following procedure.

Please send an email to Seoul University, mentioning that you have been reported by CSI ad read the translated articles. Also, please add your inquiry that you want Seoul University to clearly investigate the truth. We would be glad if you send us the same email.

It will be impossible to expect Jin to confess his plagiarism. But Seoul University is different. Since it is the best university in Korea, they are quite concerned that they might have a bad reputation as the university which encourages reasearch misconducts. Once you inform them about this case and request for an official investigation, they will never be able to get away from this.

Recently, Seoul University immediately started an investigation regarding the plagiarism of one of its professors. One professor in the department of politics has plagiarized the thesis of Yale University's professor. The investigation began right after the professor of Yale asked for the investigation. Please refer to the English article below:

SNU professor resigns over plagiarism in first such case
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/national/2013/03/07/96/0302000000AEN20130307009200315F.HTML

I think this is extremely important for the friendship between Russia and Korea. Although we have different languages, I am sure we can communicate through an integrity. Please help us so that we can the culture of integrity can be settled in Korea, just like in Russia.

Thank you very much for your support in advance and looking forward to hearing from you.

Best Regards,
Hwang Uiwon

Email address of CSI :
skepticalleft@gmail.com

Email address of Seoul University CRI :
ori@snu.ac.kr

True link

9/11/2013 02:31:32 pm

The 1st email to Mihhail from Skepticalleft

http://www.skepticalleft.com/bbs/board.php?bo_table=01_main_square&wr_id=106769

Love

9/10/2013 11:02:33 pm

Dear Mihhail Lotman,

First of all, I would like to apologize for the trouble caused at your blog. We were really surprised to see that even our email to you was open there.

http://www.lotman.ee/1/post/2013/08/ilukirjanduse-lugemise-kasulikkusest.html#comments

I am sure that you were surprised too. The debate regarding professor Jin has already become a complex political issue. The 'fact' does not seem to be important any more. People seem to care more about the 'ideology'.

Still, we strongly believe that this needs to be solved for the academic integrity and the honor of Yuri Lotman. For us, it has already been a great honor to contact you.

We have read your following article from your blog. We translated it into English using a Google Translater. Please check whether the translation is correct.

(1) Estonian

Ootamatu pööre: skandaal Lõuna-Korea akadeemilises maailmas. Selgus, et tuntud publitsist ja arvamusliider, professor Jung-Kwon Chin, kasutades asjaolu, et Koreas oskavad vähesed vene keelt, plagieeris oma väitekirjas jõhkralt minu isa kahte tööd. Õigupoolest polevat tema töös üldse midagi peale plagieeritud kohtade.
Asja muudavad eriti naljakaks kaks asjaolu.
1. Prof. Jung-Kwon Chin spetsialiseerib eetika valdkonnas;
2. Tema väitekirja on omakorda tsiteeritud ja ka mitte eriti korrektselt.
Niisiis, kirjandust on kasulik lugeda, võõrkeeli osata on ka hea, aga esitada loetut oma teose pähe ei ole ei hea ega kasulik.

(2) English

It turned out that the well-known journalist and social commentator,
Professor Chin Jung-kwon,
using the fact that very few know how to speak Russian in Korea,
blatant plagiarism in his thesis work on two of my father.
In fact, his work has disappeared anything besides plagiarized places
Bringing more fun especially with two of two factors.
1 Prof. Chin Jung-kwon a specialized field of ethics;
2 His thesis is, in turn, quoted, and also not very accurately.
So, it is useful to read the literature,
a foreign language to master is also good,
but the material read to his work, his head is neither good nor useful.

I am not sure the translation is correct. We believe that you would like to check whether professor Jin is an expert in the field of aesthetics or philosophy. Am I right?

I would like to suggest you this. It is quite difficult for us to communicate in Estonian or Russian. So why don't we bring English-fluent friend for each side? I don't think Google will get the job done.

As I am communicating with you in English, please contact someone in your university whose major is English. And please ask him for help.

Regarding the evidence, please let me know the detailed information in English. We promise to send them to your ASAP.

Thank you very much for your support and I hope to keep in touch with you.

Love link

9/11/2013 01:26:29 am

Email address of CSI :
skepticalleft@gmail.com

Email address of Seoul University CRI :
ori@snu.ac.kr

Love link

9/11/2013 02:34:53 pm

The 2nd email to Mihhail Lotman from Skepticalleft

http://www.skepticalleft.com/bbs/board.php?bo_table=01_main_square&wr_id=106770

Energy

9/10/2013 11:05:28 pm

Dear Mihhail Lotman,

I am glad that two things have been revealed throughout this issue.

First, there is “some substantial problem”(In my opinion, the fact that his thesis is not an original study is a very serious problem) and “flaw of referring”(This is more like a plagiarism) in JoongKwon Jin's thesis.

Second, Seoul University is not investigating the academic integrity of Jin's thesis, due to a vague inside policy.

Just by revealing these truths to the bereaved of Yuri Lotman, professor Jin and Seoul University must be feeling guilty.

Now, I would like to mention three reasons why we think Seoul University must reveal more truths regarding the flaws in Jin's thesis.

First, it is for the honor of Yuri Lotman and the crisis of trust in academic field.

Yuri Lotman's sentences and ideas started to belong to Jin all of a sudden and this was enough to damage the honor of Yuri Lotman. Not only this damaged the honor of Yuri Lotman, but it also created a crisis in one academic field. As I mentioned earlier, more victims are arising who cited Jin's thesis. Apart from the people mentioned in the current articles, there are two more victims. Jin's thesis was referred in the thesis written in 2004 and 2005. Unless we confirm that Jin's thesis is plagiarism, this tragedy may continue. Please keep in mind that the crisis of the academic field and the damage against Yuri Lotman's honor is happening right now. This is why we request you once again, to take an action.

Second, we are concerned about the transperancy and honesty of Korean academic society, especially Seoul University.

As you can find from the attached article, Seoul University has recently decided not to verify the thesis written before 2006. Although it is an inside policy, this is totally nonsense. Let's say someone has been employed as a professor of Tartu University, for writing a thesis at Seoul University in 2005. What if there is a gross plagiarism and Tartu University requests an official investigation to Seoul University? In this case, can Seoul University respond "Sorry. We don't care about those theses written before 2006"? This is a shame to the nation of Korea. Jin's plagiarism scandal must become a turning point in solving the wrong tradition and irrationality in the academic field of Korea. Internationally, it is a common sense that there should not be a time limit in revealing the truth.

Third, it is about the social justice.

As introduced in the first article regarding Jin, Jin was heavily involved in attacking the research misconduct of one politician last year. That politician had to leave his party after all. This is a typical hypocrisy. Jin is an intellectual, not a politician. He is supposed to be more ethical than a politician. And he ruined one politician's career by imposing a research ethics which he did not keep himself. This is why many Koreans, including young students were angry about Jin and sent you a number of emails. They want to set the social justice for hypocrisy. If this is a political issue, please keep in mind that it is not about right or left. This is all about 'What goes around comes around'.

About professor SooHwan Kim you mentioned, I believe that he has been introducing Yuri Lotman to Koreans without any problem regarding research ethics. However, I would like to emphasize the fact that professor Kim is a alumnus of Jin, who graduated from Seoul University as well. In Korea, cronism is even more serious problem than ideology.

You told me that you heard from Jin as well. Would you mind if I request you to explain me about the substance? Frankly speaking, I am quite afraid that Jin may have told you tons of lies about this issue. Professor Kim is not a kind of person who would tell a lie. But Jin is different. Just by reading his thesis, we can easily imagine what kind of persoin he actually is. He has been criticized by medias due to his lies. He even got a criminal punishment for slandering someone else by telling lies. Outside Korea, I have never seen anyone like Jin who can be so influential after telling tons of lies. Unfortunately, he is still an influential intellectual due to the flaws of reputation-system in Korean society.

We believe that you have reached your conclusion after listening to us, professor Kim, and Jin. We know that it will not be easy for you to change your mind. Still, I wanted to tell you that there is a long story regarding the background of this issue.

We are also deeply sorry that this issue has arisen with the name of Yuri Lotman. But I believe that the background of respect or understanding is an 'integrity' after all. This is something Jin and his followers do not possess. That's why I am fighting against them.

What we hope for is revealing all the truths. We also wish that Seoul University starts the investigation on Jin's thesis, and you are the only one who can ask them to do it.

With regards,
Hwang, Uiwon

p.s :

Energy link

9/11/2013 01:19:15 am

p.s :

Please feel free to let Jin or professor Kim know about our emails. You will need the cross-checking in order to make a judgement. We are ready to respond to any question you ask. In English, we will be able to provide you with all the documents we have examined and searched.

Energy link

9/11/2013 02:28:02 pm

A letter sent to Mihhail Lotman from Skepticalleft

http://www.skepticalleft.com/bbs/board.php?bo_table=01_main_square&wr_id=106771

Energy

9/11/2013 01:29:26 am

Email address of CSI :
skepticalleft@gmail.com

Paavo

9/11/2013 10:29:54 am

Loen kommentaare ja itsitan endamisi - kui ei oleks päriselt, siis ega välja ei mõtleks.

cms

9/11/2013 02:42:41 pm

To Mihhail Lotman

Bomb email is not sent by Skepticalleft

It's sent to you and them by korean students

I want that you don't misunderstand

Good luck to you

한국새끼들아

9/11/2013 07:06:08 pm

로트만이 싫다니까 악플 그만 남겨
Don't reply Korean because Lotman hate you.

real Korean

9/11/2013 10:31:53 pm

Most of South Korean also hate them who replied to here. They are known as symbol of dirty insects in S.Korea. (them = ilbe-choong)

Mihhail Lotman

9/12/2013 02:34:58 am

Dear friends,
I definitely do not hate anyone in Korea. The only thing I am asking: please show some respect for yourselves too.

Korean 1

9/12/2013 02:50:23 am

Oh, We don't think that insects is Korean... They are just suit. They are like KICK ASS!!!!
But I'm sorry to this problem instead them... Please Cheer up...

1111

9/11/2013 11:24:07 pm

세상에 진짜 이런 쪽팔린 짓들좀 하지마라 아..

kang

9/12/2013 08:28:12 am

Thank you for your statement. After the case of Guttenberg in Germany the accusation of plagiarism has become a popular method to attack a political opponent also in South Korea. Since Prof. Chin is a well known personality(and perhaps one of the most hated intellecual by some people) in the korean society, it has been quite an issue, Prof. Chin and the CSI telling each of their own stories. Both of them were saying that they had contacted you, but other Koreans didn't know what you really thought about the matter, because Prof. Chin and the CSI were telling varied stories. Now I see your standpoint in your own words and it helps me to have my own view of this issue.

Your posting and comments by other people were posted in some korean internet forums and private blogs, twitters, etc, that's how I came to this blog. We were surprised to know what an annoying occurence our own debate had caused you and other people there in Estonia. We feel sorry for that, even ashamed. Well, the comments in Korean language above don't mean any harm, they are telling the others to stop disturbing you...hope they work. There are a lot of people who want to apologize for what happened, but they don't, for in this case even mails and comments saying sorry could cause another inconvenience. We hope the CSI would lose their interest in you soon, for you're saying clearly that you don't want to get involved any more.

I thank you again for this posting. It helps us to realize how pointless the whole debate was. The academic standard is an important matter, there's no doubt about it, but people shoudn't misuse it for other purposes.

Sheen-Mok

9/12/2013 02:43:33 pm

Dear Mihhail Lotman,

I would first introduce me to you. I am a computer science area researcher in South Korea. I've got a doctoral degree from KAIST(Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Techcnology). Actually, I am not accustomed to the plagiarism issues related with humanity or society sciences. However, I believe the plagiarism issues are common in the whole area of research and it is not so difficult to recognize other researchers' papers' plagiarism even if they have very different research area. I also recognized that Prof. Chin's research has very significant problem on this issue. It is so clear that anyone who can read articles can identify. Therefore, I want to emphasize that this thing is not just political thing, but also academic issue. It is because if this issue is not revealed, many of the young researchers in Korea can imitate the Prof. Chin's way because he is a public man who can lead opinions.. It could harm many academic areas of Korea and it also can influence other areas or other nations.
I also understand that you are very hesitating because you are a public person and don't want to intervene on political issue. However, I don't think that this is not only political issue. This can be academic issue and you can be the contributor for this issue too much academically if you have attention to this. Thank you for reading my opinion.

Sincerely yours,
Sheen-Mok Lee

Mihhail Lotman

9/14/2013 10:27:55 pm

Dear Sheen-Mok Lee,

I by no means want to underestimate the problems related to plagiarism. Yet you as a person who is active in scientific research certainly know there are no scholarly problems that can be solved by relying on other people's opinions. A responsible assessment should rest on the study of a source. Regrettably I do not know the Korean language and therefore I do not have a necessary qualification for it. Therefore I cannot have my own opinion. In such cases it makes sense to turn to someone, whose opinion I could trust. And that I did. As I understood, this is not the case of plagiarism, that is, intentional deception of a reader by presenting foreign ideas as one's own, but incorrections in citing. If someone was in turn misled by these sections, it is a shared responsibility, because when we intend to cite someone's study, we have to understand first, what has been said and what is the author's intention. Especially it applies to humanities.

Now a question: Why is it me who has to deal with this alleged case of plagiarism? Is it because the plagiarized author is my father, who left me his copyright? I have to admit that many of those who wrote to me do not quite understand the essence of plagiarism and call it thievery:

Thief stealed your father's treasure...
plz punish copy man <...> he stealed ur father's book (see above)

Copyright and intellectual property is a specific sphere, where the logic of ordinary property does not apply. For example, when my father leaves me his copyright, it does not mean that from now on my name should stand on his books. Several e-mails from Korea stated that Chin stole my father's book. I really doubt it. Several books were stolen from my father's library, but it is highly improbable that Professor Chin was among those thieves. Plagiarism is a far more complicated and complex phenomenon and theft is not a good analogy. We could offer some other analogies like corruption in politics or doping in sports. In other words, the essence of plagiarism is rather to use dishonest means to achieve success, although such definition is also very vague, since the notion of intellectual property is constantly changing. But it is also varies from culture to culture and I am not completely sure that the Korean standards are the same as those of the EU. I feel greatest respect for the Korean culture and I am convinced that you can find the solution to this problem without any foreign intervention.

With best regards,
Mihhail Lotman

P.S. Perhaps you noticed the symbol of copyleft in my blog. It should be an indication to the fact that I am not too sensitive about the cases, where my interests in the sphere of intellectual property have been allegedly violated.

cms

9/14/2013 11:39:00 pm

Dear Mihhail Lotman

Please let me say to you shortly

If someone that you know plagiarised prof. Kim soo hwan's sentences

but he say 'I didn't plagiarise'

So you mail to prof Kim soo hwan

Prof.Kim say ' I am not completely sure that the Estonia standards are the same as those of the EU.

I feel greatest respect for the Estoian culture and I am convinced that you can find the solution to this problem without any foreign intervention'

Mihhail Lotman,
Korean standards are the same as those of the EU

Korean standards are the same as those of the international standards

Korean universities have scholastic
exchanges with universities all over the world

How can korean use different standards?

Dear Mihhail Lotman
If you request verification to Seoul university,

It is so easy but it make acceleate korean academic more honestier

and I think It is your reasonable right

cms

9/15/2013 12:15:35 am

You can think the case EU's standards are even more stricter than korean standards

because academic history

korean standards's hirtory is shorter than 100years

If korean standards catch prof. Chin's plagiarism,
Of course, EU's standards will catch more prof. Chin's plagiarism

Chang Lee

9/30/2013 01:08:29 am

Dear Professor Mihhail Lotman

I am very ashamed of this situation as a Korean. Please, forgive our very bad behavior. Moreover, I appreciate your considerate kindness of this strange situation.

FYI, the committee in many universities has been judging that there have been not a problem left-winger' plagiarism which CSI raised. If you check this link (http://147.47.106.109/pdf/Cho_Kuk_investigation.pdf), you could understand how CSI is odd. This link is a decision from UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, SCHOOL OF LAW about one famous left-winger's PhD degree which CSI raised.

Please, receive this situation as a trivial thing or fun in your life.

Best wishes

Chang Lee

Cms

9/30/2013 01:20:53 am

He is a influential person because of plagiarised JSD in South Korea

Prof, Cho-kuk that His JSD is not plagiarism

because attatched memorandum informs prof, Cho-kuk's JSD is clear

I think that This is just prof, John Yoo's proposal.

This is not verification result of school of law University of california at Berkeley.

Do you know that John Yoo informs to Dean of student, Annik Hershen by that Memorandum ?

How can prof, Cho-kuk know that details of the that Memorandum ?

I understand that Memorandum is inner document

So, I suspect relationship between John Yoo and Cho-kuk

Prof, Cho-kuk plagiarisd significant numbers in his JSD

If you see that plagiarism files, you can recognize these at once.

That Memorandum was not sent to CSI and David (plagiarism informant)

But that Memorandum was sent to prof, Cho-kuk, only

That Memorandum must be sent to CSI, David and Cho-kuk.

Did Annik Hershen, Dean of student say formally that prof, Cho-kuk's JSD is not plagiarism?

If not, please verificate Cho-kuk's JSD prescriptively

and please investigate about Jonh Yoo and Cho-kuk

I think plagiarism is theft

My statement concerning the alleged plagiarism of Yuri Lotman

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