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January 06, 2004

retroCRUSH ripped off

RetroCRUSH is a pop culture website run my my friend Robert Berry.

On November 20, 2003, Robert wrote a humorous article called The Worst Sex Scenes Ever: A Look At The Most Unsexy Sex Scenes".

On December 30, 2003, his article was stolen by the UK Tabloid The Daily Star. Robert writes,

"The UK tabloid 'The Daily Star' printed the same feature, with the same movies I used (even failing to omit a joke entry for the film Deliverance that I also included in my feature). Instead of crediting my site, however, they credited a seemingly fictitious American magazine named FILM. Not only did they highlight the films I mentioned, but they lifted three separate quotes from my article and attributed them to FILM magazine readers who responded to a (apparently non-existent) poll."

It was subsequently syndicated to at least 30 other news organizations without crediting Robert, who is the author of the story.

Robert recounts his conversation with Kieran Saunders, the News Editor at the tabloid:

"He said, 'Well, if it's on the internet it's up for grabs. You can't copyright anything on the internet.' I told him that was untrue and he then refused to speak with me further, and said all future communication needed to be sent to their legal contact, Steven Bacon in London. I even tried to call back an hour later to speak with the actual author of the piece, Emily Rose, and Saunders answered the phone, stating, 'I told you never to call here again, speak to our legal group' before ending the call."

Robert is looking for a copyright attorney who is interested in handling this slam-dunk case. His contact info is at RetroCRUSH.

Posted by wil at January 6, 2004 08:56 AM

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Listed below are links to weblogs that reference retroCRUSH ripped off:

» If it's on the Internet, it's free from maps and legends - craig pfeifer
Wil notes that RetroCrush content has been pillaged by a for-profit, syndicated UK tabloid. Picked up by MeFi as well. This is bound to start a blogger shitstorm. One issue is that this is international infringement. I bet the US and UK have instrument... [Read More]

Tracked on January 6, 2004 09:51 AM

» You Cannot Copyright on the Net from DaveDorm
In the stupidest piece of litigation I have ever seen, a British tabloid, The Daily Star, ripped off their article on the worst sex scenes ever from retroCRUSH, a US blogger. The article was later syndicated to over 30 news... [Read More]

Tracked on January 6, 2004 11:36 AM

» Uk Newspaper stealing articles from Writer. Bowler. Revolutionary.
Verbatim from Wil Wheaton RetroCRUSH is a pop culture website run my my friend Robert Berry. On November 20, 2003, Robert wrote a humorous article called The Worst Sex Scenes Ever: A Look At The Most Unsexy Sex Scenes". On... [Read More]

Tracked on January 8, 2004 06:59 AM