Stolen!
I dont know how many of you caught today's Daily Sun, or how many of you saw the new column by one Monika Derrien, but it was brought to my attention by a friend. The article is entitled 'Overheard: Eavesdroppers Welcome'. It reads like a bad update of this blog, with a cutesy little intro in which she tells us 'Look for more overheards every Thursday!' and then moves on to a couple of mediocre overheards. The article contains no reference to this blog and we were not contacted.
Sure, it's possible that she just came up with the idea on her own, but I find that fairly hard to believe. Especially given her email address is the ever so different overheard.cornell@gmail.com (I can imagine a Vanilla Ice-esque explanation: 'No no no, my adress is overheard.cornell, theirs is overheardatcornell!) Yes, that's right, we've been flagrantly ripped off, and by the Sun no less! A letter to the editor is currently in the works. It's very possible that her editors (or the entire editorial staff) were unaware of this blog, and if she had contacted us we would have been more than pleased to cooperate (I mean, think about the exposure) but in fact she just stole the idea, plain and simple.
I doubt the editors of the Sun wanted this, or would support this once they were made aware of the situation. But I just wanted you all to know we here at overheard were not involved and not contacted with regards to this article.
We'll keep you updated as more develops.
-the ear
PS- I gave you her email address with a knowing wink.
posted by The Ear at 4:55 PM
6 Comments:
I wonder whether she thought it was peculiar that "Overheardatcornell@gmail.com" was taken.
9:38 AM
i saw that article and was definitely puzzled, what with the format being pretty much indistinguishable from this site. hope you guys come out on top.
9:39 AM
Actually Beeeej, when we began our website we contacted the webmaster of Overheard in New York, talked about Overheard in NYC in our first update and profile, and still have a link to it in the bookmark bar on the right, all things which you may not have been aware of. Furthermore, our site does not compete for material with Overheard in NYC. If the Sun or Ms. Derrien had contacted us, referenced our site, or made any concession to our existence of which she was clearly aware, there would be no problem at all. Though this is just a small blog in a sea of meaningless internet information, a lot of time and effort has been spent working on it and updating it, and to see this work impinged upon is tremendously frustrating.
On the other hand, thank you for your thoughtful and invaluable advice. On your reccomendation we've actually sent half our staff to a Buddhist monastery in Nepal, where they will learn to decentralize their own identities into the greater life force, in an attempt to 'take themselves less seriously'. They are also learning martial arts. We're very excited.
6:55 PM
I have to admit, the Daily Sun is really struggling this year. They can't seem to come up with any good content at all... just like all the previous years.
2:41 PM
with all due respect,
i know monika personally and she was (to my surprise, actually), completely unaware of this blog or the affiliated livejournal. perhaps you can work collaboratively with her on the project?
or, you can let the sun sink as it will anyway and continue to provide fabulous overheards of your own! maybe just get the sun to put in a plug for this site, and your troubles will be long gone
11:56 PM
or the people who posted here could realize that about 30,000 people read the sun online and in print every day and, while she should have absolutely given you credit, you should work with her to your ultimate glory
3:25 PM
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