Plagiarism!

[Rob Zeigler]

Hey all,

I was just reading over some of the links on Frank Granovski's awesome DV tape site and noticed a link on the bottom that said: "and here we have a fellow who copied my tape article!"

If you follow this article, sure enough there's a guy who copied Frank's article word for word and didn't provide any credit to him at all! In fact, he even had the audacity to put "By: Tom" at the end of it.

If there's one thing in the world that I hate the MOST, it's plagiarism.

I was just wondering if anyone else had any glaring examples or stories of plagiarism like this one? I can't believe some people have no appreciation for other people's work. It's like adding a John William's score to your Star Wars fan film and saying "Music Composed by: Tom".

[Imran Zaidi]

Hey, at least Tom didn't put a link at the bottom of his page that says "here we have a fellow who copied MY tape article" with a link to Frank's.

Now THAT would be bad.

[Keith Loh]

Hahahahahahaha

Funny.

I had this thing happen to my company. We have a playerless video streaming technology called Clipstream. It's been around for around three years with the current branding which I created internally. This year, we discovered an Indian firm which came up with a similar Java streaming technology called SNIPstream. And the logo was extremely similar to Clipstream's except turned 90 degrees. I can't say legally that they are copying anything but the similarity was quite striking.

I looked on their website again and they have removed the branding after our cease and desist order, but look, their Privacy Policy is copied directly from our website disclaimer. They didn't even bother changing the name of the company on the privacy policy!

http://www.snipstream.com/Snip/Privacy.asp

Ours: http://www.clipstream.com/legal/disclaimer.shtml

[Rob Zeigler]

Keith,

Now that is just BAD. I mean....geez. They didn't even change the wording, and it even MENTIONS Clipstream at the bottom.

That's just sad! :)

[Christopher C. Murphy]

I've had my stuff ripped off throughout my career a few times - in print as well as whole projects. The worst one was a complete television show concept that included a fully produced pilot, "Your Old Boat" (similar concept of "This Old House"). Anyway, I brought on board a "seasoned" producer (this is when I was only 24 - I'm 31 now and he was 50+ then). That's where the problems started...(never trust anyone in this business until they prove themselves)

Long story short: He fell in love with the whole thing and decided to "push me out" - he wanted to "retire with this great show idea". I got lawyers involved etc - the end result is he stole it and tried to get it going. But, I made it extremely difficult on him...and he failed. I also lost everything and couldn't recover on the project, so it ultimately was a complete loss.

In the end, I fought for my rights...and won. However, sometimes winning the big fight means you lose on the smaller one.

Anyone else have a "ripped off" story? I have more, but this show that got ripped off involved six figure financing that was lost.

Murph

[Frank Granovski]

Hehe. When I discovered this "Tom" copied my little piece and posted it on his site with his name I thought it only fair to include a link to it. :-))

[Dylan Couper]

I had someone make and distribute pirate copies of a local sport video I produced for retail sales. They apparently stopped when word got around that I was looking for them.


It may cost five to six figures to take someone to court over something like a TV show. The general cost of having a "nobody" killed is in the four figure range. I think if it came down to losing a six figure TV show, well, I'll end this post here. :)

[Frank Granovski]

I had someone make and distribute pirate copies of a local sport video I produced for retail sales. They apparently stopped when word got around that I was looking for them.

We are all glad that you are the man to see when we have a problem. :-))

[Rick Bravo]

Hey Murph,

A few years ago, I was actually approached by someone, here in Miami to do exactly the same boat show you are talking about!

I wonder if there is any connection? And, no, I didn't take on the project because it would have taken to long to produce with no immediate income, or any promise of future gains.

Sometimes you just have to be one of the protrusions that emanate from the back of a porcupine and turn people down regardless of all their promises of future rewards!

I wonder if we are talking about the same folks.

RB

[Dylan Couper]

<<<-- Originally posted by Frank Granovski : We are all glade that you are the man to see when we have a problem. :-)) -->>>

As long as you are there to back me up with a good sharp pen! :)

[Frank Granovski]

No problem.

[Christopher C. Murphy]

Dylan and Rick,

Rick, I don't want to say the name of the guy. However, I will say that his first name is John and he lives in Newburyport, MA. He has a production company there and the loser he partnered with was from Europe - his first name is Bruce. (the show was going to be international with downloadable advertiser supported "book/manuals" about how to do the work on your boat for your part of the world - this is when the DotCom and television world were peaking together in a worldwide orgasam....around 1998-99 ish)

Dylan...yeah, six figures to sue on a large show. But, I didn't have that kind of money, so all I did was make sure he would have to spend lots of cash getting it made. In the end, he gave up because he saw that I wasn't going to walk away without a fight. However, little did he know I wasn't in a finacial position to fight in court - I did spend money on 2 seperate lawyers that nailed him with letters. I did a blitz with that, so I scared him...and then a follow up. I basically ran out of money for the lawyers, but they were nice enough to tidy up the mess with a "final" letter that "closed" the issue.

Side note: Something I learned during that situation from the lawyers. Whenever you send a letter from you and your lawyer - always conclude the letter like it's the FINAL letter you will ever send on the matter. (Right before you say that essentially say they are at fault and you are not.)

If they don't respond in writing and you take them to court - those letters are very important because they show that the final word is they are wrong. It's very important to have the final word in writing before getting to court - that's what the lawyers said. Sometimes letters go back and forth for years in certain situations - it's almost about tricking the other into admitting their wrong-doings and then ending it with the final word. In court, it works in your favor and lawyers need it to win.

Just wanted to pass that information along!

Murph