Son Amugae (42), who was controversial after receiving five literary awards by copying a whole other’s novel, even stolen OhmyNews photos and won (Encouragement Prize) in the contest.
In October 2020, at the’with Corona 19 in Seongbuk’ photo contest hosted by Seongbuk-gu Office in Seoul, Son won the Encouragement Award with a photo titled’The 56th Infantry Division’s soldiers engaged in quarantine work at Gilsangsa Temple’. By the way, the photo is from OhmyNews’ March 4, 2020 article <[오마이포토] 소독약 뿌리는 장병, 스님은 잠시 대기중> (http://omn.kr/1n6cl).
The first picture below is a picture stolen by Mr. Son, and the second picture is the original OhmyNews. If you look closely, the OhmyNews copyright notice (credits) at the bottom of the photo was subtly cut to make it look like a photo you took.
 Compared to the photo and the original, the OhmyNews copyright mark below was subtly cut.” class=”photo_boder” /> |
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| ▲ If you compare it with the original photo and the original image that was stolen by Son Amugae and won the contest, the OhmyNews copyright mark below was subtly cut. | |
| Ⓒ Seongbuk-gu Office website |
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| ▲ Monk Gil Sang-sa watching the quarantine work of military personnel Soldiers of the 56th Infantry Division under the Metropolitan Defense Command and officials from the Seongbuk-gu Health Center carried out quarantine work in Gilsangsa, Seongbuk-gu, on the morning of March 4, 2020 according to the “Corona 19” civil-government-gun joint defense plan for religious facilities. A monk waits for the quarantine work to be finished while a soldier sprays disinfectant in front of Geuknakjeon. | |
| Ⓒ Kwon Woo-seong |
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According to an official letter sent by Seongbuk-gu Office on the 18th in response to the request for confirmation, Son submitted three photos, including the one above, saying that it was a photo he took before the contest, all of which were OhmyNews photos. All three pages used a method of cutting off the copyright logo mark (watermark).
In this exhibition, it is announced that “in case of disputes such as portrait rights, copyright, defamation of the submitted work, all responsibility lies with the entrant, and if such facts are revealed even after winning the prize, the award of the work will be canceled and the prize money will be returned.” Son’s award for encouragement will be canceled and 100,000 won will be redeemed.
Son is suspected of having plagiarized or stolen texts and photos in various literary awards and competitions. In response, Mr. Son said on the 19th <오마이뉴스>He said in an interview with “I needed money, so I ended up stealing someone else’s with a bad heart. I want to apologize for the wrongdoing to those who suffered damage because of me.” (Related article:’Plagiarism’ Literary Award Mr. Son “I need money, steal…. I don’t know why Lee Ji-kyung became” http://omn.kr/1rrl1)
Seongbuk-gu Office said, “Son himself admitted to the theft of the photo. We are in the process of’pre-announcement’ to cancel the award. We will cancel the award and collect the prize money.”