Matt Inman - 0at.org - Marketing & Design

I've taken down the original blog post, so if you're all wondering why this isn't particularly descriptive that's why.

Basically someone stole this quiz of mine:

Created by Bunk Beds.net

After a huge flurry of traffic, He took down the stolen content and reddit also took the story off their frontpage. Mission accomplished, no need to discredit him any further. Here's a comment he left:

First of all let me say that I am truly sorry for what happened and Matt has all the right to be mad. I had no idea about bunkbeds.net I was not the one building the quiz, Matt knows that since I was talking to him in the past to do some work for me. Moreover, I showed him the site wholeclothingblog.com.

I found out about the quiz this afternoon from a man name Chris (bunk beds pedia) I sent an email to Matt and told him it will be fixed today.

I was asking the designer to take care of this mess and fix the quiz. I agree that I was the one that needs to address this and remove the quiz asap. For that I'm sorry.

Anyway, the quiz is down.

Party's over folks, thanks for stopping by.

Comments

• Hiphopapotamus writes on 30/10/08
  what a douche!
• Larissa Meek writes on 30/10/08
  That sucks! Something similar happened to me by an Indian design company who took credit for building my site all over Craigslist postings.
• Jesse Friedman writes on 30/10/08
  I'm going to stay away from name calling [cough], but this guy is way out of line. And if I see one comment on here that says "imitation is the finest form of flattery" is also a [cough, cough]. Do you're own work!! Creative stealing is worse then stealing from a retail store or any other physical item. I steal a car it's covered by insurance or at least is a one time cost. Stealing art work or creative work is worse, you're stealing people creative soals.
• nils writes on 30/10/08
  if you had a creative commons share-a-like license i'm pretty sure this would could as a remix, and since you have not been attributed for the actual work...
• John writes on 30/10/08
  Whoa, that guy's a douche.
• Vinh Le writes on 30/10/08
  Douchebag indeed...
• AJ Troxell writes on 30/10/08
  What a moron. Excuse my language.
• anonymous writes on 30/10/08
  you might be sued for libel if he isn't found to be a douchebag...
• Black Bellamy writes on 30/10/08
  You know how you can just look at a guy and get that this guy is not ethical vibe? Yosef has that look.
• usuck writes on 30/10/08
  Actually, you're the douche. You expect people to feel sorry for you and your failed attempts to pollute the internet with your "viral marketing". You know where to go douchebag.
• Alrady writes on 30/10/08
  WE just dealt with this ion ehow for written articles a guy from Nigeria stole verbatim and posted to blog.. .when asked to remove he said it helped people. Yeah like himself.
  Since you have the date of the email request to him (heck I'd report to his isp) can you not go ahead and publish your work? do you have dates on it at all? I would hire geek to help get proof of dates off comptuer if need be.
  Jerks abound!
• Mark writes on 30/10/08
  To be fair, its not like he's using subversive means to get his version to the top. Its just a fun quiz and thanks for letting everyone know.
• armand writes on 30/10/08
  dudes the mayor of douchebagville
• Jonathan Bailey writes on 30/10/08
  First off, I'm sorry that you had to endure this and that you missed an opportunity due to it. I know well how you feel.
  Though I admit his actions in changing the information certainly makes it harder to push a copyright issue, if an "ordinary observer" would see the similarities between the two works and believed that the latter was "significantly similar" to the original, very likely from what you describe, the resulting work is a derivative work and would be a copyright infringement.
  Thus, theoretically at least, you'd be eligible to file a DMCA notice against it the same as if it were verbatim copying.
  In the future, if you have any issues with content theft or copyright infringement, swing by my site or drop me a line, I'll be glad to help.
• SmellyGeekBoy writes on 30/10/08
  Yep, that guy is totally a big giant douche!
• gromdul writes on 30/10/08
  I don't think you are correct on the DMCA. If you copyrighted the original work, just changing the color is not enough to avoid infringing on your rights. The questions would be a lot harder to prove, IMO. I hope you took screen grabs of the original version. Sue the douchebag.
  If you filed for an official copyright, you will be able to seek higher damages
• ferd writes on 30/10/08
  I'm all for people getting their comeuppance, and I hate plagiarism as much as the next person, but I think you overreacted. Especially since it all just happened today - It seems like you wasted no time in posting his personal information everywhere.
  You're a good designer, he's a thief. You're already a better person than he is, no need to sink to his level.
• Rob writes on 30/10/08
  that must be frustrating - well he looks like a right fool now...
• Internet writes on 30/10/08
  That is one ugly broad the douchebag is sporting there.
• Badonkafunk writes on 30/10/08
  It's a dick move. Would you accept a link for credit on his page?
• Marnie B writes on 30/10/08
  That's a horrible thing to do. What a sleazy douche.
• Melanie Phung writes on 30/10/08
  When 3M copied my friend's Post-It Note Jaguar photos for their viral campaign (after contacting him even), I admit we both got a ton of satisfaction calling 3M's marketers a bunch of douchebags (especially when stories of their douchebaggery started spreading all over the internet). Sometimes it's all you get, but it can be enough.
• peter writes on 30/10/08
  he even looks like a douchebag!
• ¡¡ʞunɹp os ɯ,ı writes on 30/10/08
  So, exactly how much money did you lose again?
• Philipp writes on 30/10/08
  So, you say you drew all the graphics and they were then stolen. Well, I just entered "velociraptor" into Google Images, and look what I found among the first pics.
  http://www.bunkbeds.net/velociraptor/img/header.jpg
  http://www.healthstones.com/dinosaurstore/papo_dinosaur_toys/papo_velociraptor_dinosaur_toys/papo_velociraptor_dinosaur_toys.jpg
• Matthew Inman writes on 30/10/08
  Phillip, yeah I drew all the graphics. When I do vector illustrations I almost always base it off a photo (If it's something complex).
  See here:
  http://www.ndesign-studio.com/resources/tutorials/tracing-photo/
• Justin writes on 30/10/08
  I dont want to be a kill-joy, but this may be considered defamation / libel?
• Yosefag writes on 30/10/08
  Bahahaha what dumpster did this douchebag steal his gf from?
• beedogs writes on 30/10/08
  Wow, nice forehead on that beast to the right of the douchebag. If he were truly a savvy businessman he'd sell advertising on it.
• Klaas writes on 30/10/08
  FUCKING FUCKFACE! Looks just like Dumbo the elephant.
• Angelo writes on 30/10/08
  "I drew all the graphics, wrote the questions, and most importantly spent a huge amount of time trying to figure out a way to create content for a commercial website that was funny and viral, but still relevant to bunk beds."
  Let's be honest here: you didn't put too much effort into either graphics or code. One graphic (partially reused for a second graphic) and some JavaScript (which you probably borrowed to some degree from another source). Thus, and as you mention, the majority of your time was spent on a "viral" (yuk..) marketing campaign..
  Yosef "steals" your page and posts it to a Wordpress blog of trivial importance. Check out the about page: http://wholesaleclothingblog.com/?page_id=2 ...
  I might be jumping to conclusions here but I'd postulate that Yosef didn't post his version to StumbleUpon since the Reddit post came from a MaxyRO of http://www.maxyro.com/ ...
  Now for what really has my brain spinning.. You were going for viral. It went viral. You went apeshit and cried DMCA over a relatively trivial complaint.. Did you consider placing an Internet-friendly license (Creative Commons Share-Alike/Attribution) on your page and nicely requesting a link? You could have had 30 variants of this page overnight (given it's apparent popularity -- again yuk..) and your bunkbeds.net could have had a nice injection of Google juice.
  Furthermore, and keep in mind I'm not partial to either you or Yosef, this is borderline defamation if not textbook. I'm not a lawyer.
  My two cents: you **COMPLETELY** took the wrong route on this one. Breathe. It's all going to be OK. Save your energy on the DMCA and learn how better to market your marketing campaigns yourself. All things said, virus successfully deployed! Even if I personally think the whole thing was pretty trashy.
• baba gadouche writes on 30/10/08
  douche bag is a little nice. he looks more like a mccain loving ass cheecks cock wad. BUNG!
• Angelo writes on 30/10/08
  Good detective work, Philipp, on finding:
  http://www.healthstones.com/dinosaurstore/papo_dinosaur_toys/papo_velociraptor_dinosaur_toys/papo_velociraptor_dinosaur_toys.jpg
  Can someone find the JavaScript somewhere?
  Matt, any admissions before the Reddit swarm continues? :)
• Alex writes on 30/10/08
  OOOOOOOOOoooooooooooo...
• This isMyName writes on 30/10/08
  Who Cares?
  God! Get a life!
• Yosef Martin writes on 30/10/08
  
  First of all let me say that I am truly sorry for what happened and Matt has all the right to be mad. I had no idea about bunkbeds.net I was not the one building the quiz, Matt knows that since I was talking to him in the past to do some work for me. Moreover, I showed him the site wholeclothingblog.com.
  I found out about the quiz this afternoon from a man name Chris (bunk beds pedia) I sent an email to Matt and told him it will be fixed today.
  I was asking the designer to take care of this mess and fix the quiz. I agree that I was the one that needs to address this and remove the quiz asap. For that I'm sorry.
  Anyway, the quiz is down.
• steala writes on 30/10/08
  Stealing stuff sucks. Now to download some movies of the piratebay.
• Anonymoos writes on 30/10/08
  BOTH of you have shit sites and BOTH are sanctimonious douchebags! Get your fucking linkspam off my reddit!
• Matthew Inman writes on 30/10/08
  thanks anonymous! I love you too, dude.
• Sbhxion writes on 30/10/08
  The guy is a D. I agree.
  Although I feel that its kind of odd that an infringement on such a miniscule and (all pun intended) trivial level hits the homepage of Reddit (I am referring to this thread).
  Of all the huge Intellectual Infringement that not only exists on reddit but are promoted by its members, is a far more worthy of attention. Case in point being the website Joox.
  I found this on Reddit yet I have not seen a Screen Writer or an Actors outrage hit the homepage.
  
  One thing comes to mind:
  Let ye without Sin cast the the first stone.
  Is only intellectual infringment of property born in the web worth railing against?
  
  If ye are truly sans Sin, my apologies.
  SBHixon
  
• Peeple writes on 30/10/08
  For those that have had work stolen, especially from a business, don't get mad get a lawyer. The anger just flows away once you hand the problem to someone who will use it to get you money.
• copycat writes on 30/10/08
  It's like I've always said.. I'm going to stay away from name calling [cough], but this guy is way out of line. And if I see one comment on here that says "imitation is the finest form of flattery" is also a [cough, cough]. Do you're own work!! Creative stealing is worse then stealing from a retail store or any other physical item. I steal a car it's covered by insurance or at least is a one time cost. Stealing art work or creative work is worse, you're stealing people creative soals.
• Bryn Youngblut writes on 30/10/08
  Eh what a loser...he won't go anywhere in life I wouldn't worry too much.
• Maox writes on 30/10/08
  Yaaaaawn. Who gives a fuck?
• Maox writes on 30/10/08
  Oh, and anyone who happened to stumble here, make sure to thumb this down. We don't need more self-important losers like this guy vomiting all over the internet. I mean really, boo fucking hoo.
• Jade writes on 30/10/08
  Who would steal such a shitty quiz?
• Steveo writes on 30/10/08
  You all are gay.
• mike writes on 30/10/08
  douchosity is relative
• Mike S writes on 30/10/08
  HEY! I just thought of something! Who cares about this situation? Not me.
• friedlinx writes on 30/10/08
  This whole situation is gay
• G.W.B writes on 30/10/08
  As much as I hate thieves, the "theif" did the right thing (which could have taken a LONG time for the courts to make him do) as soon as he found out according to his email which was quoted
  ""I had no idea about bunkbeds.net I was not the one building the quiz, Matt knows that since I was talking to him in the past to do some work for me. Moreover, I showed him the site wholeclothingblog.com.I found out about the quiz this afternoon from a man name Chris (bunk beds pedia) I sent an email to Matt and told him it will be fixed today. ""
  Sounds like the guy hired a theif, not that he is one. But hey it's the internet what did you expect, EVERYTHING gets stolen on the net. I don't think anyone lost on profit here tbh, you will likely get more hits because it was stolen and this got circulated through stumble. I saw the other version of the quiz before this one and they seemed different enough to me. Tons of variations exist on every quiz out there the idea of "answer these questions to find out how *insert any talent/attribute* you are" isn't new. They are similar enough and came out close enough that I would agree there is a very likely chance that your idea was stolen, but I don't think that is anyone's fault except the person who KNEW they were stealing. sounds as if the guy we are grilling here is as much of a victim as you are, he paid for someone to provide a unique "quiz" and that person provided him with software he was not entitled to sell. As unlikely as it sounds Infinite monkey theorem might apply here(link to wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinite_monkey_theorem). Maybe if everyone expected the best rather than the worst from people, we would see the better half more often.
• fuck you, you piece of shit. writes on 30/10/08
  no one gives a fuck about your fucking worthless "quiz".
  it's like getting mad if someone broke into my bathroom at 6 in the morning and stole the shit i just took--- IT'S STILL SHIT.
  so fuck you, and keep your shit off reddit... for the sake of the internet, kill yourself.
• pjm writes on 31/10/08
  Sounds like you both acted professionally, and there was minimal gnashing of teeth and/or drawing of swords.
  Best of luck to both of you.
• Angelo writes on 31/10/08
  You threw a party in your own name by exploiting your "perpetrator".. Only a "marketer" would do such a thing..
  Long live the undeserved shame:
  http://buu700.googlepages.com/yosef-martin.html
  http://clipmarks.com/clipmark/43CCC191-B403-405B-9C6F-63E0692D584D/
  http://friendfeed.com/e/b03261f4-cdcf-b3a2-6676-064f0fa9d095/Yosef-Martin-douchebag-steals-my-work-gets-on/
  No telling how long this will effect /his/ Google profile:
  http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&q=yosef+martin&btnG=Search
  Wonder if this is the same Yosef:
  http://www.linkedin.com/pub/6/b3a/46
  First year of college? ~18? Almost a decade younger than you. DMCA!?
• lisa writes on 31/10/08
  take the time to spell check your comment next time and i might, Might, take you more seriously.. i mean, soal? come on.
• John Colon writes on 31/10/08
  Would you like some cheese with that Whine?
  Jif
  www.online-anonymity.kr.tc
• Zeddy writes on 31/10/08
  He is truly sorry for your lots.
• Douchebag writes on 31/10/08
  How does this count as art?
• Scott writes on 31/10/08
  Um, I am not sure who the douchebag is. The guy who stole the quiz or the douchebag who got all bent out of shape about it.
  
• ferd writes on 31/10/08
  This whole thing is kind of disappointing. Matt, I've been to your site before, and I remember bookmarking it because I liked your work.
  However, you handled this whole affair in such a juvenile manner...
• john mccain writes on 31/10/08
  news flash: anyone who would create that quiz is a douchebag already, so i don't see what your point is here
• anonymous writes on 31/10/08
  People actually care about quizzes, enough for this kind of plagiarism and intrigue? It's pretty easy to take the template, "How ___ would you ___ if ___?" and pull words randomly from a dictionary for the blanks.
  To hell with quizzes.
  
• hateyourprofessor.com writes on 26/11/08
  seriously that quiz wasnt that intersting who cares?!?! nobodys making $5000000 bux off it. or probably $5 for that matter.