What happens when the Daily Mail asks to use your work and you say no
A chap called Martin O’Leary put some fascinating research online about the origin of words and it quickly went viral.
Languages are bananas pic.twitter.com/ROlVZEu0La
— Martin O'Leary (@mewo2) February 1, 2018
He posted a few more and people couldn’t get enough of them.
A few more pic.twitter.com/Ohbe9s8jKK
— Martin O’Leary (@mewo2) February 1, 2018
So someone from the Daily Mail got in touch to ask if they could use them and here was his reply.
But guess what happened next?
Over to you, Martin.
So yesterday I had an email from Mail Online asking if they could use my etymology charts in an article. I said no, because they’re the fucking Mail. They went ahead anyway, but they put shitty fonts over the top to hide the theft. pic.twitter.com/mfOFvBz1qt
— Martin O’Leary (@mewo2) February 4, 2018
Anyway, don’t support the Mail. They’re racists, they’re sexists, they’re every kind of bigot you can imagine. They’re also low-grade thieves and terrible typographers.
— Martin O’Leary (@mewo2) February 4, 2018
Here’s a GIF of the two images. I’m kind of amazed that someone would do this. Like, it’s obviously not your work. The story even says it’s not your work. Why would you put your name on it? pic.twitter.com/grMCJZe57L
— Martin O’Leary (@mewo2) February 5, 2018
This is a nice detail.
They also left out anything with a thorn in it, because they presumably couldn’t find the Þ key.https://t.co/rkk4cV9NLL
— Martin O’Leary (@mewo2) February 5, 2018
I’ve spoken to some IP lawyers, and they’ll be contacting the Mail on my behalf. I’ll let ye know how it turns out.
— Martin O’Leary (@mewo2) February 5, 2018
The legal fees are taken care of, but if you want to give me money (and I do like being given money), I’ve got a Patreon here: https://t.co/hd8pGnibGRhttps://t.co/9V4h6LXplL
— Martin O’Leary (@mewo2) February 5, 2018
Here’s how people responded on Twitter.
this… is kinda exactly why i stopped posting research on twitter. one minute you’re having fun in the dictionary and the next you’re hiring ip lawyers 😞
— Allison Parrish | @[email protected] (@aparrish) February 5, 2018
Ugh yes. Although, on the other hand I did a fun goof and it got a few million views, so that’s always nice.
(sorry I realise now that you were tagged into the thread and your mentions are probably as RIP’d as mine)
— Martin O’Leary (@mewo2) February 5, 2018
You mean… the Mail has done this before?! pic.twitter.com/YS3hzwdPt0
— Paul Bottomley (@Paul83Bottomley) February 5, 2018