From the inbox
Rob,

Norval Scott here (silencer on the B3ta board - I don't post much but read the newsletter and qotw).

I wasted £4 on a copy of FHM today (don't judge me - am off sick from work and wanted some 'light reading'!). On reading their 'True Stories' section (pages 45-46), I realised that the stories sounded
pretty familiar - as several have been ripped straight from various QOTWs run by B3ta in the past. I definitely recognise 3 ("I'm soory, you're woofed", "Holiday Hell", "What a catch") , while a couple of others also seem familiar.

While one similar story might be a coincidence, three in the same week certainly isn't, so this seems like a clear-cut case of plagiarism to me.

Thought you'd like to know.

Kind regards,
Norval
( rob, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 12:04, 64 replies, latest was 15 years ago)

Fuck off Bert.

(Tugnut Ex of this parish, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 12:05, Reply)

It's things like this that make you mods hate OTers isn't it :(

( TGB checking Off Topic is still shit at, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 12:05, Reply)

No, it's people like you that make them hate OT.

(Bazongaloid, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 12:24, Reply)

OMG liek y wud u say dat???!!!!?//one?!(1)eleven?@:(&£$^$

( TGB checking Off Topic is still shit at, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 12:31, Reply)

Awww I'm sorry ickle badgy wadgy wud u liek sum interntz caik n tea?

(Bazongaloid, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 12:33, Reply)

i can haz caik?

( TGB checking Off Topic is still shit at, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 12:35, Reply)

U can haz LONDON CAIK BABY!

(Bazongaloid, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 12:37, Reply)

WOOHOOZ

( TGB checking Off Topic is still shit at, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 13:07, Reply)

Lad mags in stealing things off b3ta shocker.

(wellgroomedwookiee is a filthy-minded hobgoblin, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 12:06, Reply)

Rob is probably sending them in himself to make some extra cash*
*do you get cash for the stories?
( TGB checking Off Topic is still shit at, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 12:08, Reply)

I dunno, I haven't read FHM since I was about 17.
It might be more suitable for reading on the train than proper porn, but who has a wank on the train anyway?
(wellgroomedwookiee is a filthy-minded hobgoblin, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 12:11, Reply)

Probably. It's what You've Been Framed used to be like before they invented video cameras.
or television.
(Cave Duck, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 12:12, Reply)

No, it's beer and stuff like that I think.

( SteveFrench Cardio is for homo's. do you even lift bro?, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 12:15, Reply)

"it's not really stealing
it's only the internet"
( Kroney, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 12:10, Reply)

Do people scan magazines like they do comics?
Can I pirate a copy of FHM in revenge?
(wellgroomedwookiee is a filthy-minded hobgoblin, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 12:11, Reply)

No you can't
plagiarism only applies to the printed word, you'll get knackered for it.
( Kroney, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 12:14, Reply)

You should print all the QOTW best ofs out and put them on a wall like that person did in the newsletter ages ago

( TGB checking Off Topic is still shit at, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 12:15, Reply)

the guy sent me a poster of that
it's one my wall
( rob, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 12:23, Reply)

Aww I wanna poster :(

( TGB checking Off Topic is still shit at, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 12:26, Reply)

I bet the graffiti on Gonz's bog wall will be more readable.

( Noeli overtheshoulderboulderholderthingstraplatchboobs, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 12:35, Reply)

It was bound to happen sooner or later
Ah well, worse things happen at sea, like being bum-raped by a giant octopus.
( Colonel Dracula Two manky hookers and a racist dwarf, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 12:11, Reply)

You've been watching too much hentai.

(wellgroomedwookiee is a filthy-minded hobgoblin, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 12:11, Reply)

Too many Jolly Jack drawings on the main board

( Colonel Dracula Two manky hookers and a racist dwarf, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 12:13, Reply)

I hate it when that happens.
Although the giant squid is more of a devient.
( JeffTheDogFucker Can you dig it?, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 12:12, Reply)

It's the last time I go on a cruise ship I can tell ya
especially one booked through "Cephlapod bum trauma excursions"
( Colonel Dracula Two manky hookers and a racist dwarf, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 12:15, Reply)

half of front magazine relies on this site
the fact is, we're now the cool kids we hate. trendies. let the self loathing commence.
(UppityDamnPrimate LET'S OPEN THIS F*CKING PIT UP, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 12:14, Reply)

I'm suprised they have not lifted Spankyhanky's entire oeuvre.

( Bartleby A dead man on vacation, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 12:15, Reply)

I'm not.

(wellgroomedwookiee is a filthy-minded hobgoblin, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 12:17, Reply)

Too good?

( Bartleby A dead man on vacation, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 12:20, Reply)

FHM has taste. Who knew?

( SteveFrench Cardio is for homo's. do you even lift bro?, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 12:15, Reply)

if you need a good copyright lawyer...
... or something.
( rachelswipe with a fork, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 12:18, Reply)

...do you know one?

(Miraclefish How appropriate, you fight like a cow, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 13:37, Reply)

brutal

( zulu eh?, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 14:07, Reply)

Aye, they've done it a few times
Even the story a while back about the massive computer crash at a bank, I found that in there too!
( Agnostic Antichrist Baltimora, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 12:18, Reply)

You wouldn't read that magazine, would you?
I'm sure you buy it only for the pictures, but are trying to sound intellectual here.
(Aberracion Life's getting very complicated, but a lot of fun., Mon 18 Oct 2010, 12:28, Reply)

Nope, I buy it because some of the articles are superb in there. It's gone downhill in recent years, but it's still pretty good. Some of the interviews are brilliant.
If I want porn, I have the internet.
( Agnostic Antichrist Baltimora, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 12:33, Reply)

This is a new low for you, it really is.
"Some of the articles are superb" I really think you ought to try reading a newspaper, a proper one with big pages, not a tabloid, and that will introduce you to the concept of "Journalism"
(Bazongaloid, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 12:38, Reply)

Fuck that, I don't want to be bored
These articles aren't with Professor whats-his-face complaining that the degradation of the pound is due to too much foreign aid going out, or whatever the fuck is written in them these days.

Broadsheets are for boring people, and I don't read tabloids either.

FHM is the least 'laddish' of the lads mags. I may be at a 'new low', but I'm happy to read things appropriate for my age. Find me a 22 year old who reads broadsheets, and isn't up his own arse, and I'll show you a liar.

EDIT: Fair enough, I'll acknowledge I've come across as a tosser here. Not my wish at all. I'd delete it, but that'd only prove to make me look a bigger tosser.
( Agnostic Antichrist Baltimora, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 12:43, Reply)

I read broadsheets
and I just turned 22 (*cries*) and some people (not all) don't think I'm up my arse
( Amberl was stripey and dominated Europe, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 12:46, Reply)

Arse
You had to turn up didn't you?

If it helps, I did write 'up his own arse', so it doesn't apply to you!
( Agnostic Antichrist Baltimora, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 12:47, Reply)

I read that as "I am stupid and proud of it".

(wellgroomedwookiee is a filthy-minded hobgoblin, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 12:51, Reply)

Spot on
Why should we bother using our brains, only "toffs" and "geeks" use their brains, or aspire to in any way better themselves, people who do that aren't trustworthy, no, we should revel in our own lack of intellect, if someone says something I don't understand, then it's almost certainly an insult and they ought to be stabbed.
(Bazongaloid, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 12:53, Reply)

I wasn't saying that at all
I just get really fucked off when anyone is condescending to me, I find it incredibly insulting.

I enjoy learning through debating with others rather than reading, it's why I hated school. Extra reading, fine. But I've never enjoyed reading broadsheets at all.
( Agnostic Antichrist Baltimora, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 12:55, Reply)

Maybe if you weren't such a spastic retard, people wouldn't be condescending to you
if you tried reading things, you would learn things, but no, I don't learn well that way am to stupid to learn things from books and have to have everything explained to me.
(Bazongaloid, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 12:58, Reply)

Well, you're entitled to your opinion.
But frankly, fuck you very much.

You waded into my simply saying I enjoy reading it, and you took that to mean that evidently I am a complete retard, and therefore must be spoken to like a child. I disagree.
( Agnostic Antichrist Baltimora, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 13:01, Reply)

There is a massive difference between enjoying reading something
and saying the articles are superb. I was simply pointing out that articles in FHM are badly written and that if you actually want to read "superb" articles, you ought to try reading something written by a proper journalist.

But you immediately equated reading something well written with "Professor whats-his-face complaining that the degradation of the pound is due to too much foreign aid going out, or whatever the fuck is written in them these days" and I think wookies response hit the nail on the head.
(Bazongaloid, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 13:05, Reply)

I'm like, well incisive and shit.

(wellgroomedwookiee is a filthy-minded hobgoblin, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 13:06, Reply)

I meant I enjoyed them, that's why I said superb.
And as I've noted above, that's me sounding like an utter tosser, but that was in response to you simply insulting me.

Granted, words on a screen, upset on the internet, all that bollocks.
( Agnostic Antichrist Baltimora, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 13:07, Reply)

That ends this week's show.
Be sure to tune in next week when the mentally ill will be discussing the merits of Nuts and Vanity Fair.
(Tugnut Ex of this parish, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 13:13, Reply)

Haha

( Agnostic Antichrist Baltimora, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 13:19, Reply)

Fair enough

( Agnostic Antichrist Baltimora, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 12:54, Reply)

I've read FHM on occasion
and it can be pretty funny, albeit a little childish. I definitely prefer it to girls' magazines that have articles like "10 ways to get and keep a man", whereas FHM has stuff like "10 ways you could die tomorrow". Much more entertaining.
( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 12:53, Reply)

Precisely
It's a good laugh
( Agnostic Antichrist Baltimora, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 12:56, Reply)

I don't think I've ever seen
a brilliant article in FHM
( Amberl was stripey and dominated Europe, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 12:39, Reply)

Fair enough

( Agnostic Antichrist Baltimora, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 12:44, Reply)

Give them £200 and sterilise them.

( Noeli overtheshoulderboulderholderthingstraplatchboobs, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 12:30, Reply)

It could be that.
Or it could be that some /QOTW posts are ripped off from urban myths that have appeared all over the shop, so are likely to appear elsewhere.
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 12:34, Reply)

oMGz are you saying people lie on QOTW?????????????????????????????????????

( TGB checking Off Topic is still shit at, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 12:36, Reply)

4 reel.

( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 12:37, Reply)

U is so totally out of order blud.

(Bazongaloid, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 12:39, Reply)

Could be
but to be fair, this magazine has form in this area. Images from the compo have appeared in it, too.
( Kroney, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 12:42, Reply)

Out of interest
When does a 'myth' become an 'urban myth'?
(Tugnut Ex of this parish, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 13:22, Reply)

When it moves to the city.

( girlinthehole, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 13:23, Reply)

Like TGB
She'll be TUB once she moves in with Gonz.
( The Light in Chains don't touch the Pope's boner, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 13:29, Reply)