A YouTuber was accused of plagiarism. His apology highlighted a larger issue among creators.
A YouTuber was accused of plagiarism. His apology highlighted a larger issue among creators.
Video essayist James Somerton was among several people Harris Brewis, known as “hbomberguy” on YouTube, called out in a viral video.
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i mean. what is the right way to deal with a dude whose entire career is literally built on flagrant stealing, plagiarism, and copyright infringement but whose circumstances make it so that it's nearly impossible to bring him to a court of law and, even if you did, whose finances and job make it exceedingly unlikely he will ever be able to financially remedy the damages he's done to said people?
Yeah I'm with you, I don't think there was a better way to do this (and it needed to be done). I don't think Hbomberguy did anything wrong. But the whole episode has just left me (personally) feeling bad and I don't love how much joy some folks seem to be getting watching somebody get taken apart. Not accusing anybody in this thread of that, I've just seen it in other places.
It's a thief getting their illicit empire taken apart. No sympathy warranted.
It's one thing to steal from the big megacorps. They deserve it because they steal, lie and cheat everyone.
It's a different thing entirely to cheat and steal from independent journalists like James Sommerton did.
I'm not sure that I agree that we should dehumanize people just because the do something wrong or commit a crime. I think all sorts of people deserve sympathy, even those that have done wrong. I'm not saying at all that Somerton shouldn't have to face the consequences of his actions or that what is happening to him is worse than what he did to others, but I don't think that justice and empathy are mutually exclusive.
It's not dehumanizing to say he's a thief.
The entire situation he is in is entirely of his own doing and his own control. he has exclusive agency in all of this.
Thieves are typically humans
how much joy some folks seem to be getting watching somebody get taken apart
Generally I would agree. In this specific case the video goes into painful detail into exactly how much the guy's screwed over other people. For profit.
"I don't know, I've no bloody sympathy at all." As long as people don't overstep other boundaries (threats or whatever - edit: the ones he made up obviously don't count) he deserves every last crumb of vitrol headed his way. Pathetic, scamming, ineptly plagiarizing, opportunistic freaking scumbag that he is.
I'm with you. Hbomberguy said it so many times, you don't accidentally steal someone else's work, and especially not as prolifically as Somerton did. If Somerton wasn't prepared for the consequences of his actions, he shouldn't have stolen literally all his content. And that's not to say that anyone should condone harassment for any reason, but calling someone out on their bullshit isn't harassment.
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I think the better ways of resolving it were impossible without more involvement from the platform itself. Because it seems that this is just the last of the plagiarism accusations, and just so happened to stick more than the other accusations. It's very likely that had a prominent YouTuber not made a take down video, nobody would have known that this guy and others were plagiarizing anything. And I mean, imagine how the people whom work was stolen for profit are feeling?