Meme theft drama: The Oatmeal takes on FunnyJunk

In one of the great battles of Memedom, this one might be remembered as the “War of Attribution.” What happens when a guy who draws a ton of memeworthy comics goes up against a site that aggregates comics just like his without any attribution whatsoever? Drama. That’s what happened when the guy behind The Oatmeal merely asked for a little credit for his work from the site FunnyJunk — after they stole all his content.

Many lulz, no attribution Matthew Inman, the creator of the famous webcomic The Oatmeal has a huge issue with FunnyJunk.com. Users of that site have been taking his comics, removing all forms of attribution, and posting them on the ad-laden site. He’s tried unsuccessfully to get them removed, but they keep showing up. “I realize that trying to police copyright infringement on the internet is like strolling into the Vietnamese jungle circa 1964 and politely asking everyone to use squirt guns,” Inman wrote, but he feels he needs to protect his rights.
Reasonable vs. immature All sorts of problems arose came from Inman just asking for FJ to link to his site — not exactly a huge thing — and the whole mess turned into a giant dramabomb that spread beyond The Oatmeal and FunnyJunk and hit Reddit and Facebook. It’s an interesting copyright battle that takes on some of the touches of YouTube vs. Viacom, except with more uses of anti-gay slurs and meme-talk. Honestly … we’re with Inman. And the guy who runs FunnyJunk is kind of an immature baby who tried to turn his entire userbase on Inman. source

Posted by Justin Jones • 0 Comments • Permalink

In case you need a reminder that plagiarism doesn’t pay, meet Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg. The German defense minister, who is a rising political star in the country and makes our career look like the joke it is, resigned over allegations that he pilfered large parts of his doctoral thesis. “I informed the chancellor in a very friendly conversation that I’m resigning from political offices and requested to be relieved. It’s the most painful step of my life,” he said. He admitted to “grave errors” in the 2007 thesis, but emphasized that he did not plagiarize it. However, this goes against what German media found – scores of pilfered phrases from other documents. The end result? Guttenberg no longer has a doctorate. On the plus side, we’re now on the same playing field as he is. source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

The bad news is that this is probably the final straw for Cooks Source. We have never been a great money-maker even with all the good we do for businesses. Having a black mark wont help … and now, our black mark will become our shroud.
Cooks Source founder Judith Griggs • Admitting the internet campaign against her publication did it in. Griggs, who became infamous for ripping off a writer’s online article and then justifying it by saying that nothing on the Internet is subject to copyright, had few kind words to say to Monica Gaudio, letting out her full rage over the incident in her latest open letter: “If my apology to Monica seemed shallow it was because I was angry about the harm she has inflicted on others on behalf of her own agenda.” The real lesson here, and one that Griggs didn’t admit in her own self-serving letter: Acting unethically will do you in – in the end. source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

The fundamental problem with Kouwe was that when he saw good stories elsewhere, he felt the need to re-report them himself, rather than simply linking to what he had found, as any real blogger would do as a matter of course.
Reuters blogger Felix Salmon (who knows how to rock a pair of glasses) • Nailing the real problem with a lot of mainstream media blogs (but specifically regarding the situation of New York Times plagiarist Zachary Kouwe), which is that they’re link-phobic. Instead of having the guts to link to a story (out of fear of looking like he was behind the story), what Kouwe and other mainstream journalists do is find a story that needs to get on the blog, rewrite it and make it their own. Unfortunately for Kouwe, he left pieces of language from the other stories in his posts. Salmon puts his criticism like so: “If there’s a minor news story on a trustworthy wire service, and you think you need it on the blog, then link to it.” source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

Obviously, it isn’t completely clean but, for me, it doesn’t change my appraisal of the text. I believe it’s part of the concept of the book.
Book critic Volker Weidermann • Regarding the fate of 17-year-old Helene Hegemann’s “Axolotl Roadkill,” a highly-praised German book. The problem with the book? Many passages are apparently plagiarized by another author. However, she claims it wasn’t plagiarism, but a remix of old ideas made new. Despite the controversy brought on by the blogosphere, the Leipzig Book Fair put the book up for a $20,000 prize, knowing about the plagiarism. Kaavya Viswanathan should’ve used that excuse back in 2006. source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink

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02 Jun 2011 13:57