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Plagiarism for fun and, well, not profit


I've been plagiarized.

"GotalSaiyajin" on TV.com has been stealing my reviews of numerous shows: Lost, Alias, Buffy, Angel, Battlestar Galactica, Dexter, Highlander. Since he's put up a couple of hundred reviews, I haven't even had time to document all of the word thievery. But after some analysis, I can report that he also steals consistently from a reviewer named Samuel Walters at DauntlessMedia. (Why were Sam and I so lucky? Maybe we should be flattered.)

Here is the plagiarist. His profile, which he took down after I started complaining about him a few days ago, said that he's a dental student from Romania. (As I said in my most recent Lost review after that filling killed poor Alvarez, I knew dentistry was evil.) (Okay, dentistry isn't evil. Sorry about that.) The plagiarist's latest blog entry says he was upset because he wanted to copy someone's test paper and that person wouldn't let him and wasn't she mean? Clearly, he sees nothing wrong in stealing someone else's work.

http://www.tv.com/users/GotalSaiyajin/profile.php

Because I've been asked to supply details, here's the nitty gritty. And this was only a few selected pages. There are two hundred reviews in there, and obviously, nearly every review was stolen; I could have spent all day documenting this crap. A few of the earliest reviews, poorly written and full of grammatical errors, might be his own work.

If you'd like to keep up with this situation, I plan to post updates at the bottom -- so feel free to skip the nitty and go down to the end.

I'd also like to thank MovieMark for bringing the whole situation to my attention. I never would have known if it weren't for him.


http://www.tv.com/users/GotalSaiyajin/history.php?pg_user_reviews=0

Alias "The Nemesis"

His review:
Lauren is now free to focus on the Lazarey murder, but she can't tell Vaughn she's doing it. Vaughn knows who killed Lazarey, but he's forced to protect Sydney and lie to Lauren. It's having an effect on their marriage already. And Vaughn gave Sydney a lingering look while he was fastening the X-cam necklace. A romantic implosion must be approaching. We can only hope. Allison is alive, and miraculously healed after six months in a Covenant hospital in Marseilles. Is it me, or does she have too much of an attitude now that she's not pretending to be Francie any more? Too bad Sydney didn't kill her.

Two paragraphs from my review, which is much longer:
http://www.billiedoux.com/alias3x6.html
Lauren is now free to focus on the Lazarey murder, but she can't tell Vaughn she's doing it. Vaughn knows who killed Lazarey, but he's forced to protect Sydney and lie to Lauren. It's having an effect on their marriage already. And Vaughn gave Sydney a lingering look while he was fastening the X-cam necklace. A romantic implosion must be approaching. We can only hope.

Allison is alive, and miraculously healed after six months in a Covenant hospital in Marseilles. Is it me, or does she have too much of an attitude now that she's not pretending to be Francie any more? Too bad Sydney didn't kill her.

-------------------------------

http://www.tv.com/users/GotalSaiyajin/history.php?pg_user_reviews=5

Alias "Cypher"

His review:
Irina continued to manipulate away, and I think she's making progress with Sydney. But she certainly isn't getting anywhere with Jack, at least not yet; whatever Irina was trying to sell Jack with that speech about their marriage, he wasn't buying. I was sorta hoping for more fireworks. Ah, well; the season is young. Vaughn and Will finally met, and Will almost instantly picked up on Vaughn's feelings for Sydney. Will seems to be handling the complete obliteration of his former life with humor and aplomb. He's also bunking with Sydney and Francie; that's a situation fraught with possible peril.

Two paragraphs from my review:
http://www.billiedoux.com/alias2x3.html
Irina continued to manipulate away, and I think she's making progress with Sydney. But she certainly isn't getting anywhere with Jack, at least not yet; whatever Irina was trying to sell Jack with that speech about their marriage, he wasn't buying. I was sorta hoping for more fireworks. Ah, well; the season is young.

Vaughn and Will finally met, and Will almost instantly picked up on Vaughn's feelings for Sydney. Will seems to be handling the complete obliteration of his former life with humor and aplomb. He's also bunking with Sydney and Francie; that's a situation fraught with possible peril.

-------------------------------

http://www.tv.com/users/GotalSaiyajin/history.php?pg_user_reviews=10

Now, this page is a multi-show extravaganza of rip-off.

Angel "City of"

His review:
One of the advantages of a spin-off series is that the actors and writers are already comfortable with their characters. Boreanaz really knows his character by now, and it shows. I couldn't help but notice that Angel seemed a lot more comfortable as a dark hero in L.A. than he did as a teenager's love interest in the sticks. He was definitely able to carry the lead role, and I think they're going to let him stay in touch with his inner monster. I've always rather liked Cordelia, too, and I think her shallow materialism and uninhibited narcissism complements Angel's angst and depression very well. Poor Cordy isn't used to failure, and that was rather endearing. I really enjoyed the scene where she figured out in fairly short order that Russell was a vamp. She didn't grow up in Sunnydale for nothing.

Two paragraphs from my review:
http://www.billiedoux.com/angel1x1.html
One of the advantages of a spin-off series is that the actors and writers are already comfortable with their characters. Boreanaz really knows his character by now, and it shows. I couldn't help but notice that Angel seemed a lot more comfortable as a dark hero in L.A. than he did as a teenager's love interest in the sticks. He was definitely able to carry the lead role, and I think they're going to let him stay in touch with his inner monster.

I've always rather liked Cordelia, too, and I think her shallow materialism and uninhibited narcissism complements Angel's angst and depression very well. Poor Cordy isn't used to failure, and that was rather endearing. I really enjoyed the scene where she figured out in fairly short order that Russell was a vamp. She didn't grow up in Sunnydale for nothing.

Battlestar Galactica "Daybreak part 2"

His review:
I completely understand why the Colonials and Cylons chose to do what they did, to break the cycle once and for all. But the more I thought about it, the more it disturbed me. By destroying all of their ships and scattering into small groups around the globe, they chose to completely obliterate their culture. It was like they never existed; only some of their genes remained. Kara Thrace really did lead them to their end. And the ambiguous coda in Times Square suggested that the cycle may very well assert itself here on Earth, today. Roslin saying goodbye to Cottle. Adama giving his stars to Hoshi. Starbuck kissing Anders goodbye, and him guiding the fleet into the Sun. Adama in a viper, leaving Galactica for the last time. Adama and Lee saying goodbye forever. Roslin dying during that lovely Out of Africa moment, and Adama putting his ring on her dead finger. At least she made it to the end of the journey. Adama built that cabin for her, after all.

Two paragraphs from my review:
http://www.billiedoux.com/bsg4x20.html
[bottom]
I completely understand why the Colonials and Cylons chose to do what they did, to break the cycle once and for all. But the more I thought about it, the more it disturbed me. By destroying all of their ships and scattering into small groups around the globe, they chose to completely obliterate their culture. It was like they never existed; only some of their genes remained. Kara Thrace really did lead them to their end. And the ambiguous coda in Times Square suggested that the cycle may very well assert itself here on Earth, today.
[middle]
If you've read any of my reviews, you know I'm a wuss. I got choked up over and over again. Roslin saying goodbye to Cottle. Adama giving his stars to Hoshi. Starbuck kissing Anders goodbye, and him guiding the fleet into the Sun. Adama in a viper, leaving Galactica for the last time. Adama and Lee saying goodbye forever. Roslin dying during that lovely Out of Africa moment, and Adama putting his ring on her dead finger. At least she made it to the end of the journey. Adama built that cabin for her, after all.

The Knight Rider review at the bottom is stolen from Samuel Walters, Dauntlessmedia.net:
http://dauntlessmedia.net/knight-rider/102-journey-to-the-end-of-knight-review.html

-------------------------------

http://www.tv.com/users/GotalSaiyajin/history.php?pg_user_reviews=15

This page has reviews stolen from Samuel Walters, DauntlessMedia. Here are two.

X-Files:
http://dauntlessmedia.net/x-files/season1/179-pilot.html

Lost:
http://dauntlessmedia.net/lost/413-theres-no-place-like-home-parts-2-3.html

-------------------------------

http://www.tv.com/users/GotalSaiyajin/history.php?pg_user_reviews=35


Here, he returns to plagiarizing me -- Lost reviews "Orientation", "Adrift", "Man of Science, Man of Faith." I don't really need to quote paragraphs at this point, do I?

http://www.billiedoux.com/lost2x1.html
http://www.billiedoux.com/lost2x2.html
http://www.billiedoux.com/lost2x3.html

-------------------------------

http://www.tv.com/users/GotalSaiyajin/history.php?pg_user_reviews=45

The first Dexter review is apparently stolen from MovieTome, although I can't access it because I'm not a member. Search a quoted line on Google and see for yourself.

The second Dexter review of "Seeing Red" is two paragraphs of my review.
http://www.billiedoux.com/dexter1x10.html


Personally, I want this Gotal character gone. And I would like to assure him that from here on out, I'll be searching random selections of my reviews online every few weeks to make certain it doesn't happen again.

UPDATES:

So far: A TV.com moderator has assured me that they'll be looking into this situation on Monday.

UPDATE SUNDAY NIGHT: Mr. Serial Plagiarist is obviously reading my blog because he started deleting the reviews I specifically mentioned. And to think he told me that he *couldn't* delete them because his roommate put them up! What a load of hooey. Guess he can tell what's coming. Maybe he doesn't know that even if he deletes them, TV.com still has access to them.

UPDATE MID-DAY MONDAY: I've been checking off and on and I just noticed that *all* of Mr. Serial Plagiarist's reviews are now gone! Yay!

UPDATE MONDAY NIGHT: A TV.com rep has told me that Mr. Serial Plagiarist has gotten a five day suspension. That's it. Five days, and he gets to come back and do it all again. They have rules about progressive moderation, and apparently, stealing 200 reviews isn't enough to get booted. What do you have to do to get booted from TV.com? Stalk someone? Shoot puppies? I personally feel that such excessive plagiarism is more than enough. I also feel that I spent a lot of time on this problem, and as a member of TV.com, I have not been fairly treated.

I was one of the original featured reviewers on TV Tome before it was bought out by TV.com. I've posted reviews here and there since the buy-out just to keep my hand in, and I do get referral hits from TV.com now and then. But I'm very tempted at this point to just close up my tent, remove my reviews, and delete my account.

FINAL UPDATE, TUESDAY NIGHT: I have been told by a TV.com rep that Mr. Serial Plagiarist has been banned from TV.com, after all. I'm pleased that TV.com came through and took this action, and not just because of me. Thinking he can get away with stealing other people's work would not do him any favors in life. Plagiarism could lose the guy his career. I wish him... I was about to say I wish him well. I don't. But I hope he learns something from this experience.

YET ANOTHER UPDATE, THURSDAY NIGHT: Just when I thought it was over, I got an email last night from another alert reader (thank you so much, Shabeeh) who found another person on TV.com who was also plagiarizing my reviews. I reported it last night. I was told tonight that the reviews are now gone and the person has been disciplined or moderated or something. I was encouraged to use the "report abuse" button if this happens again.

I'm starting to think the format of TV.com has something to do with this. If you can't write and you want points -- and you have no conscience -- what do you do? I can't be the only writer that has been plagiarized like this on TV.com. I was just lucky enough to find out about it.

26 comments:

  1. Billie,

    I want to personally thank you for the legwork you've done on this. After perusing the first 23 pages of his reviews, I've identified 51 (that's FIFTY-ONE!) reviews that he's plagiarized from me alone (Lost, Fringe, X-Files, Legend of the Seeker, Knight Rider).

    Among other notable sources that I found, besides your own, was jammersreviews.com - one of the most highly regarded review sites I've found on the web.

    Let's hope TV.com does the right thing and either eliminates all of the plagiarized reviews, or does the legwork and puts a link to the original source for each review.

    - Samuel Walters

    ReplyDelete
  2. You're very welcome, Sam. Hey, I consider myself to be in very good company. This Gotal character is clearly ripping off the good stuff.

    ReplyDelete
  3. He sure is ripping off the good stuff :)! It's absolutely INSANE though - your reviews are great and you're my usual source for whether I will watch a series or an episode and it's really bugging me this guy is doing this - I can't imagine how frustrating it must be for you. Writing well is hard, and it's creative, and plagiarism..... well, I have no words for it!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Well, no one has replied to my blog on TV.com entitled "Plagiarism and TV.com, but at least people are reading it. I hope my complaints to CNET and CBS Interactive help.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Post a link, Steve -- or send it to me. And I'll add it to my blog post.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi!
    Just wanted to add that something good can and will come out of this.
    Firstly, that I will now start reading Samuel's reviews (as well as yours of course Billie), and that I will start doing word-searches for reviews I have written. Always good to get a little eye-opener.
    Hope all ends well and that that douche gets banned from...well...earth.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Disgraceful doesn’t begin to cover it. This guy should be nominated for the Biggest Douche in the Universe Award.

    ReplyDelete
  8. That sucks. If the guy wanted to write reviews, why couldn't he have done his own? That's what you and every other reviewer does.

    I know you and me sometimes review similar shows but our opinions on something are largely different on some storylines.

    I'm glad TV.Com did the right thing by you though. The fact that this guy is going around hijacking other people's work is wrong.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Wow, what a total tool. This guy is like a joke example of plagiarism. Seriously, if I used him as an example with my college classes, they would have thought I made it up.

    Wait this isn't some kind of strange performance art piece, is it? :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Thanks, everyone.

    Purple Duck, I saw your comment on Gotal's blog. Thank you. It reminded me of a flame war you and I waged a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Glad to help.

    I remember that flamewar, ah those were the days. It was the dark ages of the internet, nothing but electronic stone knives to work with, but then we invented flames. And the rest is history.

    I usually stay away from flaming folks these days, but this guy got my goat.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Once again, many thanks to Billie for doing a lot of legwork on this. It helped me out at least as much as it helped Billie. It's nice to know that there are genuinely kind and charitable people out there -- despite the GotalSaiyajins of the world.

    Henrik, thanks for reading my reviews! I know I'll be following Billie's reviews from now on as well. So there has definitely been a silver lining to all this nonsense! ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  13. Hi Billie,

    Congratulations!
    It's sort of ridiculous what this young person did. You can tell s/he is young [and I work with youth for a living and I have the highest regard for them - most of the time - so I'm not saying that youth caused his thievery] with her/his blog posts. What's worse is that there is obviously NO POSSIBLE WAY that s/he wrote those reviews because the blog posts have atrocious grammar and composition. Glad things have been cleared up for you.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Hey Billie,

    Just wanted to let you know that I've been reading your reviews for years and years, ever since I first discovered your Lost reviews on TV Tome!!

    Since then, I've followed your reviews for just about every show, in fact it was your reviews that led me to discover some great TV.

    Anyway I'm sorry to hear about this, you're a great reviewer and you deserve much better.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Personally, TV.com is not what it used to be.

    I really liked it when it was just TVtome. It was not a pretty site to see, but the information was there, and I loved your reviews about Buffy and Angel.

    I liked your reviews so much, that you inspired me to do reviews in a similar way to yours (the quote at the beggining, the review itself, and some notes) but in Spanish. Of course, mine are original.

    To sump up, That's what this guy should have got from you: inspiration.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Bah, I hate that people do this.

    I've been following you since Tv Tome - all the way to this site. I love reading your stuff, and your reviews actually made me watch quite a few shows.

    I can't stand the fact that people just steal stuff - can't they think for themselves?? I also thoroughly regret the fact that this is the way that tv.com handles it. That site is absolutely not what it used to be...

    Don't let this get to you - we will ruin the bastard who did this ;)

    ReplyDelete
  17. I'm the kind of person who always looks for the good in people but not in this case. While i know it's very very wrong, i can at least understand why people plagiarise in school. But why someone would plagiarise online reviews mystifies me. What exactly would they gain ? The only thing i can think of is that it's laziness pure and simple.

    I like to believe that what goes around comes around. Hopefully this person will get what they deserve and will never do it again.

    ReplyDelete
  18. You actually inspired me to write reviews for TV Tome. I started out doing Six Feet Under and Desperate Housewives for the old site before covering other shows for the tv.com era of the site.

    Their rules are hokey at best and serial plagarising should be grounds for pernament banning but it evidently doesn't seem to be.

    At least they were able to remove the reviews he stiole from you and Samuel. That's something at least.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Shawn, you're a real gentleman. Thank you SO much for the kind words and for your continuing support. You've made a name for yourself on TV.com through hard work. Exactly the opposite of what what's his face has done.

    ReplyDelete
  20. And I should add again, thanks to everyone for their support. I've gotten a number of letters about this, as well as all of these great comments. It really does warm my heart.

    ReplyDelete
  21. What he's done is inexcusable and he should be banned from the site for good. I hope he's learned some kind of a lesson at least.
    Anna

    ReplyDelete
  22. Billie,

    I completely agree with you about how the format on TV.com literally encourages people to steal reviews. I get the notion of trying to provide incentives to get users to post their own reviews -- but if TV.com is going to go that route, they ought to have some mechanism to ensure that the content *that they are soliciting* is, in fact, authentic.

    When I contacted TV.com over the weekend, they basically told me: "It's not our fault what users post -- it's their responsibility." Well, if TV.com is encouraging such behavior, then I call *BS* on TV.com. They either need to fix their system or find some way of actually *moderating* the reviews they receive.

    This should be their problem, not the problem of smaller, independent reviews.

    But alas, such is the way of the world -- BIG CORPORATE can get away with murder because the smaller "competition" (not that I would classify my site as competition for *anyone* :-P) simply cannot afford to hire the lawyers required to really enforce such arcane ideas as: intellectual honesty.

    Maybe the answer is for reviewers to band together somehow. You know, safety in numbers and all that ...

    -Sam

    ReplyDelete
  23. I had a plagiarism issue of my own on tv.com, during it's early days.

    I had written my own reviews of the first season of Survivor and sent them all in. They were rejected.

    A few days later I check back and all my reviews were there on the site, but under someone else's name.

    So whoever moderates the incoming reviews for Survivor, decided to reject mine and then use them as his own.

    I didn't take the time to report, since I didn't care that much, I just stopped doing reviews for tv.com.

    ReplyDelete
  24. After several days of trauma, I've pretty much had it. I'm taking down all my reviews from TV.com. I'd like to hang on to my membership, just in case I get reviews stolen again -- since you have to be a member to report abuse. But I'm not posting any more reviews there.

    Unfortunately, I haven't figured out how to remove the reviews. The method is shrouded in the mists. But I'll figure it out, if it's the last thing I do. As God is my witness, I'll never post a review on TV.com again!

    ReplyDelete
  25. How come this things only happen to you?! Twice now. I know somebody who posted a review on the net and in a couple of months his review was used by a televison program. After reading all the blog I have one thing to point out. I'm sorry to say this but it seems that that user ( the first one not the second one) has told you the truth about deleting the reviews (how he can't delete them). Anyway, good luck with your problems and I'm going to read your reviews since they seem to be the BEST on the net.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Billie, I've mentioned the plagiarising incident in my blog this. Hopefully people who read it (who were unaware) will be vigilant in making sure their own stuff isn't stolen. You can read it here ...

    http://www.tv.com/users/shawnlunn2002/profile.php?action=show_blog&entry=m-100-25660185

    ReplyDelete

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