UK NEWSPAPER SWIPES OUR CONTENT
AT LEAST 30 NEWSPAPERS AND WEBSITES AND RADIO SHOWS REPRINT MIS-ATTRIBUTED WORK OFF THE NEWS WIRE

Sorry for being so evasive about this topic as of late.  For those who don't know what I'm talking about, in a nutshell...
 
On 11/20/03, I published a feature I wrote called "The World's Worst Sex Scenes" on retroCRUSH.  
 
A UK Tabloid (that I don't care to give any more attention to, so I'm not mentioning them by name any longer) ran a piece in their Dec 30th Edition about "The World's Worst Sex Scenes", which cited a source called FILM magazine, which they claim is a US publication.  
 
Here's the non-judgmental facts:
 
-The movies they use in their feature were the same movies I used, with the exception of the DeNiro/Fonda scene in Jackie Brown (which they added).
 
-3 exact quotes in my article are used in their article, verbatim.
 
-The inclusion of "Deliverance" in their article is hilarious, as I put it in my feature as a joke entry.
 
-A wire service called WENN.com picked up the story, and it has subsequently been published in no less than 30 major newspapers and online news services, and has been reportedly used as news/discussion material on syndicated radio shows including "The Don and Mike Show" and "The Mark and Brian Show.  Google has 111 matches if you use part of my quote "munchkin got a shot at Dorothy", to get an idea of the scope.
 
Here's some likely assumptions that have yet to be proven wrong, but I'm willing to correct if I am.
 
-As of this writing, despite being linked to hundreds of thousands of readers, and extensive research, no evidence of a US produced FILM magazine has been produced.  It appears likely that a writer at the tabloid invented this as a source to use instead of retroCRUSH for a motive that I can't comprehend.  The Tabloid told me there was a US magazine called FILM, but then refused to give any details about it over the phone.  When I spoke the news editor of the tabloid on the phone on 1/5/04 that "Everything on the internet is up for grabs" and "you can't copyright anything on the internet."
 
-For a national US magazine to have the time to see my article on 11/20 and decide to both swipe the idea and put it in print  in December, is a bit preposterous, considering the pre-determined feature space and deadlines they would face.
 
What's next?
 
At this point...likely nothing.  I took references to this off my site based on some advice that I was given, but have been informed by that same trusted source that there's not much of a case here.
 
The article was rewritten enough to keep it from being an issue of plagiarism.  Even if they may have created a fictional source for their story, FILM magazine, that, in and of itself, is not illegal.  Did they go beyond the terms of fair use?  Perhaps, but the effort of pursuing any action in the UK system for this is not likely worth it.
 
If this were a paper that was anything above a rag-tabloid status, it might serve justice to let more members of the press know about it, but it appears from what I've seen that there's precious little reputation to ruin, anyway.  
 
Anyway, I'm just putting this up because many folks think I've been bought off.  
 
I just trust advice I've been given that there's nothing there to pursue.
 
Thanks for all the support I've gotten about this issue.  It's certainly been an eye opener.
 
Robert Berry
webmaster@retroCRUSH.com