Dear Internet (with special “shout outs” to HipHopGamer fans),

We need to have a little chat, because a lot of accusations are being thrown around about this website. I think you all need to understand the meaning of copy/paste and copyright infringement laws. For those of you who don’t know, I’m a full-time writer, and I know copyright laws fairly well.

Ok. Go to any website – any at all – and highlight some text with your mouse. Right click, and click on “copy.” Now open a new document or text file in any word processing program. Right click again, and click on “paste.” Congratulations. You have now copied and pasted.

You may have also broken a law…or, well, you would if you publish that information anywhere without getting permission from whoever wrote the original text.

Please note: there are times when copy/pasting is allowed – namely, when you are quoting someone’s written work. Laws are based on the percentage of their words you use. This is called an excerpt. Generally, if you use a small excerpt, and give credit to the original source, you are well within your legal rights.

What isn’t legal is to copy/paste someone else’s written work, without permission, in its entirety. It doesn’t matter if you attribute it to them or not. It is illegal. Beyond that, though, it is just an asshole move. Someone else worked really hard to write something, so don’t be a dick and repost it on your website unless you have permission.

Now that we know what copy/paste and copyright infringement is, class, who can tell me what it is not. Raise your hand. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

Ok, here’s the answer.

Copy/paste is not reporting on the same news story that is also reported on another website. When a company has an announcement, they write what is called a press release for the sole purpose of distributing the news to as many people as possible. Someone is always the first person to post said news. That doesn’t mean that everyone else who writes up a news story about the same news item is copy/pasting UNLESS they use the method I’ve listed above – actually highlighting text, clicking on copy, then clicking on paste and publishing it WORD FOR WORD.

Are you all still with me? Talking about the same news story that another website talks about is not copyright infringement or illegal, and here at Binge Gamer, we don’t look down on anyone who does that, as long as they don’t copy/paste. Write it up in your own words, and you’re fine. Hey, for your readers, why not even put a little opinion in that write-up you post.

But what about an “exclusive,” you ask? For example, what if Website A gets an interview with a developer and posts it? It isn’t a press release; it is original content. Can Website B report on that story?

Sure, as long as no copyright laws are broken, which means that they can’t copy/paste (see above if you’re an idiot and don’t understand this concept by now). Website B can use an excerpt, and they can even write a story giving their opinion on the topic. It is illegal not to give credit if you use an excerpt, and the POLITE way to do this in the blogging world is to link back to Website A’s post whether you use an excerpt or not.

Now that we have all of that out of the way, let’s get to why you’re all here shall we?

Back in late November, a reader who shall remain anonymous sent us this link. At the time, the title of this post was just “Xbox 360 NXE Causing Tons of Strife for Gamers.” Now, you may this it is a little silly that someone calling himself HipHopGamer is referring to his readers “dudes and dolls.” Well, technically he’s not – anyone who reads Binge Gamer knows this to be something I say. In fact, the entire article is, word for word, taken from a piece I had posted at this very website. You can see it here.

Now as anybody who knows me is aware, I have a bit of a short fuse. I blame it on my time in the Army where, simply put, I didn’t deal with people’s shit. So I had Allison get in touch with the publisher/host over at HHG to resolve this. Allison was nice and professional, explaining that what he had done was technically illegal. However, rather than demanding the materials be taken down under threat of legal action, we simply asked for him to use an excerpt and link back to the original piece – you like, like every other site does. Below is bit a small excerpt of the conversation between Allison and HHG:

HIPHOPGAMER says: shit man i’m sorry fuck my bad i’ll change it right now i know how important that shit cause people have done that to me too

HIPHOPGAMER says: i’ll change it right now sorry which article damn man i apologize man

HIPHOPGAMER says: i don’t want people getting the wrong idea of me and shit it’s not like that all

Allison Boyer says: yeah, we’d def prefer if you just used an excerpt and sent people to our site for the rest of it…we do everything for free, and Google gets all cranky when it looks like sites are spamming things

HIPHOPGAMER says: i got respect for everybody sorry for that mistake man ok

HIPHOPGAMER says: no problem

Now, we thought that was the end of it. He seemed cool. We seemed cool. Everything had a general aura of “cool” about it. So we moved on and continued to do what we do.

So did he.

Just about a month later another piece from our site found its way over to HHG. Once again it was copied word-for-word and once again there was no true link back to the source. Oh, this time he had a static URL address and he did have the decency to leave Mike’s name up on the story, but in the end he still did the exact same thing – copy/pasted one of our stories word-for-word in it’s entirety. Now this one didn’t come to our attention until sometime in early January where, by then, I had quite enough. After giving us his word that he wouldn’t do it again he turns around and does it again.

Skip ahead to the past two weeks where myself and the writers have been called just about every name in the book. Not a big deal. After all, this is the internet where any dissenting opinion is quickly torn to pieces by the rabid hyenas known as the fanboys. So when fans of HHG started spamming our comments with the typical mindless bullshit, it didn’t phase me in the least. However, I will be damned if I’m going to sit here and let ANYBODY accuse either myself or my staff of being plagiarists. Especially when the accuser is the one doing that very thing.

I don’t give a damn if you like the podcast. I don’t give a damn if you like the website. Hell, I really don’t give a damn if you like us as people. But I know for a fact that everything on this website is 100% original material and that Mike, Allison and the intern Perry bust their asses off for this website because they, like me, enjoy what they do.

…well, maybe not Perry. He’s doing this for college credit. But I digress.

Ultimately we do this website for ourselves and our personal entertainment. If we pick up a few readers along the way, excellent. If we don’t, no skin off my ass. At the end of the day we’re still having fun with what we do, and isn’t that what it’s really about? I mean, when you strip away all the craziness we’re still talking about video games far more than any healthy person should.

Either way, after this is posted we’re done. We’re not going to waste our time or energy on this when it can be focused on having fun. However, heed this advice: Eventually you’re going to pull this stunt against somebody who is going to take it far more personally than I and they will shut your website down for stealing content.

And they will be in the right.

-JW

P.S.: Also, I should tell you guys that the recent spam attack by the HHG readers has led to some changes in how we’re going to operate our comments section. More details in the next few days, but safe to say you’re going to have to register an account.

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