Comment by DamnInteresting | Hacker News Reader

Comment by DamnInteresting | Hacker News Reader

DamnInteresting

Years ago this YouTuber did some paid voice work for me, narrating dozens of my site's non-fiction articles for an audio book. Fast forward a few years, and he started making his own videos about the exact stories he narrated for me. Dozens of them. It's not technically violating copyright law, but it is parasitic and backstabbing.

A few examples:

Me: (October 2020): https://www.damninteresting.com/how-miss-shillings-orifice-h... Him: (November 2020): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBkAVE7cspw

Me (2006): https://www.damninteresting.com/it-came-from-above/ Him (2017): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbPG8jSud14

Me (2006): https://www.damninteresting.com/the-crypt-of-civilization/ Him (2021): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0pduckpU-A

I recently had someone look through his catalog, and so far he has over 70 videos that seem to be strongly "inspired" by my site's work. I worry he'll shamelessly gobble up everything I have created. Google is already burying me in the regurgitations. Blah.

Apologies for the rant, it just pains me to see these poachers reaping all of the rewards for others' research and leg work.

What a snake. You should make a video calling him out with proof, forcing him to respond. Post it all over Reddit/HackerNews etc;

Oh wow, and that is a prominent YouTuber too. I'm subscribed to him, though haven't been watching his videos lately since they started feeling a bit too content-farmy. Definitely gonna be thinking about looking into this further and possibly raising some stink.

Thank you for justifying my intense dislike of Simon Whistler.

> It's not technically violating copyright law

Are you sure about this?

Months ago I spoke to an IP consultant who had previously helped me when another writer plagiarized my work; the consultant felt this YouTuber's behavior is not actionable, just scummy and shameless. And the YouTube terms of service don't seem to prohibit this sort of parasitism.

The pain is justified. Social media can be a cruel and hypercompetitive place. Maybe you need better advertising?

As an aside, just went through and read some of your articles, they do indeed live up to the site’s name.

Why didn't you create your own YouTube channel?

I do hope to dabble in video content some day, but making videos is not yet in my skill set, so it'll take a lot of work to get there. In any case, I don't think I'd put my videos on YouTube, that algorithm seems toxic for creators.

There's also the unpleasant fact that somebody else is already filling YouTube with content based on my catalog. Despite having done the original topic selection and research, I'd look like the johnny-come-lately.

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