Pretty much anything you’d find in your spam folder would seem like a good candidate for content misuse, especially by spam bloggers. This includes topics like pharmaceuticals, pornography, SEO services, etc.

However, in talking with other content creators in a variety of industries, the problem of content misuse online is not limited to traditional spam-friendly keywords. In fact, many industries you wouldn’t expect problems from actually have rampant issues of content misuse including plagiarism of marketing copy, unauthorized reuse of blog posts, copied images and more.

WIth that in mind, here are just five of the industries I’ve had dealings with as part of my copyright and plagiarism consulting work that have surprised me with the amount of infringement sites within it have seen.

1. Law Offices / Legal Services

If there were one group that you would expect to know better than infringe copyright, it would be lawyers. Unfortunately, history has sown that to be not the case.

Plagairism and content theft by law offices is widespread and even gains semi-regularly media attention due to it’s nature.

Why it Happens: Law offices are often times just one or two attorneys and, maybe a paralegal or receptionist. In short, they are very small businesses without a lot of expertise in content writing and website development. Many contract out to third parties, often on a very small budget and other times attempt it themselves with no real expertise.

To further the problem, copyright is a very niche area of law and many lawyers don’t know a great deal about it, even as they are violating it.

2. Review Sites

Review sites run the gamut in terms of the topics they cover from candy sites, like long-time reader Cybele May, to electronics and beyond. However, nearly every review site seems to have a significant problem with its content being plagiarized, including sites built off of reader reviews.

Why it Happens: The problem is simple, for every product for sale one of the most popular search terms is for a reviews of it. Spammers have seized upon this as a great way to target popular but less-competitive keywords.

However, the problem is compounded by the fact both positive and negative reviews are often copied with and without attribution by people wanting to make a point about the product. Also, images taken of products for the review are also often lifted instead of using provided promotional photographs or taking new ones.

3. Financial Services

Though some financial services firms are already somewhat predictable targets for content theft with spam-friendly keywords such as mortgage and credit card being within the industry, the issue runs much deeper including a great deal of B2B misuse, in particular with smaller businesses.

Why it Happens: Financial services firms often have the same problem as law firms. They are often small businesses, just one or two people, and lack any real Web /copyright expertise. This includes accountants, debt consultation firms and more.

However, depending on the particular type of business, the barrier to entry may be much lower than with a law firm from a legal standpoint. This can open the floodgates for almost anyone to participate in the field, including more than a few plagiarists.

4. Gaming

The rapid rise in popularity of gaming has opened a floodgate to sites and blogs that want to talk about gaming and tap that new audience. It’s also created a slew of new companies, including many small startups, aimed at making, promoting, distributing, reviewing and talking about video games.

With this explosion has come a swath of allegations of content misuse, plagiarism and copyright infringement, ranging from plagiarism in video games themselves to re-writing reviews.

Why it Happens: I talked more about the reasons for the spike in plagiarism in video games in my previous article, but the issue goes well beyond just the games themselves. Already-embattled Ocean Marketing was hit with a series of plagiarism allegations and plagiarism among video game blogs also appears to be on the rise.

Simply put, the growth and expansion of the industry attracts new businesses of all types, good and bad, creating a climate ripe for content misuse.

5. Essay Mills

The old saying “There is no honor among thieves” holds true when it comes to essay mills. Students often turn to essay mills to get custom-written assignments that won’t be detected by traditional plagiarism checkers. However, as one survey showed, those essays are often plagiarized themselves from various sources. At least one such case of plagiarism ended up in a lawsuit.

Why it Happens: The problem is simple. For the price paid and the time given there is simply no way a paper mill can churn out a high-quality, plagiarism-free paper. Either the mill has to cheat, the quality has to be gibberish or both.

Yet just another reason why essay mills are a bad move for students looking for an easy way out.

Bottom Line

All in all, if you think plagiarism or content misuse issues are limited to a few sectors and you don’t have to think about it, you’re probably wrong. Remember, I got my start in this industry as a poet, a field of writing that highly values originality, so pretty much any industry and any site can be victimized by bad actors.

How you respond is up to you, but it’s importnat to understand that the risk is out there, that it can affect you and that there are ways to respond if you wish.

In the end, always remember that no industry is safe from plagiarism and content theft issues, so it pays to take a look at your site and your content specifically as every creator is different and every site is in a different position.

Panic Button Photo Credit: BigStockPhoto.com

However, a recent trend in gaming news has made that all but impossible.

Plagiarism has become a hot-button issue in video game industry in recent months and years. This interest is in large part due to the rapid growth of the independent developer scene, which itself has been enabled by a combination of digital distribution and platforms such as iOS, Android, online gaming, Facebook and even Steam where smaller projects can often find an audience.

With so many companies competing in the same space, often with such similar ideas, allegations of plagiarism are almost certain to follow.

However, is there more to this recent uptick in plagiarism-related news in the video game world? The answer is yes, but to see why we have to look back in the history of video games and learn how we got where we are today.

A Brief History of Videogame Plagiarism

Video games, as with most new creative industries, began with something of a dubious history on matters of copyright and plagiarism. In the 70s and 80s, video games were so simple and straightforward, usually due to limited computing power, that it was trivial to create clones of games for other systems. Many of the most popular games of the early years of gaming such as Pong, Frogger (see right), Arkanoid, Centepede, etc. were cloned heavily or were clones themselves.

This “wild west” mentality was partially fueled by a copyright system that didn’t respect video games (or other works of computer software). Though Congress convened the Commission on New Technology Uses of Copyrighted Works (CONTU) in 1974, which ruled that computer software did qualify for copyright protection, the definition of a computer program was not codified into law until 1980. However, even with computer software appearing in the law itself, without a great deal of precedent, there was still a lot of debate as to how far that protection went.

As such, unlicensed ports and clones remained an industry standard right up until the video game industry crash of 1983, when two things changed for the industry.

1. Closure of Many Game Studios: The crash, which was brought on largely by the glut of bad and hastily-made games, forced the closure of many of the studios that were engaged in copycat behavior.
2. Improved Lockout Control: Beginning with the Nintendo Entertainment System, console manufacturers used robust lockout technology to prevent unlicensed 3rd-party developers from producing games on their platform, further restricting the behavior.

As such, in the mid-80s, the industry began to mature and unlicensed clones/ripoffs became less and less common. One interesting example involves the company Ocean, which released an unlicensed version of Donkey Kong in 1983 (see left) but released a licensed one in 1986 (assumedly after being forgiven by Nintendo).

Video game plagiarism remained an issue, but instead of it being focused on clones and unlicensed ports, it became more focused on gameplay mechanics and other non-copyrightable elements. Many of the genres of games we know of today were spawned by widespread “plagiarism” of good elements from previous games to form an industry standard.

However, wholesale plagiarism didn’t exactly disappear. In 2008, for example, the game Limbo of the Lost became the poster child for video game plagiarism after it was discovered that the game, a point and click adventure, used artwork from other, more popular, games such as Oblivion and Thief 3. The game developers blamed the issue on outsourced artwork and the game was withdrawn.

But as big as the Limbo of the Lost scandal was, it has been the emerging market for games on mobile platforms and Facebook that’s been where much of the attention has been lately. Zynga, for example, sued and settled with Brazillian game maker Vostu over copyright infringement in Vostu’s alleged plagiarism of Zynga’s Facebook games.

However, Zynga itself has been in the spotlight as a the alleged plagiarist as the three-person game studio Nimblebit drew attention to similarities between Zynga’s game “Dream Heights” to Nimblebit’s earlier work “Tiny Tower”. There are also allegations that Farmville, Zynga’s most popular Facebook game, is a rip off of the earlier game FarmTown. In fact, just today another developer, Buffalo Studios, has filed similar accusations to Nimblebit, saying that Zynga ripped off their game Bingo Blitz to make Zynga Bingo.

All of this comes to a crescendo with news today that developer Spry Fox is suing competitor 6Waves LOLAPPS claiming that 6Waves’ game Yeti Town is a plagiarism and an infringement of their game Triple Town.

What’s clear in all of this is that video game plagiarism is back in the spotlight and now with more than 30 years of litigation history, it’s become a much bigger legal issue than before.

Why Video Game Plagiarism is On the Rise

The video game marketplace today most closely resembles the marketplace from the early 1980s. Though the console market is very consolidated and controlled, the emerging markets of social networking, online (IE: Flash-based), mobile and direct-download have more in common with the 1982 market than any other point in video game history.

There are few, if any, lockouts to limit 3rd-party development, much of the development is taking place in countries where video game copyright laws are largely untested and there is a tremendous glut of systems and smaller developers to write games for them.

As such, we’re seeing a very similar climate toward remakes and clones. For every successful Facebook or iOS game, there are dozens of clones and imitators that often try to push the boundaries on what is allowed under copyright. For example, Angry Birds has countless clones such as Angry Farm and Angry Animals just to name two.

The frightening part though is that history has shown us that, when the video game market reaches this kind of glut there is Hell to pay and it isn’t just the plagiarists who are hurt. However, tackling this issue is extremely difficult, largely due to the nature of video games themselves.

The Problem with Video Game Plagiarism

Video game plagiarism, both from an ethical and a legal standpoint, are tough issues to crack. A big part of the problem is that all video games borrow from earlier creations.

For example, if you’re playing a first-person shooter on a PC, most likely the game is going to use “WASD” controls. Those are a standard today but that wasn’t always the case. For example, Duke Nukem 3D used the arrow keys by default (PDF). Did the second game to use “WASD” plagiarize the first?

Part of this is because there is no “language” of video games. If I sit down to a book that’s in my language, I know that it will be written in English, the words will be written left to right and that it will likely be structured in chapters. If it’s a fictional work, it will likely be in a three-act structure with a beginning, a middle and a conclusion.

Video games, however, don’t have this common language, at least not one that’s as established as with literature, music, etc. It’s difficult to say what elements will be or are already common with all games because the language of the medium is still being developed and it’s changing with every year and every genre.

Still, much of the copying seems to go well beyond merely taking ideas, mechanics or foundational elements. Often times involving source code, artwork, sounds and other copyrightable elements.

And that, in turn, is where the law comes in. Copyright law makes it very clear that expressions of ideas are copyrightable and that includes many of the elements that make up video games. This is why we’re likely to see more and more video game plagiarism cases end up in court, not because of the fluctuating ethical standards of plagiarism in the medium, but due to the more concrete copyright rules surrounding them.

However, it’s in the gray area between what the law expressly forbids and what ethically feels wrong where many clones, remakes and ports will reside. That is where the debate is going to take place and the industry is going to have to set its own rules about what is right and wrong, hopefully before the flood of imitators and knock-offs destroy the video game market a second time.

Bottom Line

I don’t expect the issue of video game plagiarism to go away any time soon. The video game industry is growing rapidly and the lower barriers of entry makes this a market that will both get more crowded and draw in more and more unscrupulous developers who simply want to push the boundaries of law and ethics in the field.

While this boom is great for consumers and businesses alike, it could be dangerous as the crash of 1983 showed. For the industry to continue thriving long-term, it needs to find a balance between the wild west days of the early 80s and the lockdown days from the 90s.

Though some of that effort is certainly going to come from the courts, as cases like the Yeti Town one likely will show, much of it is going to have to come from the industry itself, with a code of ethics and best practices that keeps the industry moving forward.

How the industry can do this quickly is tough to say. Other creative industries had decades, even centuries to build their agreed-upon rules. This industry may be looking at a crisis within years if it can’t find an appropriate balance.

In the meantime, I think I have a tower defense game calling me.

Have any suggestions for the 3 Count? Let me know via Twitter @plagiarismtoday.

1: Photographer Claims Rihanna Stole Images in Video

First off today, celebrity photographer David LaChapelle has filed a lawsuit against the singer Rihanna as well as others involved with her claiming that her recent music video, entitled “S&M” too closely mirrors photographs he has taken and is well-known for. Specifically, LaChapelle claims that Rihanna “directly derived” much of her video from eight of his images and he is seeking damages over the alleged similarities. Rihanna has not yet responded to the lawsuit.

2: ESA: 54% Of Illegal Game Fileshares Come From Five Watch-List Nations

Next up today, the International Intellectual Property Alliance has filed a report with the U.S. Trade Representative highlighting 5 countries, Italy, Spain, China, Brazil and France, that it says make up some 54 percent of the video game related piracy they studied. Italy took the lead with some 30 million of the 144 million connections studied and the five countries in total accounted for some 78 million connections. The IIPA, of which the Electronic Software Association is a member, is encouraging that these nations, in particular Spain, be made higher priorities for possible trade sanctions in the future over their relaxed intellectual property enforcement.

3: Record Label Teaches Music Fans BitTorrent

Finally today, at a time where most record labels are fighting tooth and nail against Bittorrent sites, Adamant Records is offering instructions on how to use the service to download music from the label. Most prominently, this includes their band Sick of Sarah’s new album Sick 2205, which is being promoted through a partnership with Bittorrent that he company that the label hopes will get the band in front of millions of new listeners. A representative for the label did say that record sales will remain important, but that Bittorrent may drive ticket and merchandise sales.

Suggestions

That’s it for the three count today. We will be back tomorrow with three more copyright links. If you have a link that you want to suggest a link for the column or have any proposals to make it better. Feel free to leave a comment or send me an email. I hope to hear from you.

Want the Full Story?

Tune in every Wednesday evening at 6 PM ET for the live recording of the Copyright 2.0 Show or wait and get the edited version Friday right here on Plagiarism Today.

The 3 Count Logo was created by Justin Goff and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License.

Have any suggestions for the 3 Count? Let me know via Twitter @plagiarismtoday.

1: Cuba Accuses Google’s YouTube of Censorship

First off today Cuba is accusing YouTube of censorship after the video sharing site took Cuba’s official video channel online, citing copyright infringement claims. According to YouTube, they received multiple copyright complaints regarding the account and, as according to their policy, shut it down. Specifically, YouTube cited infringement dealing with a recent video about former CIA agent Luis Posada Carriles, who was recently on trial in the US for immigration fraud. Cuba responded saying that “If Cubadebate (their account) is violating copyright then you have to shut down all of Youtube because it is the mecca of internet piracy.”

2: League of Epic Heroes Removed From App Store After Copyright Claim

Next up today, the popular iPhone game “League of Epic Heroes” has been removed from the App Store following a claim by QCF Design, which claim the game is too similar to their upcoming release “Desktop Dungeons”. Heroes was written by solo coder Eric Ferraro, who admitted that Desktop Dungeons was his inspiration for the game. The two sides had apparently tried to work out some kind of arrangement but were unable to resolve their differences, prompting QCF to file a takedown notice.

3: I Can Has Copyright Law: Ben Huh of the Cheezburger Network Talks About the Internet and Copyright

Finally today, Ben Huh, owner of the Cheeseburger network of sites, which includes “I Can Has Cheeseburger” and “Failblog” sat down with Eric Perrott from American University spoke on a panel at World’s Fair Use day to discuss copyright. What followed, according to article author Eric Perrott, was a series of contradictions about the nature of copyright law that shows just how complex these issues are. Among the contradictions were, on one hand, a desire to to completely scrap U.S. copyright law but, on the other, an acknowledgement that the DMCA takedown system, overall, works well. Thanks to Eric Perrott for the correction to this article!

Suggestions

That’s it for the three count today. We will be back tomorrow with three more copyright links. If you have a link that you want to suggest a link for the column or have any proposals to make it better. Feel free to leave a comment or send me an email. I hope to hear from you.

Want the Full Story?

Tune in every Wednesday evening at 6 PM ET for the live recording of the Copyright 2.0 Show or wait and get the edited version Friday right here on Plagiarism Today.

The 3 Count Logo was created by Justin Goff and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License.

1: Facebook Backtracks Under Community Pressure, Goes Back To Old ToS (For Now)

Facebook, after receiving a great deal of pressure from its users, has decided to return to its old TOS. Its new TOS, announced two weeks ago, had caused a great deal of controversy when it removed a clause that allowed users to terminate their copyright license to Facebook by simply removing the work, thus offering them a perpetual license to use the content, even after the user was gone.

Facebook has apologized for the TOS and has created a new group to begin working with members and seek feedback on the next terms of service. This is the second major incident, the first being Beacon, where Facebook has been forced to back away from a change due to user uproar.

2: Video Game Biz Still Targeting Canada Over Mod Chips

The International Intellectual Property Association has (again) asked the U.S. Government to take action against Canada over, among other things, mod chips in Canadian video game systems. It believes that mod chips, which allow users to play games that are either out of region or pirated, are not taken seriously enough by the Canadian government and wants the U.S. to add the country to a “Priority Watch List” along with countries such as Mexico, Russia and China.

Though it is unclear exactly what impact this would have, it is unlikely to succeed as the previous administration did not comply with a similar request and it is unlikely that the current will either.

3: Mozilla backs move to decriminalize iPhone jailbreaking

Finally today, the Mozilla Corporation, the not-for-profit behind the Firefox Web browser, has thrown its support behind an exemption for “jailbreaking” the iPhone as well as other mobile phones. Mozilla joins the EFF, Skype and others in backing the exemption to current anti-circumvention laws.

The United States Copyright Office is currently accepting comments and feedback on potential exemptions to the law and plans to institute changes later this year.

Suggestions

That’s it for the three count today, we’ll be back tomorrow with three more copyright links. If you have a link that you want to suggest a link for the column or have any proposals to make it better. Feel free to leave a comment or send me an email. I hope to hear from you.

Want the Full Story?

Tune in every Saturday morning for the live recording of the Copyright 2.0 Show or wait and get the edited version Monday morning right here on Plagiarism Today.

It was a slam-packed show this week with stories from all over the world and updates to a lot of the ongoing copyright sagas.

All in all, there were eighteen stories this week including news from all over the copyright world including our “Weird Story of the Week”.

This week’s stories include:

• Fair Use Must Be Weighed When Filing a DMCA Notice
• The Pirate Bay Fights the Italian Blockade
• Comcast Gets Scolded for P2P Throttling
• Disney’s Copyright in Mickey May be in Trouble
• Pirate Video Game Toy Lands Seller in Jail
• And Many more…

You can download the MP3 file here (direct download). Those interested in subscribing to the show can do so via this feed.

Show Notes

Rolfe, who became famous for his angry, and often vulgar, reviews of classic video games was one of the most popular directors on YouTube and is the tenth most subscribed to user on the site. His Channel has over 130,000 subscribers and over 6.5 million views.

When the suspension was discovered in the evening of the 19th, speculation mounted about the cause. Several commenters looked at the matter with suspicion and tried to blame a competing video game reviewer. Others attempted to blame YouTube accusing them of banning the account to further their own agenda.

These conspiracy theories were furthered by the previous closures of other accounts including Guru Larry and PlayItBogart, both also video game reviewers

However, other evidence pointed to a likely mistake by GameTrailers, a site Rolfe is affiliated with.

Although Rolfe had not been posting full videos to his YouTube account for some time, he had been posting trailers of his new episodes. When the account was down, most of his videos carried a generic “removed for a terms of service” violation”. However, one of the trailers had an error message indicating that it was removed due to a copyright complaint by GameTrailers.

GameTrailers, whose own YouTube account was suspended as well, was quiet during the controversy. However, when Rolfe’s account was restored, it was revealed that it had indeed been an error by GameTrailers that resulted in the removal.

As of the evening of the 20th, Rolfe’s account has been restored and everything seems to have returned to normal. However, it was a day that many fans of Rolfe’s will never likely forget.

Lessons to be Gleaned

The simple fact is that, when it comes to DMCA notices, mistakes happen. This is especially true when you are working for a company that may have more than one person involved in sending out takedown notices.

However, these mistakes need to be kept to an absolute minimum to avoid these kinds of problems. Not only did the incident hurt Rolfe by denying him access to his YouTube account, but also damaged YouTube’s reputation, caused something of a miniature revolt from other YouTube members, hurt the reputation of other reviewers, even though they had nothing to do with the suspension.

Worst of all, it resulted in the suspension of not just GameTrailer’s own account, but the account that provides some of the best promotion for them.

When sending DMCA notices, it is important to always make sure that the notice is valid, that it is for a use that you definitely intend to stop. Though they are very easy to file, they are typically very difficult to undo.

If you have someone else file notices on your behalf, ensure that either you have full editorial control over the action taken or that the person has a full understanding of the nuances of how your site works and what reuse is permitted.

This no easy task, but it is important to both ensure the effectiveness of your DMCA process and that incidents like this one do not happen to you.