Prologue: When Loye Young, an adjunct professor at Texas A&M, caught his students cheating, he publicly failed and punished them by publishing their names and records on his course blog, as well as his personal blog, for anyone to see. This move was in keeping with a promise he made at the start of the semester saying “I will promptly and publicly fail and humiliate anyone caught lying, cheating, or stealing. That includes academic dishonesty, copyright violations, software piracy, or any other form of dishonesty.” For his unorthodox, (I’ll say Batman-esque), methods of dealing with plagiarists, he was fired. The students, on the other hand, have not been expelled. This post is, in part, for you, Professor Young.
Like Professor Young, I don’t like plagiarists. Also like Professor Young, I am an ardent supporter of less-than-conventional means of punishment. Unlike Professor Young, though, I do not want to get fired, so let me state for the record that I had nothing to do with any of the immature examples of retaliation you will soon read about in this article. I can’t imagine who might be responsible.
Someone handsome and witty, I’d guess, and with just a hint of Spider-Man-like qualities.
El Grafico, a Mexican Newspaper, stole Jeff Kelly’s article on Sex Myths Explained by Science. Even though they’re getting traffic and ad sales due to the article, El Grafico didn’t come up with the idea- Jeff did. And they didn’t do the research- Jeff did. Hey, you know what else they didn’t do?
They didn’t upload their own images.
They linked directly to our images. The images in our server, that we have access to. For those not too familiar with how image hosting works, this basically means that, if we make any changes to the images on our end, the new, edited images would show up on their site. (It’s explained a little bit better in this article.)
With this in mind, it would appear that any clever, enterprising and well-endowed Cracked employee could easily alter those images, as sort of a public embarrassment to El Grafico for being such lazy, thieving fucking cowards.
Huh.
Now, I’m not saying I would do this- though I do fit all the aforementioned criteria- I’m just not really tech-savvy enough. I couldn’t, say, look at their article where they’ve linked to one of our images…
…and subtly alter it in anyway.
Nope. Wouldn’t know anything about that. I’ll admit, it sure is funny, though. And clever. Let’s see what other neat little photoshopping tricks I wouldn’t know anything about.
Before proceeding, I’d like to point out that, regardless of whether or not the article in question is taken down by the time of this publishing these are actual screengrabs from El Grafico’s actual website (Editor’s Note: It has not been taken down as of 9:20 AM EST. You can still see these images up on the actual article at the above link.).
Boy, that El Grafico sure does seem to love Nazis. But, again, I wouldn’t know anything about this image-tampering. I certainly wouldn’t know who’s enormous dick shadow that is, looming ominously over that happy couple, (though if I did know anything, I would add that there’s plenty more where that came from).
Alright, let’s see what other images show up on their article.
Hey, is that Disco Bernie, the World’s Oldest Male Stripper? It is! At first glance, he might seem like an inappropriate image choice for this article, but, you should know, the literal translation of “El Grafico” is “We Love Cocks and Nazis,” so it’s actually a perfect fit.
Okay, the next entry on the list is about cousins. Now, in our version of this article, we used a picture of George Michael and Maeby from Arrested Development. Let’s see what El Grafico went with.
Hitler again? The Nazi’s lost, El Grafico, get over it already. Sheesh! Also, Hitler marrying a horse? I’m with whatever sexy and brilliant humorist wrote the caption for that photo; that just doesn’t make any sense. Does “cousin” mean something different in Spanish? Oh well. Let’s move on to the last image in the article.
Hey, a helpful little message about plagiarism! How sweet. I do want to point out that, in the background of this image, the dude with the afro is wearing a Swastika. It’s subtle, but it’s totally there.
…
Not that I know that because I had anything to do with this photoshop or anything. I mean, if I was in any way associated with this image, I’d be able to tell you that the dude also has a photoshopped Hitler mustache that went largely unnoticed due to the placement of the words. Had I worked on this, I would admit that the meticulous detailing that I put into the Hitler ’stache was probably a waste of time in retrospect.
If this was the first time someone had stolen from us, perhaps I wouldn’t have reacted this way. But that’s just not the case.
People have been ripping us off for a while, which may come as a surprise to you. Maybe you think plagiarism is reserved for Scientific Journals, or Physics Tests, or, really, anything other than a site that deals largely with pop culture, celebrities I want to have sex with, and dick jokes. You’d be wrong. A while back, FM 105.1 ripped off an Ian Cheesman article and was soundly dealt with. Some site named Myhumors, quite ironically, took humor that wasn’t theirs by posting several of our articles without permission or credit to the source. Funnbee.com illegally posted one of our articles, (which is bad enough in its own right), but what made it infinitely worse was that it was my article, and I keep my shit extremely real.
Needless to say, they took it down.
Both the Northern Star and some Croatian website, the name of which I could not pronounce without some kind of profound tongue surgery, stole Lisa Skye’s article about Music Trends That Must Be Stopped.
There’s more, but, the bottom line, folks, is that people like stealing from us. Maybe they do it because they think it doesn’t bother us (it does), or that we won’t catch them (we will), or maybe they just think “Hey, it’s the internet- Regular laws don’t apply here,” an argument I will be sure to remember when I’m beating them to death for stealing one of my articles.
A lot of the sites who have plagiarized simply remove the stolen article once we send over a menacing, legal-sounding cease-and-desist letter. The Northern Star went as far as to fire the stolen article’s “author.”
So what do you do if you’re tired of sending cease-and-desist letters, or if they’re just not enough? Blogger and One-of-The-Smartest-Guys-On-The-Internet Ryan Holiday advocates writing a simple email and moving on, which is certainly classy and mature, but still, not enough for me. Plus, there’s no code you can put in an email that’ll make a picture of a giant dick shadow show up on somebody’s website. (Trust me.)
But this is really aggravating. I mean, sure, we mostly write about bullshit, and, sure, there are spelling errors in just about every arcticle we publish, but make no mistake: We work hard here. Articles are workshopped, researched, written and edited. Photo research is done, and in some cases, photoshopping is done, sometimes very extensive and time-consuming photoshopping.
Did you think this picture just happened?!
Getting furious whenever someone lays claim to creative work that is not their own is not an overreaction. Anyone who has ever put work into anything can agree to that. And if people keep stealing our articles, I’m just gonna keep putting pictures of dicks on their websites, and if they don’t link to our images directly, I’m just gonna flood their inboxes with even more dicktures, graphic ones at that, and if they don’t link directly to our images and they don’t have an email address listed, then I am going to track them down and mail them severed dicks.
I mean, “I” in the ambiguous sense. Like, “I or someone like me,” but not me, of course. I had nothing to do with all those pictures.
Last 5 posts by Daniel O'Brien
- 'Watchmen' Fan Cordially Invites Fox to Eat Several Dicks - December 26th, 2008
- Letters From Santa - December 19th, 2008
- 'Twas the Night Before Christmas 2: Christmasturbation - December 12th, 2008
- The X Most Blankiest Somethings in the History of Whatever - December 5th, 2008
- The First Thanksgiving: An Almost Graphic Representation - November 28th, 2008
January 7th, 2009 at 3:29 pm
[...] it is with interest and not a little mirth that I read this on my new favourite website, Cracked, and in particularly the blog of one Dan [...]
January 7th, 2009 at 9:11 am
Trust me of all people- gringo/gringa is NOT dergogatory. I could give you examples, but they would be highly personal and NSFW.
January 7th, 2009 at 1:47 am
[...] glad to report that the radio show in question no longer exists, but personally, I much prefer Cracked.com editor Dan O’Brien’s method for dealing with internet article piracy (Full disclosure alert! I write for Cracked also). [...]
January 7th, 2009 at 1:08 am
[...] glad to report that the radio show in question no longer exists, but personally, I much prefer Cracked.com editor Dan O’Brien’s method for dealing with internet article piracy (Full disclosure alert! I write for Cracked also). [...]
December 27th, 2008 at 10:46 pm
those are some funny pictures. put the text into spanish so the ppl on that site know what happened lol.
December 26th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
I guess that was already brought up various times. sorry.
And here in Mexico, gringo can be both merely descriptive or an insult. Anyone who says differently is either ignorant or lying.
December 26th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
I don’t care much one way or the other, but you may or may not be aware that the site did originally credit cracked.com with the work…the exact words are “de acuerdo al sitio cracked.com” which translates to “according to the site cracked.com” You can see this on the first image in the article.
not rocket science I know, but I thought it might be worth bringing to your attention. not that it means they had permission or anything like that.
December 26th, 2008 at 11:48 am
stop with the “gringo” stuff
“gringo”, here, in south-america is the word for blond-headed, or non-spanish speaker people…
and is NOT an insult…
and “spic” doesn’t mean a sh1t for us, latin-americans.. so it doesn’t hurt…
cracked.com FTW!
December 19th, 2008 at 3:20 am
RE: Fatfreemilk
Spent much time in Central America? Gringo applies to anyone from the US. Typically it’s more quickly applied to Caucasians, as it’s easier to assume they’re Americans, whereas people of African ancestry populate many Carribean and central american locations, so their origin is not as readily assumed, but rest assured once they learn an African is American Mexicans, Costa Ricans, Peruvians and Nicaraguans will call that person Gringo too. I won’t speak for the other Spanish speaking countries as I haven’t been there, but in all likelihood things are similar there.
And, it’s not always derogatory - it’s contextual.
December 17th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
Well played
December 17th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
“That’s incorrect.
I’m too tired to explain so I’m just gonna copypaste from Wiki:”
WRONG! Just because Wiki says so, doesn’t make it gospel.
The term Gringo is meant as a term for anyone that is white/foreign. It is an offensive term, because it’s meant to isolate a particular type of person. Gringo is also a white rooster that they have in Latin America. If you are Asian,Black,Indian and foreign, you are not seen as a Gringo.
December 16th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
[...] Anyway, that’s why I loathe plagiarism. And for a great post on site’s retribution to a plagiarizing ne’er-do-well , check out this Cracked.com blog. [...]
December 14th, 2008 at 11:21 pm
“first learn Spanish gringo is a derogatory term used by Latin America to express extreme displeasure at someone…”
That’s incorrect.
I’m too tired to explain so I’m just gonna copypaste from Wiki:
Gringo (feminine, gringa) is a Spanish and Portuguese word used in Latin America to generally denote people from the United States, but in some cases it is also used to denote any foreign non-native speakers of Spanish (regardless of race), especially English-speakers.[1] Anglophones may consider the word pejorative, and dictionaries such as the American Heritage Dictionary classify gringo as “offensive slang”, “usually disparaging”, and “often disparaging”.[2] However, Hispanophones disagree on whether or not gringo is derogatory; it is not considered as such by the authoritative Diccionario de la lengua española de la Real Academia Española.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gringo
Long story short:
No one uses it as an insult.
December 14th, 2008 at 11:00 pm
HAHAHAHA Gringo. You’re pathetic. It’s not being spoiled if someone takes your hard work, claiming it’s theirs. It would’ve been different if they had cited their sources, saying who the true author was and where they got it from, but no.
This is a hilarious article BTW, I’ve been reading cracked for a while, nice job getting back at them.
December 13th, 2008 at 1:29 am
first i have to say good job Dan for finnally geting some revenge on playgerizing morons…
second please put gringo in a top 10 list for funniest misinformed idiot on the planet…
and to gringo…
first learn Spanish gringo is a derogatory term used by Latin America to express extreme displeasure at someone…
you also need to learn that just because a country is poor doesn’t mean that they are exempt from retaliation of stealing, and the ethnicity thing is YOUR problem not ours… i can almost garentee you that you would have called it “the fukin funyest thing eva” and agreed with him whole heartedly if this was about white people or another ethnicity… it just proves to me that YOU are the racist not him and that you probably saw the word Mexican and immediatly began typing a response throwing in a quote or two for good measure… people like you sicken me and have no place in this world.
the funniest thing is that you punish yourself by calling yourself “Gringo” other wise know as a “untrustworthy foreigner”
December 12th, 2008 at 10:14 pm
First I want to state that El Grafico is no innocent page. Any respected writer would not have done this nor would would have allowed it to happen. I am ashamed that this was the doing of a mexican page, but “the person who chaged the pictures and is obviously not related in any way to Dan” took the proper measures. But next time write the stuff you want to write in the page’s original language, there are people from many parts of the world reading this page, just ask (ask me if you want a good translation spanish-english). Oh, y “gringo” deja de estar chingando con tus pendejadas y no defiendas a un criminal.
December 12th, 2008 at 7:08 pm
Hah, nice one Gringo, you racist.
Mm, white people are fat, and it’s alright the “poor mexican website” to steal because they’re Mexican right, just like you “Gringo”?
Well guess what? White, black, mexican, chinese, whatever, plagarizism is not acceptable. Your idea that Dan shouldn’t have done this to a Mexican newspaper because they’re Mexican and Poor is racist.
All stupid people should be treated the same, stupid Mexican or stupid anything else. These chumps got what they deserved.
December 12th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
In the stolen rap article
“8,000 WAY TIE: IRV GOTTI, YO GOTTI, BIG GOTTI, DON GOTTI, JUAN GOTTI, BAZOOKA JOE GOTTI, etc
First of all, have some originality”
Oh dear, someone failed irony class.
December 11th, 2008 at 6:41 pm
Hey gringo, you’re a fucking moron. Have you ever had anything stolen from you? It sucks, no matter what it is.
December 11th, 2008 at 11:24 am
http://listoftheday.blogspot.com/2008/12/29-stupid-rapper-names-of-day.html
Stole the rap article.
December 11th, 2008 at 9:49 am
Dan you are a whining little bitch. Get over it. I fucking hate the way you write, with your “I wouldn’t know anything about this image-tampering. I certainly wouldn’t know who’s enormous dick shadow that is”
What a faggot. Your are a pussy. Just come out and say it. You have a Nazi fetishes and your projecting your fantasies onto this poor, innocent Mexican website. Why? Because they “stole” some images and maybe translated an article from your page!! You remind me of a spoilt child who wants all the sweets and won’t share with any other children. I bet your fat. Aren’t you? You are, your fat!
December 9th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
when I was 10 years old, i told my mom i thought i was getting my period. But she didn’t wanna waste the money on tampons or maxi pads untill she was sure i got my period. So instead that day she sent me to school with double pantyhose panty liners & and like 10 minutes after our first recess i got my period!!! I BLED ALL OVER THE PLACE AND IT WAS EMBARRASSING!!!!! I LOOKED LIKE SOMEONE GUTTED A CATFISH OUT OF MY ASS.
December 9th, 2008 at 10:13 am
[...] them in a different area of your site - something, anything! We could have done something like this but we decided to take a somewhat less harsh approach by just switching out the [...]
December 8th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
I saw another article stolen form this site. It’s on http://listoftheday.blogspot.com/2008/12/29-stupid-rapper-names-of-day.html
Go get these guys, this isn’t the first time I’ve seen them steal from sites.
December 8th, 2008 at 1:53 am
Well done!!
December 5th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
Muahahahaha!
http://Susanimate.spaces.live.com
December 5th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
Im totally gonna make a website and plagarise this article just to be ironic
December 5th, 2008 at 11:11 am
Next time, WHOEVER made those pictures should find a Spanish speaker (just email me, mister) to translate your messages into Spanish so they’ll really hit home to the posters & readers.
December 5th, 2008 at 10:57 am
Dan, I want to steal your anal virginity.
If it no longer exists, I will accept a photoshop.
December 4th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
I wonder how many stolen songs the author of this article has on his iPod.
December 4th, 2008 at 4:51 am
Why do people have to steal articles from nobel peace prize winning writers like yourself Dan. I mean what the fuck? They should go back to doing donkey shows and shit.
December 4th, 2008 at 2:30 am
As a Mexican, I’m proud to say WELL DONE!! Those thieves should be F/&(ed Up!
I really love this website, Good for you, these things should be necessary mostly because people in here is so f/&(ing retarded and lazy, so they copy (well, steal) Everything: Just watch the commercial Televisa did for Bejing… and many MANY things (you should really make an article: “Hecho en México”: 10000 things Mexico stole from U.S and the rest of the World).
I really support your website. F((//K “El Grafico”
Ps. GREAT Website
December 4th, 2008 at 1:09 am
Don’t worry DOB. I’m fairly sure that natural selection will take care of all involved very shortly.
VERY shortly…
December 3rd, 2008 at 1:51 pm
Fuck El Grafico!
December 3rd, 2008 at 12:37 pm
That was a cute little bitch rant. Seriously though, you value this shit waaaaay too much.
December 3rd, 2008 at 11:18 am
[...] 5 - Boy oh boy, people at Cracked get pissy if you ever steal their stuff - Cracked [...]
December 3rd, 2008 at 6:14 am
You’re the fucking man Dan. God damn you son of a bitch. You’re better than that faggot Gladstone. I’m so glad his bitchass is leaving. More room for you to go out and do your fucking thing. Dan O’Brien 4ever biatch!
December 2nd, 2008 at 5:00 pm
Also, @Hoffman: Elsmere Music V. NBC (1977) U.S. CoA. Fair use via parody. Don’t post things you don’t know shit about.
Sorry for the double up.
December 2nd, 2008 at 4:38 pm
I love how people on the internet have no concept of what copyright law does. You can’t say “According to cracked.com:” and then reproduce the ENTIRE FUCKING ARTICLE. That doesn’t make it ok (even in Mexico, as per international copyright treaties). No, fair use statutes do not apply here. If you wrote for a living, instead of to flame people in internet comment sections, you would have a better understanding of how seriously journalists take plagiarism.
Well played, DOB. Well played indeed.
December 2nd, 2008 at 7:51 am
I just found some of he photos on another rich woman seeking fun site
—–W e a l t h y s o u l M a t e .C O M—-
but my question is what he is doing with such a service
December 2nd, 2008 at 6:25 am
Fucking A man. I mean shit knawmsayin like what? I don’t even read that guerra faggot shit man. 209 motherfuckers from Stockton steal shit all the time, but stealing articles is for pussies who don’t know how to pull a gat knawmean. Shit. Chinga tu madre pendejos!
December 1st, 2008 at 10:39 pm
@spics GO HOME!!!: Yes, the darkies totally came here of their own accord and stole our country. We came from Europe, kicked out the Native Americans, and brought the “Darkies” here. They didn’t steal shit. You sir, are retarded.
@Chuck Liddell about the KKK fags: I agree.
December 1st, 2008 at 9:10 pm
Hell yea, man! Photoshoppin those pictures was freakin awesome!
December 1st, 2008 at 4:23 pm
Stupid KKK, ignorants, and racist assholes need to leave cracked.com! Fuck off this is a diverse website.
December 1st, 2008 at 4:00 pm
God Damn Dan Byrd. How dare he endorse that monkey.
Iamhereandwontleave go back to mowing my lawn dammit.
December 1st, 2008 at 1:31 pm
Hey a-holes, I’ve never heard of “cracked.com” before, maybe you should thank that shitty newspaper.
However they should have upload the images to their own servers, not use your BW IMHO.
December 1st, 2008 at 9:20 am
@Spics GO HOME!!! this is our home, learn some history, Texas, Arizona, california, New Mexico???
November 30th, 2008 at 6:49 pm
Those dumb wetbacks are all a bunch of burglars. They will steal our jobs like those darkies stole our country!
November 29th, 2008 at 4:43 pm
this
# eh Says:
November 27th, 2008 at 11:07 pm
Hey LoneRanger, citing something with a hyperlink is usually considered sufficient. Way to be an idiot.
——————————
is not correct unless permission given
November 29th, 2008 at 7:55 am
funny, but it makes me miss hate by numbers.
*sniffle*
November 28th, 2008 at 6:09 pm
Wouldn’t it make more sense to have the images translated into Spanish so that the readers were to know what you’re trying to say? Just saying…
November 28th, 2008 at 5:11 pm
And I found the page because the article says: “De acuerdo con el sitio cracked.com”
CRACKED.COM!
November 28th, 2008 at 4:52 pm
errr!
The translation from english to spanish was perfect, the reporter that found the article obviously had an excellent english level. So it wasn’t a babelfish stuff.
And I knew this page thanks to the article, so this is probably good for this page.
November 28th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
@ Gisela: How could it add to their fame and reputation when it’s not referenced? When it’s not, most people would read it, and attribute it to the source they saw it.
November 28th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Doesn’t it add to fame and reputation, even if there is no reference? I thought all cracked-authors were high above such insular attitude…
November 28th, 2008 at 11:30 am
Oh, Creamy Seizure, I loved that statement!
“Without plagiarism, I’d never have an original thought.”
Mind if I plagiarize that for everyday conversational use?
Come to think of it, you probably plagiarized that from somewhere, so fuck it. I don’t need your permission.
November 28th, 2008 at 4:59 am
[...] This is Why You Don’t Steal from Cracked - El Grafico, a Mexican Newspaper, stole a Cracked article. They were so lazy that they [...]
November 28th, 2008 at 2:20 am
Is a Mexican site u most be put your captions in Spanish and don’t use hitler we dont care that bastard.
be more smart next time. there is a babel fish to translate
November 28th, 2008 at 1:59 am
Ironically enough, now a lot of Mexicans (at least the staff of the office I work in) are now addicted to Cracked.com. Thanks, El Grafico!
November 28th, 2008 at 1:42 am
I am not agree about any way of stealing and plagiarizing is a way of doing it.
But in the ” Grafico’s” Article, it says ” De acuerdo con el sitio Cracked.com …” ( According to the site Cracked.com …”), so I must say, that is a way of giving credit right ?. So I have 2 guesses.
1 - Either the “Grafico” realized that Cracked.com discovered the stealing and they quickly add the line to give the appropriate Credit, but, the damage was done and no excuse or attempt to fix it was valid.
2.- Or is it just that Cracked.com doesn’t know a bit of spanish and didn’t bother reading the article to realize that the Credit was there but they just found their own pictures on another website, or throught the statistics,and then they knew were the traffic was coming from and suddenly got mad ( I would feel the same way) But if the line was previously there, then the ones who made an awful mistake, was cracked.com
No matter what happened, I think there were better ways to deal with it, ” EL Grafico” is part of ” El Universal” and this last one is one of the best and most trusty Newspaper in Mexico, so I can tell you that someone will get fired about this…
the Only good thing about it, is that I’ve never heard about cracked.com until now, and I liked it. so I will be adding the site to my Safari’s Bookmarks.
November 28th, 2008 at 12:50 am
[...] Notiz für später: Niemals bei Cracked klauen [...]
November 27th, 2008 at 11:07 pm
Hey LoneRanger, citing something with a hyperlink is usually considered sufficient. Way to be an idiot.
November 27th, 2008 at 9:54 pm
El Grafico removed the page… but St Google saved it for all the simple human beings!
http://74.125.45.132/search?q=cache:a-FxSHVo1OcJ:www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/556748.html+las+6+realidades+cientificas+sobre&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us
November 27th, 2008 at 8:42 pm
Hola…..revisen el supuesto ” codigo de etica ” con el que trabajan en el Grafico…..en especial el punto numero 2, Honestidad……http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/disenio/directorios08/codigo.html
Saludos!
November 27th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
Hey Cracked, I’m assuming you asked permission to:
msnbc.com
wired.com
msn.com
telegraph.co.uk
news.com.au
abcnews.go.com
to use them as sources for putting together your article. Right??
Because, you know, just putting an hyperlink to their site is not enough.
November 27th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
ja ja ja ja VIVA LA PIRATERIA!!! …se pasan los del grafico simple prueba de q son una bola de HUEVONES!!…
November 27th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
look i’m mexican, and you are rigth, mexican news paper are a big joke, that’s why i don’t read it, I realy sorry, because this MF show us as bulglars, you should go to the law, saludos cariñosos desde México
November 27th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
Man, that’s bad, I live in mexico, I’m Mexican and all I can tell you guys is that I’m disappointed AGAIn with Mexico, that’s why this country still a 3rd world country, because people like “El Grafico”.
I’m ashamed of being a Mexican
Marco
November 27th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
Without plagarism I’d never haver an original thought.
November 27th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
I don’t know if plagiarizing is such bad thing, because otherwise we wouldn’t get such a great revanche…
November 27th, 2008 at 8:01 am
I tend to replace said picture with goatse. They drop the hotlink pretty quickly after that.
November 27th, 2008 at 3:02 am
[...] mexicano "El Gr??fico" y a un sitio llamado Cracked. La gente de este ??ltimo sitio descubri?? que fueron plagiados en el art??culo "Sex myths explained by science" por el medio mexicano, debido a que [...]
November 27th, 2008 at 12:52 am
I love messing with people who hotlink my images. I have two more tips for you:
1) As well as replacing the image, you can resize it, which will usually screw up the target website’s formatting.
2) In the image you put up, use screenshots to duplicate delete, move, etc buttons from the target website. That way, when they go to delete your image, it’ll take them a couple clicks before they find the real button.
A while ago, I made a joke bingo card to satirise the things that other foreigners in Korea whine about way too much. Somehow, for some reason, the image got passed around the Japanese Internet community, mainly in articles bashing Korea, which was never my intention. No idea why, but if you want to see how I deal with racist Japanese plagiarists, click on the link in post 61. AWAY from coworkers.
http://4-ch.net/politics/kareha.pl/1143111506/
November 26th, 2008 at 11:28 pm
Just got hot linked to this site from college humor. I’m with you guys 100%, props on fighting those thieving f*****s. and a wicked article.
November 26th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
good for you fellows, plaigarism is sickening to me… I only wished you had gone further. I suppose all the Nazi stuff is pretty solid though. One can’t argue with the subtlety of a simple “EL GRAFICO HUMS ON MEXICAN BALLS” though.
November 26th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
I’m not surprised about any of these. If you take into account that they stole their name from a highly reputed magazine in Argentina, founded in 1919, to gain themselves a few more readers by mistake over the internet.
check the good one: http://www.elgrafico.com.ar
November 26th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
http://74.125.45.132/search?q=cache:a-FxSHVo1OcJ:www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/556748.html+el+grafico+realidades+sexo&hl=es&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=ar
Here’s a cached page from google where the images appear, if you want to see how the article looked like.
November 26th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
#445.(What the current column record? 500? Can any one say anal sex with a reach-around?)
I tried to find the original article but they must have taken it down. I did find one blogger who put agoogle cached screen grab of El Grafico on their site. I can’t read spanish but I’m guessing they did it for posterity as a tribute to your awesome revenge.
November 26th, 2008 at 7:30 am
wow. i’ll be sure never to steal from you, and try to report any stolen shit so you can do the pictures thing again!
November 26th, 2008 at 2:00 am
hey people working on crack articles.
Just keep up the good work that your doing. Whenever I read one of your article it really lift me up. And I hope all the people who plagiarized your work get’s what they deserve. A swift kick to their balls or cunt.
I hope you do an article on how you make those photo research or how you decide on what article to write.
thanks again for the entertaining read.
November 25th, 2008 at 11:32 pm
I had this one guy who kept stealing my video clips for a project back in high school. Since I never saw him because he was in another class, I’d delete his project, write what essentially amounted to “STOP STEALING THESE CUNTBAG” on the stolen clips, and yet he’d keep creating the same project using the same clips again and again. I finally had to rat him out to his teacher. Dumb asshole.
November 25th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
Awesome. Simply awesome.
November 25th, 2008 at 6:30 pm
Stupid KKK piece of shit. I’m white and I don’t condone bullshit messages like yours so FUCK OFF!
November 25th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
Henry Hoffman needs to SHUT THE FUCK UP!!! Fuckin’ brainy ass whiteboy. Shit mofuggas need to stop jerkin it to God Of War and shit. BIATCH!
November 25th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
hahahah almost as funny as plastic spiders decorating your thanksgiving turkey: http://tinyurl.com/6gwzwj
November 25th, 2008 at 3:59 pm
A writer for the newspaper at my college got caught stealing stuff from Cracked and he got canned…totally deserved that!
November 25th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
[...] Actualización Esta es la respuesta de cracked.com acerca de los sucedido con El Universal. [...]
November 25th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
Isn’t Cracked really just plagiarized from Mad anyways?
November 25th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
This is an awesome article. My style of writing, for sure.
I gotta say, though, THANK GOD SOMEONE KNOWS HOW TO GET BACK AT PLAGIARISTS.
Dirty bastards.
Also by modifying .htaccess file on your server you can redirect all hotlinked images to another one, rather than changing the originals. That way your aticle stays intact.
mexicano “El Gráfico” y a un sitio llamado Cracked. La gente de este último sitio descubrió que fueron plagiados en el artículo “Sex myths explained by science” por el medio mexicano, debido a que
Get it? I plagarized the comments. Ha, so fucking ironic.
November 25th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
This is an awesome article. My style of writing, for sure.
I gotta say, though, THANK GOD SOMEONE KNOWS HOW TO GET BACK AT PLAGIARISTS.
Dirty bastards.
Good job, and thank you for helping me survive this boring class!
Cracked rocks my socks off of my body into the laundry basket.
(And I’m not exaggerating.)
November 25th, 2008 at 9:01 am
Hi, nice article. Just wondering whether you own the copyright to the images that you put in place? You don’t? What comes around goes around I guess.
Also by modifying .htaccess file on your server you can redirect all hotlinked images to another one, rather than changing the originals. That way your aticle stays intact.
November 25th, 2008 at 8:12 am
It did say that the article is credited to cracked.com…on their page. At least they mentioned it. Should have given an original link or something.
Lame of them to take it, nice pictures.
November 24th, 2008 at 11:40 pm
[...] mexicano "El Gráfico" y a un sitio llamado Cracked. La gente de este último sitio descubrió que fueron plagiados en el artículo "Sex myths explained by science" por el medio mexicano, debido a que [...]
November 24th, 2008 at 8:16 pm
Genius payback plan! I just tell everyone to come here. So much easier. Keep up the good work
November 24th, 2008 at 8:03 pm
Another one from Argentina’s “H” mag (”Maxim” but worst): http://www.hombre.uol.com.ar/edicion_0058/happyhour/nota_00.htm
November 24th, 2008 at 7:50 pm
man el imparcial is plagiarizing too XD haahah
http://www.elimparcial.com/EdicionEnLinea/Notas/VidayEstilo/20112008/341316.aspx
November 24th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
Those FUCKING wetbacks go back to Mexico! Stupid beaners ruining our white websites by stealing. Learn English instead of that speaking that spic language goddamned greasers! Fucking Jimboys.
November 24th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
Now THAT was some badass payback!
November 24th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
@ Dermagren-
I don’t know from Science, but I DO know that “Daniel” was recently announced as the most popular boy’s name of the year.
Suck it, “Michael!”
November 24th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
[...] I know, this was an extremely boring post. Go here for something more interesting. Then write over and over again, “I shall not hotlink nor [...]
November 24th, 2008 at 11:32 am
Nice! I whole-heartedly agree!!
November 24th, 2008 at 11:04 am
You are champions to all those who have nothing to fight for.
Well done good sirs, bet that will wipe that shit eating grin off their faces.
http://www.theblogdonkey.com
November 24th, 2008 at 9:59 am
Dan O Brien…you’re my reason for breathing. I just want to put that out there. And if, for some reason, I end up owning you one day (and you and I both know that day is imminent), I will force you to write articles under the threat of thirty lashes. Or thirty one… it depends on my mood that day.
I would also like to point out that science has recently pinpointed the name “Dan” as the sexiest name to ever grace human existence.
And don’t we all miss the fat chick spam? I know I do.
November 24th, 2008 at 8:01 am
Speaking of Croatian sites, your and few other articles were also plagiarized on net.hr and idesh.net. I think more than few articles, linked some of the articles after complaints from their readers.
November 24th, 2008 at 3:55 am
you know, before I stumbled upon Cracked, I used to regularly visit Listverse.com.. until I found out that some of their articles are just unfunny rip-offs of this site’s.
the funny thing is that site’s administrator doesn’t like Cracked for its “lack of research.”
meh. he can suck ass.
November 24th, 2008 at 12:57 am
[...] hotlinking a las imágenes. La gente de Cracked se dio cuenta del plagio, en inmediatamente realizó una responsiva. Además de un texto ácido [como de costumbre], tuvieron la brillante idea de modificar las [...]
November 23rd, 2008 at 9:58 pm
@Rousie
Not this oddee.com crap again… Nobody took work from there, the writer just saw an article on the same subject matter as theirs and overreacted. If you bothered to check the comments section of the Cracked.com article in question you would find links of similar articles written BEFORE Oddee’s (or just google the topic and find as many as you like) and I imagine there’s been many written since. The writer of the Oddee article is just being obnoxious to think that they were original.
NEXT.
November 23rd, 2008 at 8:37 pm
I am a proponent of sealing them away in a terrifying death maze/hotel, the disintegrating their bodies in quicklime. MMMMMM Sexy
November 23rd, 2008 at 8:18 pm
and by hard and fast i mean that the printing lab was unfortuanetly left unlocked and a page long letter to the editor was printed on the front page of the next school paper…telling exactly what was going to happen to the football field if another article was ever stolen…im not sure why but it actually happened again…and so corn was planted into the football field, which resulted in a cornfield for them to play on the next fall…
November 23rd, 2008 at 8:14 pm
i truly appreciate what you did, this coming from someone who recently found one of his own articles published in another schools paper…needless to say retribution was dealt hard and fast…
November 23rd, 2008 at 7:19 pm
it’s so easy to get angry about plagarism, but fabulous to do something about it. i love you man.
November 23rd, 2008 at 7:02 pm
I was talking to a black friend, and I completely stole your idea that white people can be cool now that The Man is black. I’m sorry DOB.
November 23rd, 2008 at 5:55 pm
when I read this I just think of Tijuana. All of those knock off products of american goods-minus the donkey shows. Mexicans have no dignity when it comes to making money, they just steal whatever idea and call it their own.
November 23rd, 2008 at 4:12 pm
[...] quieren leer el articulo completo en ingles y con mas imagenes editadas este es. Que la masque El Universal por piraña y que tambien chingue a su madre el puto gringo chillon [...]
November 23rd, 2008 at 3:37 pm
Sure, Cracked is complaining about plagiarism… but haven’t thay done it themselves?
For example, may articles from oddee.com have appeared here,
so don’t play innocent, because at least the ideas ahve been robbed form somewhere else…
November 23rd, 2008 at 2:10 pm
I’m too scared to comment. :S
November 23rd, 2008 at 1:36 pm
This has spread all over the Spanish-Language news services. Unfortunately, It’s the real article, not the “fixed” one.
Just google for “Las 6 realidades científicas sobre el sexo” with the quotes and see what happens.
Vergüenza sobre usted Univision!
November 23rd, 2008 at 1:00 pm
Link pictures from encyclopediadramtica.com/offended
November 23rd, 2008 at 11:54 am
Hijo La Chingada. To besas mis nalgas pendejo!
November 23rd, 2008 at 11:34 am
It happened again.. no citations were made this time…
http://www.elimparcial.com/EdicionEnLinea/Notas/VidayEstilo/20112008/341316.aspx
November 23rd, 2008 at 10:41 am
Lol, wow.. i literally laughed out loud with a lot of your stuff. Which is hard to do for me on the internet, unless its a video of something humourous and spontaneous happening. Like a midgets head imploding to a crumpled meat ball.
But, i digest.
The fact that you got back at the plaigerisers (?), plaigerians (?) is excellent. The humour in them was huge also.
I think i just came a little, that’s how happy this article made me.
But anyways, thanks for the read and if i steal some of your stuff, i’ll be sure to add a mailing adress.
I loves me severed man parts i do.
-Aidan.
November 23rd, 2008 at 9:14 am
400.
November 23rd, 2008 at 7:55 am
Excellent work!
In Oz, we have a programme called media watch, who name and shame plagiarisers in news and current affairs, along with pointing out the outright lies.
I had to email them the link for this!
November 23rd, 2008 at 7:00 am
The image editing was a great idea, but couldn’t you have gotten someone to translate it for you? It would’ve been so much more effective.
Also, music copying is nothing like stealing articles. Me copying someone’s album would be like reading an online article to my friends or reading a book from the library. I’m not making money off of it, nor am I claiming that it’s my work. Stealing articles would instead be kind of like stealing someone’s song, translating it, and passing it off as your own.
November 23rd, 2008 at 5:42 am
Those guys that wrote that el grafico article just went back to doing my garden and mowing my lawn for 4 dollars an hour.
November 23rd, 2008 at 5:16 am
Alright..you were a little brilliant, Happy?
November 23rd, 2008 at 5:06 am
Really?
November 23rd, 2008 at 5:00 am
Absolutely fantastic!
Very well done with some extra spicy ingredients at the end. A little like poetry in motion, the send an wave and you are the ocean.
Splash
November 23rd, 2008 at 4:47 am
This Article - Absolutely Brilliant!
I am a great supporter of revenge! Nothing gets my blood pumping like the humiliation of my enemies.
And this was hilarious too!
November 23rd, 2008 at 4:29 am
Damn. Daniel? You are HUGE. I was thinking about commenting. Now I realize that’s pointless. Four hundred million people love you. Wow. Did you change aftershave?
Hm. Kinda fun.
Thousands today. What’s that like?
I’m loving it. Great.
On the other hand..blow me. I’m looking for simple. Frick.I ain’t getting it..I need a boob report..a reason why Kristin is big..don’t let this go to your head..
aloha,
jo
November 23rd, 2008 at 12:41 am
So CRACKED is basically firing Gladstone? Is that what you’re saying?
November 22nd, 2008 at 11:51 pm
Kudos dude for finding it. Its bullshit enough people have to do that. This is a very original website, and I go to crack every time.
And “whoever” edited and reposted the images….fantastic.
‘n’ Fuck’em….Let their websites buuuurnnn……
November 22nd, 2008 at 11:37 pm
I really hate them for doing this… Im against them and anyway… FUCK YOU kevin
November 22nd, 2008 at 11:33 pm
FUCK YES. Oh, and “mauqk”? How terribly subtle of you. I bet you’re not at ALL involved in a certain periodical, with quality suggestive of preemptive recycling in the form of WIPING YOUR ASS WITH IT BEFORE YOU READ IT. Yeah. Not at all.
November 22nd, 2008 at 11:26 pm
I live in Mexico and read this newspaper. And I can say the DESERVE IT. Everybody talks about THE OTHER PEOPLE WHO STEALS, not itself. Cracked must show who stupid they are, and everybody must point to them. If you want to tell them how smart they are, check some of the links I placed in an earlier post.
November 22nd, 2008 at 11:10 pm
It’s good to see you guys standing up for your work.
You guys put a lot into this site and it shows in quality content.
Good luck in nabbing any poor bastards that cross your wrath.
November 22nd, 2008 at 10:01 pm
This is absolutely amazing. Probably one of the most clever things I’ve ever read.
November 22nd, 2008 at 9:58 pm
Great article! LOVE the idea! Though I agree, you guys really should have gotten nastier with those pics, like replacing them all with Goatse, Tubgirl, and every other sick and twisted pic you can find. Maybe that will REALLY get their attention and make them think twice about stealing your articles.
Too bad I can’t speak Spanish. I’d have been more than happy
to translate for you.
November 22nd, 2008 at 9:06 pm
While I fully support the idea of plagiarists to be humiliated, the professor acted as professors all too often do. The professor himself wasn’t plagiarized. How many have you had who named themselves judge, jury, and executioner on every issue? Too many of them have a God complex and think they’re immune to punishment. If my child goes to college on my dime, he’ll have to deal with me as well as punishment thru the proper channels. The reason these students were not expelled was because the school couldn’t afford the pending lawsuits. They had to keep them in school and fire the professor just to say “hey, he acted on his own and outside of our professional code of conduct blah,blah, blah”. He committed just as big a sin as the students did. Cracked did not cross the line in handing out the same kind of punishment because they can handle those who steal their work any way they wish within the law as long as the owner doesn’t feel as though the work that was paid for isn’t embarassing the company.
November 22nd, 2008 at 8:07 pm
i truly lost it when i saw the dick shadow picture, fucking a
November 22nd, 2008 at 7:59 pm
DOB, I salute you. This is far and away the funniest article you have ever written, probably because there’s passion behind it. Let us in on any future revenge plots you, or someone like you, concocts?
November 22nd, 2008 at 7:49 pm
I think Goatse would also fit well with those images,if “someone” were
to misplace it there.
November 22nd, 2008 at 7:47 pm
I fully support you just so long as you don’t become friends with the RIAA and their ilk and start mailing us dicks just because we read your articles or some equally retarded bullshit.
November 22nd, 2008 at 7:19 pm
I am Mexican, as well as “el Gráfico” and I used to read and respet “el Gráfico” (which is part of “El Universal”), but learning about this has just shattered any respect I had in regard to those guys… they should have handled it in a mature way, maybe apologizing… this just embarasses me.
November 22nd, 2008 at 6:56 pm
This wouldn’t happen if you had hired me and my handsome, talented friends to translate Cracked into Spanish, forming thus “Cracked en español”. Time to think big, guys.
November 22nd, 2008 at 6:11 pm
The giant dick shadow totally made it. You, Mr. O’Brien, are a winner. I don’t know what of, but it is undeniable.
November 22nd, 2008 at 5:35 pm
i’ve never commented on one of these before, but i had to after reading this… hilarious!
kudos on sticking it to those asshats, and make sure to give a pat on the back from me to the mastermind behind those pictures. you know, since you had nothing to do with them…
November 22nd, 2008 at 4:56 pm
I’m from Mexico, and guess what? It’s not the first time El Universal (or El Gráfico, the little brother) steals from Cracked. The 6 Most Innovative Brothels From Around the World
by Ian Fortey was also published some months ago. I normally woudn’t mind, but they version tried to be a CNN ‘funny’ article about ‘wacky stuff’. Such a shame there’s no exact translation in spanish for douchebag. That’s fucking stealing in my book.
Mr. DOB, hats off to you, as always.
November 22nd, 2008 at 4:51 pm
I’m kinda glad they stole your articles.
That was a good read.
November 22nd, 2008 at 4:16 pm
Fair use, hhh, fair use.
November 22nd, 2008 at 3:24 pm
This is godamm hilarious. got what they deserved. but what about a light retaliation? This is, you know, the Internet.
November 22nd, 2008 at 2:50 pm
I might be wrong, but isn’t Cracked also stealing content? The images they use in the article, for example the beer goggles they got from this site:
http://www.noveltyhut.com/shopping/pgm-more_information.php?id=190&=SID
seem to have been stolen. Reproducing them on cracked isn’t fair use and I highly doubt they got permission from Novelty Hut before using the image.
Please correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems like Cracked staff members are being hypocrites.
November 22nd, 2008 at 2:40 pm
Way to go cracked. You totally pwned those latinos
November 22nd, 2008 at 2:23 pm
Kudos, Dan! Keep it up, dude.
November 22nd, 2008 at 2:06 pm
Yup. “El Gráfico” is a cheap newspaper whose sources are teh internet and YouTube.
November 22nd, 2008 at 1:40 pm
Sterling work people. Fucking hilarious - keep it up.
November 22nd, 2008 at 1:37 pm
How many Web sites do you see out there where you have an authentic Web site, and then about one hundred others that have the same info, with a word or two different? It’s called cut and paste, and it is the easiest form of plagiarism…linking, however, is another matter…but that doesn’t require a PHD either…
November 22nd, 2008 at 1:22 pm
[...] Lo cuentan ellos, y tambien puedes ver el cache de google, que por supuesto ya desaparecio El Universal. [...]
November 22nd, 2008 at 1:01 pm
I’ve been ripped off before, too. It sucks. My roommate at college last year stole a physics paper I had worked on for a month and a half every night. It was forty-eight pages. Extensive research, editing, experimentation, calculation. I was horrified.
Funny part is, bitch didn’t change the headers so my name was on every page except where she had changed it on the title. That raised a few questions.
Plagiarism is cowardly and low. Plus, you get the shit beat out of you by O’Brien.
November 22nd, 2008 at 12:35 pm
Brilliant work. People who steal articles deserve whatever kind of hell they get.
November 22nd, 2008 at 12:33 pm
Man a shitload of spanish websites are copying the article… Its even in Univision… The fucked up thing is el grafico still has the article but without the images…
Fuck the spanish sites. Abajo con esos malparidos.
November 22nd, 2008 at 11:52 am
Thumbs up, DOB. Brilliant.
November 22nd, 2008 at 11:17 am
Wow. Well Done. It seems that they took the articles down now though. At least I cant get to them. “DOB: Advocate of the healthy use of righteous anger.”
November 22nd, 2008 at 11:06 am
‘kin brilliant!
November 22nd, 2008 at 10:51 am
Should i tell you that i used a quote from that article about cute murderous animals for a song’s name?
It’s “i made this out of spare parts and IT STILL CAN KILL YOU!”, it is about platipi
November 22nd, 2008 at 10:50 am
Mexican scientist discover the seventh myth explained by science and is “copy paste will give you a lot of women”, (copied and pasted from elimparcial.com)
November 22nd, 2008 at 10:48 am
lol I go to Northern Illnois University and read that article and thought that was firmilar. i go on cracked.com on a hourly basis because you guys ARE LIKE CRACK. thank you for pointing out about writers ethics because those sons of bitches in the northern star decided to publish some mean shit when my friends died in a car accident last year. anyways i love your testicles! I mean articles!
-Jun Hong
November 22nd, 2008 at 10:25 am
let me just say that you are amazing and i totally wish that i had the guts to do things like that.
November 22nd, 2008 at 9:48 am
Man, I totally missed my opportunity to put myself down by coming in here fuming, saying, “They made money off of my work, and let me tell you something… (dramatic pause as I seethe and roll my shoulders) …nobody makes money off of Jeff Kelly’s work. NOBODY. Not even Jeff Kelly.”
And then I could have thrown in an “Or else!” or “to be continued…with pain!” or something equally as threatening in order to intimidate them. Maybe throw a little Tombstone at them… “You tell ‘em I’m comin’! And Hell’s comin’ with me! We already bought seats together, and they’re non-refundable!”
Well, it would have made me chuckle on the inside, anyway.
November 22nd, 2008 at 9:21 am
Myhumor stole your article about guys who stole their best idea? Delicious.
November 22nd, 2008 at 9:16 am
Looks like the fucktards did take it down. Thank goodness for google cache! Keep up the great work, loved the article!
November 22nd, 2008 at 8:32 am
Right on Cracked, at last someone who dares to say it loud: stealing other people’s work isn’t “normal”, “right”, “cool” or otherwise “allowed, becoz it’s the web doh”.
It’s theft, end of line.
Besides, I’ve always been amused to see how the biggest thiefs will howl foul when someone dares using one of “their” works…
Keep up the excellent work!
November 22nd, 2008 at 8:30 am
Another newspaper doing the same thing:
http://www.elimparcial.com/EdicionEnLinea/Notas/VidayEstilo/20112008/341316.aspx
November 22nd, 2008 at 8:29 am
You are such a great man DOB. That is why I love you and your deep dicking! You teach those crazy mexican a lesson!
Love you!
November 22nd, 2008 at 7:30 am
Australian television show JTV recently made away with what seemed like an exact duplicate of the article about the most racist Disney characters. Sure, it was filmed and the segment had a new introduction but otherwise it was damn near the same thing. The same characters were used in the same order, hell, even the same jokes were used.
There was not even a single credit saying “Inspired by the real life story of a comedy article written on some website”.
Go kill those jerks.
But kill them with your mind.
November 22nd, 2008 at 6:40 am
Great blog! im going to borrow it for my site!
November 22nd, 2008 at 5:59 am
People are making money from you Dan…
November 22nd, 2008 at 5:58 am
Lupine Wolf: I like Babelfish’s Translation better
1. The title: Annoying note of the Graph to cracked.com
2. “…We offer excuses to the publishers and the users of cracked.com…”
Don’t know about you, but this sounds more accurate to me.
November 22nd, 2008 at 5:27 am
Although you can’t hear it, I’m applauding you…. or someone like you with similar qualities who knows something about techno-crap…
November 22nd, 2008 at 4:35 am
I agree. Go to jail losers.
November 22nd, 2008 at 3:51 am
I think what a lot of people aren’t getting is that the original article (which did not have a link to Cracked), did not actually say that it was a translation of the article, but “according to cracked.com”. This seems like a big difference to me, because saying according to is like citing them as the source of your information, not as the author of the article. For instance, Cracked regularly says something like “According to recent findings, writers for Cracked all have penises measuring from 13 inches (Chris Bucholz) to 31 inches (Daniel O’Brien)”, with a link to who said it, etc. They took that information, and made an entertaining article out of it. So saying “according to cracked.com” is like saying that Cracked had the information, and Random Mexican “Author” wrote it in a funny way. They should have said clearly that it was in fact a translation of the article, along with a link. Also, they should not have linked directly to the Cracked images, that’s just fucking retarded.
There, that should just about sum up what was the actual problem there.
November 22nd, 2008 at 3:37 am
You weren’t nearly harsh enough. Cease and desist letters seem ineffective. You should have made a bigger dent in plagiarism while you had the chance.
November 22nd, 2008 at 3:23 am
talent borrows, genius steals!
- Oscar Wilde
November 22nd, 2008 at 3:11 am
loveyourwork!
i’m be hotlinking to you soon,
because i just can’t wait to see
what you’ll do in response! :+)
-bowerbird
November 22nd, 2008 at 2:40 am
@Janet-
They made money off of Jeff Kelly’s work, actually, (his article, not mine), though that’s still a fair argument because, as a Cracked employee, I view all of our writers as my sexy, talented babies and will protect and defend them like any good parent should, (which is to say, via hastily-thrown-together-photoshops).
November 22nd, 2008 at 1:57 am
Adris and [J], you guys aren’t seeing the issue here. The site may have said “According to cracked.com” but the fact is they DIDN’T ask for permission to post the article that wasn’t theirs to begin with, and they EARNED REVENUE from all the ads on their website when people visited the article.
So, they MADE MONEY off someone else’s work.
Those are the two reasons DOB is so pissed. They didn’t ask for permission, and made money off HIS WORK.
November 22nd, 2008 at 1:52 am
Great article! I hate people who plagiarize and then whine and bitch when they get caught. I’ve actually caught a few art thieves red-handed on the internetz, but unfortunately most of them are on Deviantart and Deviantart is run by cocksuckers and fuckbuckets. So, no one gets punished. Good job, Deviantart!
As for Young, yeah, it sucks that he was fired, but what he did was against the rights of the students. Though, I sorta wish it was a professor’s right to drop kick any student who is caught cheating in their class. Now that would be a great show. (Especially since most students who cheat in class think they’ll never get caught, since they’re oh so skilled. Fucking morons.)
I think Young would now agree that sometimes the need for swift justice can lead us down the wrong path.
November 22nd, 2008 at 1:32 am
You gotta hear me, Daniel O’Brien, I dare you!
First, I despise plagiarism. But, was it really plagiarism from El Gráfico? (Yes, I know how to use a diacritic and you don’t!) So, if you link something to its original source, is it plagiarism? Let me tell you what does “De acuerdo con el sitio cracked.com, los siguientes son las 6 verdades científicas sobre el sexo.” mean:
“According to the website cracked.com, the following are the 6 scientific truths about sex”.
So, is it plagiarism? To me, they were saying that it was totally yours.
Now I quote a comment by you:
“Also, I guess we COULD have sent an email, but it’s a Mexican site, and I don’t speak Spanish.”
Clearly you don’t, but even if somebody doesn’t, they could note the phrase “cracked.com” in the very screenshot you put here. Also, didn’t you realize that if they “plagiarized” your article, they must SPEAK ENGLISH TO DO THAT? Do you think that nobody in Mexico speaks English? Not even the ones who work like in, say, a newspaper? I don’t work in a newspaper, but I can defend myself in English.
Seriously, did you think that the right way to protest against the supposed plagiarism was to put dick and Nazi pictures? Maybe if it was a blog or comedy site like Cracked, but a newspaper? Don’t you have a little common sense?
I really don’t like plagiarism, I just think that you should have thought a little more before acting. I am a great fan of Cracked and specially your articles DOB, but I would have acted different in your place.
November 22nd, 2008 at 1:27 am
oldest trick.. did it several times at egay.. always funny
November 22nd, 2008 at 1:20 am
Nice.
November 22nd, 2008 at 12:49 am
It will be funny if someone plagiarizes this…
November 22nd, 2008 at 12:38 am
[...] hosted IVR and PBX telephone applications Crash Graph Much better footage of Alberta meteor This is Why You Don’t Steal from Cracked 54 Mind-blowing Digital Paintings - PSDTUTS Microsoft JavaScript WTF Life sucks. [PIC] I Am A [...]
November 22nd, 2008 at 12:37 am
I’ve never heard of this site before El Grafico mentioned it.
You should be thanking the free advertising!!!
OMG, you really see the half empty glass
:S
November 22nd, 2008 at 12:35 am
Ok i havent even read this yet, just the intro, but i gotta say this is awesome already!
November 22nd, 2008 at 12:31 am
This is gay, Get a life
November 22nd, 2008 at 12:21 am
Well… the article of “elgráfico” text mention that it was based on cracked.com
Is that considered plagiarism? I mean, cracked.com was cited. You can even see the cite in the beer glasses picture.
November 22nd, 2008 at 12:18 am
they gave credit, boo hooo wah wah wah
if someone stole my tv and gave me credit for buying it, id still be pretty pissed off because my tv was still stolen. Just putting in a small credit while taking an entire article and not asking permission does not make things hunky dori.
Awsome work as always DOB, you show em whose boss, i swear we could end more wars with a well placed battalion of shadow peni.
November 22nd, 2008 at 12:02 am
Translation from El Gráfico’s new note:
“An article from El Gráfico online, published on sep 20th, caused turmoil with cracked.com’s editors because of elements taken from one of their articles.
The article “6 truths about sex” cited the original source and linked to their site. We recognize intellectual property and we regret the negative reactions caused by the article. We offer our apologies to the editors and users of cracked.com”
Well.. sounds about right, although I don’t remember a direct link to cracked, only a text mention. Still, a victory I guess. That’s as good as a “sorry our bad” as we’re gonna get.
November 22nd, 2008 at 12:01 am
[...] tomaron la molestia de alojar las imágenes en sus servidores y decidieron hacer el famoso hotlink. Obviamente la gente de Cracked se dió cuenta de esto y cambiaron las fotos (a forma de protesta) po…, las cuales aparecieron en todo su esplendo en el sitio de El [...]
November 21st, 2008 at 11:30 pm
The apology is a lie!
It says that the original source was cited and that the article contained a link to the original source.
You can still check the article in google caché.
November 21st, 2008 at 11:27 pm
El Universal just published a note apologizing about this “incident”
http://www.eluniversalgrafico.com.mx/notas/557359.html
November 21st, 2008 at 11:22 pm
When Lounsey messaged me on Facebook demanding that I read this article because it was hilarious my internal reaction was, “silly Sarah, ALL of Dan’s articles are hilarious.”
I’m not sure which on of us was wrong but somebody had to be because this article was something more than hilarious, like hilarity on steroids. Or crack. Crack sounds better than steroids.
What I’m trying to say is will you marry me, Dan O’Brien? I’ve been practicing my signature with your last name it looks good now so I think it’s time for us to take our relationship to the next level.
November 21st, 2008 at 11:19 pm
Whoa, my site got mentioned and not by me! Thanks, Casper guy.
To better explain about that, I asked David Wong via a private message if I could translate and post his article “7 Reasons the 21st Century is Making you Miserable” in my site, because I found it awesome and wanted to extend those words to my latin audience. David replied on the same day, stating first that the article was written by him but belongs to Cracked, and second that it was clear I serve a different target audience and thus I wouldn’t be taking traffic away from them.
Only AFTER getting the author’s consent, I put it up, naming him 3 times along the article, and linking Cracked twice. For a moment I thought maybe I went through too much protocol. This article proves that I didn’t, and so, I liked it twice as much. Nice one.
November 21st, 2008 at 11:17 pm
For the love of literacy, people, read down the thread just a little bit and put one and one together. Do I seriously have to spell out the point I was making?
November 21st, 2008 at 11:13 pm
Vagabond invented the copyright license! Three cheers for him!
November 21st, 2008 at 11:11 pm
Actually, I’d say that accomplished exactly what Mr O’B