Network Video killed the radio star

So the kind people* at Network Video have been reading my blog. For those of you who don’t know, Network Video are (according to their website) “Australia’s largest independent group of VHS, DVD and Games Rental and Retail stores and outlets”. They have also been borrowing my intellectual property. Intellectual property is a term my soon to-be-kick-ass-lawyer friend taught me and according to her, that’s what they have stolen by plagiarising content from my blog post on Tim Burton’s adaptation of Alice and Wonderland. Back in September of this year I wrote a brief update on Tim Burton’s latest project and some of the rumors circulating it. I gave it my signature witty opener (cough cough) with the title “Alice in Burtonland”. So imagine my surprise when flicking through Network Video’s latest newsletter for the month of November, I find the exact same headline “Alice in Burtonland”. At first I did a double take thinking perhaps I had made a mistake, but no, I had not. After the initial shock and frustration of seeing my exact same headline on a story about the exact same topic had surpassed I took a step backwards. How do I know they stole my headline? Besides it being identical word for word, there’s really no reason for me to think they stole the headline from the Movie Mazzupial blog. After all, it’s a very specific story and try as we might there really aren’t too many creative avenues to take when writing a headline on this story. A mere coincidence I thought. After all, I have been a loyal customer of theirs for years and my business has always been respected and welcomed with a friendly smile from the staff there. Therefore, I made the conclusion the friendly people* at Network Video weren’t the `plagiarising type’ and continued to read on. Turns out the identical headline wasn’t the only similarity between my blog post and their article. In fact, there were SO many lines taken directly from my post I have taken a photo of the article and newsletter in question and added them below for you to draw your own comparisons. My personal favourite stolen lines are as follows:
Exhibit A
Me:
“After the success of The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D, Disney have agreed to let Burton release this film in Digital Disney 3D too . . . . Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland has always been one of the darkest children’s stories and my blood is bubbling with excitement to see Burton’s Gothic take.”

Network Video:
“The film will be a mix of live action and CGI, and will no doubt take a darker turn – it is a Burton production, after all.”
Exhibit B
Me:
“The project is set for release on March 5, 2010 in the US spring, later in Oz.”
Network Video:
“A release date has been set for the US spring of 2010.”

There are several other examples where my intellectual property has been applied liberally throughout the Network Video article but I will leave them for you to go through and draw your own conclusions. The crux of my rant is this: the Network Video newsletter called Chill is obviously not read for it’s creative writing or exclusive film content and/or interviews. There’s literally only two pages dedicated to movie news and happenings of the previous month, so my question is this: why did you have to steal from my blog? There’s no shortage of news and posts out there about the Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland, so surely it’s not that hard to piece together a few ORIGINAL sentences on the film which would be just as good as the stuff I wrote, dare I say better. But the fact you were lazy and greedy enough to steal my headline and content word for word is just pathetic. You have the power of an entire DVD corporation at your use and the fact you have to STEAL from an independent blogger such as I is plain pathetic. Desperate. Sad.
Lord knows if I gather my information from a source that isn’t connected to my own brain, I ALWAYS credit them in the post and/or provide a direct link to their site to give them the internet traffic they deserve. The very least you could do is acknowledge in your `article’ that you stole the headline, story and phrasing from this site so your readers don’t think you’re an original writer. Seriously, who pays you people?

*By ‘kind people’ I mean dick cheeses

*By `friendly people’ I mean moronic giraffe’s

I apologise for my Blair Witch Project-esque photography above