Rebecca Bollwitt by kk
There are a few things in this world that we all know and take for granted, because they are inevitable, reflecting fundamental laws of the universe, nature, space and time.
- death
- taxes
- that googling “Vancouver blogger” will always turn up Rebecca Bollwitt, Miss604 in the #1 spot. notthatwearejealousatall!
- that giant, soulless corporations will behave soullessly
- that tone-deaf, obliviously old-fashioned organizations will make heinous blunders in social media, and that they will be caught out, brutally
Well, there you go.
Yes, not only did they steal her post, but when she brought it to their attention that the post had been stolen, they tried to hide the fact by deleting her name but keeping the post.
Judge for yourself. Here’s the original article, written for TourismVancouver, and here is the stolen article, which was used without notice, permission or payment. According to Rebecca, Tourism Vancouver is aware of this as an ongoing issue with the NBC Olympic site, and has been battling them for some time over it.
You can see what (predictably) happened to the dialogue on Twitter, an even 70 mentions since she first put the word out.
- AdrianMrdeza Not kosher. RT @Miss604 Wow, #NBCOlympics went from republishing my article without notice to REMOVING my name and keeping the article up. about 7 hours ago from web
cognoscento Dumb! RT @Miss604 Wow, #NBCOlympics went from republishing my article without notice to REMOVING my name and keeping the article up. about 7 hours ago from TweetDeck
sthorntonAPR RT @CathyBrowne: Unforgiveable! RT @Miss604: Wow, #NBCOlympics went from re-publishing my article without notice to REMOVING my name, ke … about 7 hours ago from web
urbanmixer What wankers! RT @Miss604 Wow, #NBCOlympics went from republishing my article without notice to REMOVING my name and keeping the article up. about 7 hours ago from HootSuite
Terms used to describe NBC, as you can see, varied from “not kosher” to “wankers” and worse. Just to do my part, I posted it to Facebook, retweeted it a couple of times, blogged it here, and (probably most importantly) submitted it to the tipline at Gawker, which is read by pretty much everyone who matters in the world of news and is famously hungry for tales of old media doing stupid, nasty things to new media, which sums up this situation perfectly. Then I went to the NBC Olympic site and informed them of it, using their comment form. If I’d been able to find their host, I’d have reported them for blog scraping, which typically results in a guilty blog going down within 24 hours in my experience. If ONLY they’d been hosted by WordPress.com under their VIP program, like CNN, I could have had some real fun with that; I may not have many strings to pull, but the ones I have are good ones.
Now that we’ve shit disturbed for the Greater Good, it’s time to hit the hay and give NBC some time to react. Tomorrow should be interesting, particularly for the PR department of NBC.
Oh, one more thing:
raincoaster media 
Bradley
December 18, 2009
Stop picking on poor NBC. (sob) They’re doing the best they can! (weep) JUST STOP IT! (bawl)
Rebecca
December 18, 2009
Thanks for bringing attention to this, Lorraine. Feeling slightly betrayed (and my contract is violated). I have asked that the article be completely removed if they refuse to put the credit on there. We’ll see how that goes.
Lisa
December 18, 2009
Very poor form. The content looks far better and more trustworthy in the original post to boot.
Though I do wonder what role Tourism Vancouver had in this. Did it, in an effort to promote the city, share content? What agreement does it have with contributors?
Rebecca
December 18, 2009
My name is now up there – thank you for the support!!!
Dave O
December 18, 2009
all creators ask is for respect, acknowledgment and mutual adherence to contract – is this so out of hand?
Tanya (aka NetChick)
December 18, 2009
Phew, glad it all got figured out… But, really… They should know better. That’s the epitome of uncool on NBC’s part.
raincoaster
December 18, 2009
Rebecca, did they pay you? Because if they didn’t, it’s still stealing. I report blogs for that all the time.
Overcast
December 18, 2009
Sue ’em.
Richard Walker
December 18, 2009
There is some up-to-the-minute commentary on the TechDirt post on this topic.
http://techdirt.com/articles/20091218/1059057423.shtml
specifically, this comment may be pointing to the problem; TourVan terms, Olympics licensing…
http://techdirt.com/article.php?sid=20091218/1059057423#c52
Richard Walker
December 18, 2009
Correction: by “problem” I mean “why this is not scraping / stealing”, now that they have restored Rebecca’s name.
Still, I admit, her name disappearing IS very fishy.
raincoaster
December 18, 2009
I saw the post and while I love that this is getting wider exposure, I have to say that particular comment doesn’t really clarify anything except that Tourism Vancouver is anal-retentive. It doesn’t give copyright away.
If rights are not specifically given, then they have not been granted, it’s as simple as that.
Richard Walker
December 18, 2009
Oh, my mistake – I guess people have assumed the following quoted text isn’t settled in a legal sense. Over-broad “terms of use” and anything “Olympics” doesn’t help matters! Not to mention, this is an “International Incident” now :)
“which was used without notice, permission or payment. According to Rebecca, Tourism Vancouver is aware of this as an ongoing issue with the NBC Olympic site, and has been battling them for some time over it.”
We’ll see what folllows…
Rebecca
December 18, 2009
They didn’t pay me, Tourism Vancouver did initially as they commissioned me to write the article. I have been very happy with the exposure and the contract and I’m not sure anyone anticipated this.
However, when the article was bundled up and “given” to NBC I would have really liked a) a head’s up b) appropriate credit as stated in my contract as “Rebecca Bollwitt of Miss604.com”. I have spoken to Tourism BC and Tourism Vancouver about this.
All parties have listened and have restored my name…
I think we’ll be seeing many more things like this in the coming months.
Rebecca
December 18, 2009
To clarify, my post was commissioned by Tourism Vancouver; I “sold” the story to them exclusively. I wasn’t asking for payment, just my name on my words.
Mike Browne
December 18, 2009
Good on you Rebecca for making noise about this. That is a pretty low tactic for these corporations to take. It’s not like you were asking for anything crazy… it’s just credit for goodness sake.
raincoaster
December 20, 2009
So the bottom line is: you had an exclusive contract with Tourism Vancouver, which denied BOTH parties the right to repost the material elsewhere. You were paid for your contribution.
Tourism Vancouver then gave that material to NBCOlympics without your knowledge or consent, and in apparent breach of the contract.
When NBC was contacted by you, they removed your name, which looks very much like admission of guilt.
When this hit the fan on this site and Techdirt, the blowback was such that Tourism Vancouver stepped up to “clarify the situation” which they had not done before, and your name was appended to the article on the NBCOlympic site, in small font and unlinked.
Is that about right?
raincoaster
December 20, 2009
Apparently NBC steals fonts, too:
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/10/font-bureau-clashes-with-nbc-over-font-licensing.ars