The Video Game Critic

I received the following email today:

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I've been a long time reader and have enjoyed your retro and modern game reviews for many years now, but recently while looking at Sega Saturn game reviews I noticed that the Astal game summary/review on Racketboy (Second to bottom game listed: http://www.racketboy.com/retro/sega/bes ... -today-top) is almost the exact same as your review of the game. (http://videogamecritic.com/satac.htm?e=21211#rev2841)

Do you secretly moonlight as the Racketboy writer? Or is there foul play involved?
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I took a look and did notice right away the length and structure of the reviews is very similar to mine - right down to the Amazon/Ebay links at the end. However, I didn't think the Astal review looked as if it were plagiarized. I figured I'd leave it to you guys to be the judge.

I am NOT affiliated with Racketboy. If you ever see any of my reviews floating around on other sites please let me know because my material is copyrighted. It not fair for others to profit off my hard work.

Thanks for looking out!

Looks pretty clear cut to me that he's copying some of your reviews to a degree.

Compare your Zillion review with his...

http://videogamecritic.com/mastersz.htm?e=21211#rev3130

http://www.racketboy.com/retro/sega/sms ... ter-system

"Zillion is an exceptional action'adventure title that reminds me of Metroid and Flashback" - You

"Zillion is an exceptional action/adventure title that reminds many people of Metroid also has hints of Flashback" - Him.

"you'll need to utilize computers, cards, and pass codes" - Identical

"In addition, guards are shooting at you at every turn." - Identical

"Luckily, you’re well armed with your “Zillion” laser, which can be powered-up." - Identical

It's pretty hard to believe that this is some sort of strange coincidence. That last line in particular seals the deal that the writer "borrowed" your review to serve as a template for his own "original" thoughts.

The overall structure seems very similar. The phrase "the bosses are amazing 3D monstrosities" on the racketboy site, and your review phrase of 'Just wait until you see the bosses - these 3D monstrosities are simply amazing." jump out for both using "amazing" and "monstrosities" to describe the bosses, while also mentioning 3D at that point.

Your review says 2002, while the Racketboy has 2007 revised 2010, so your review predates that review.
(Aside: Had you revised your review at one point, this would be harder to spot. Maybe you should keep old ones in an archive?)

It seems pretty cut and dry to me. I agree with Scotland that the reviews seem strikingly similar.

@Scotland- When the VGC updates his reviews he updates the review date as well. So if a game hasn't been re-reviewed than it would have the original review date, if it has been reviewed again, it would have the newer date.

So yeah, one of the writers from racketboy is borrowing from your site. How do you handle something like that?

I contacted racketboy.com via their contact link earlier this morning. Now the site is down, so hopefully they are taking action.
They are a highly reputable site so I suspect they will do the right thing and remove the offending material right away.

Are your reviews copyrighted, Critic? If you're not aware, there are some very simple ways to do so without having to pay for it. For starters, you could just put (c)VideoGameCritic, or (c)YourName, and as long as the review is strictly your own property, that's a legal copyright. If you want to take it a step further, though this might be taking it a little far, you can print out your reviews before they go up, seal them in an envelope and mail them to yourself. Don't open the envelope, and if the need arises that's usually all the proof you'll need to prove that the work belonged to you before the other person revealed it.

The Critic has

Copyright 1999-2015 The Video Game Critic. The reviews presented on this site are intellectual property and are copyrighted. Any reproduction without the expressed written consent of the author is strictly prohibited. Anyone reproducing the site's copyrighted material improperly can be prosecuted in a court of law. Please report any instances of infringement to the site administrator.

at the bottom of every page on his site. That should be sufficient, right?

Yes they are copyrighted and registered with the US Copyright Office.

I'm really surprised I have not received any type of response from racketboy regarding this.

Hopefully this gets resolved. This makes me wonder what other sites the writers have "borrowed" from to come up with some of editorials. I like racketboy a lot, too, which is disappointing.