This week I uncovered that three different people were plagiarising the showreels page of my website. None of the individuals took responsibility for their actions. It’s been a fascinating insight into the murky world of plagiarists and how they operate. Last year a similar thing happened, and I contacted the company privately. This year, I decided to publicly name the people who steal content.
First up was a guy called Marcus, who was offering cheap showreels on Gumtree using the precise language from my website. When I accused him, he immediately removed the adverts, although unfortunately was unable to take any accountability.
Even though the advert clearly showed him offering reels for £100 using entirely my wording, he said:
“You said you saw a add on gumtree that has your writing on the site? I’m not in the showreel making business however I am a client or customer that it is interested in your services.”
Nonsense. And just in case that didn’t fly, he followed up with the excuse of being hacked.
“I have had some issues in the past my account being hacked on gumtree and people claiming to be me.”
Next up was a guy up North, who again, entirely plagiarised my words entirely. Here’s how similar they were – my content on the left, theirs on the right.
Luckily he immediately took responsibility.
“You have claimed that I have personally plagiarised your work, this is incorrect, the person who did the website was a student, I have went into the website and delete these paragraphs as you can now see. I’d appreciate it if this article was removed.”
Okay maybe he didn’t accept responsibility. It is claimed that the entire wording of his own production company’s website was written by a student.
He then went on what seemed to be a bizarre attack, turning the issue from plagiarism into the notion that I am anti-competition.
“If this is a competitor thing, we are currently based in the north of England and moving abroad in the summer.”
He then went on a bizarre rant, perhaps fearing the legal implications of his copyright infringement.
“I shall drop out of the showreels from scratch market. After all this is what you want isn’t it? One less competitor out there. I shall delete the page off my website and no longer offer this service.”
I explained it’s not about competition. It’s about plagiarism. I actually love having competition in this industry, it keeps me on my toes and keeps me continually learning and improving.
The third guy not only stole my content, but also the structure and wording of my pricing.
Regarding plagiarising, Steve explained that the wording on his website is written not by anyone at his company, but people on Fiverr.
“I had the content written by a 3rd party and can see that they and NOT me plagiarised your content.”
And then, bizarrely, tried to turn the tables around.
“As for posting on Twitter that I copied your content, is a lie and slanderous and I will be taking legal advice as to my next steps.”
I’m not sure how that legal advice would go. Here’s my fictionalised version.
STEVE: “Hello, somebody on Twitter claims I have plagiarised his work.”
LAWYER: “Did you?”
STEVE: “Yes.”
LAWYER: “Can he prove it?”
STEVE: “Yes.”
LAWYER: “Okay.”
STEVE: “Did he slander me?”
LAWYER: “No, he named you as the guy who plagiarised him.”
STEVE: “But my production company didn’t plagiarise anyone. It was a 16 year old we hired for $5 on Fiver! How can I be responsible!”
LAWYER: “What?”
STEVE: “Never mind.”
In summary, here is what happened according to the accused.
Nobody stole my content. One guy had his Gumtree account hacked, assumably by a criminal desperate to get into the showreel business. Then a company up North allowed their entire website’s content to be written by a student (who they lost contact with). Then another company were outdone by a kid on Fiverr, who not only wrote content for them but decided the structure of their showreel offers and how they produce them.
In many ways I can understand the mindset their excuses come from. I initially named them on my blog, and being known as a plagiarist can wreck a career. To admit responsibility to me, they sensed, would make them more open to being sued than to claim it was hackers or random people on the internet.
On the other hand, I can’t understand it at all. I love writing. The idea of farming out the words on my site to a stranger seems bizarre. And allowing some dude on Fiverr to decide how I would operate my showreel business; from cost to structure, seems unfathomable.
It’s been an interesting ride. Now back to filmmaking.
