THE DARK SIDE
OF PLAGIARISM

current count: 235 confirmed thefts
total wordage: over a hundred thousand words--and counting!

 

In March 2005 came the discovery of the greatest theft of online and print material by a single publication.  The online and print material: DVD and video review sites and publications; the plagiarizing publication: THE DARK SIDE, edited by Allan Bryce.  Before long, over a hundred reviews were confirmed as stolen, usually verbatim, in continual acts of plagiarism dating back to 1997. Another publication edited by Bryce, DVD WORLD, has revealed 92 reviews stolen from online sources. Thus far, we have only examined a portion of these two publications. Further examinations are guaranteed to reveal more acts of plagiarism.

This site will chronicle, document and expose the most egregious act of plagiarism to have ever occurred in one publication. It will also take a look at not only the publishing history of THE DARK SIDE, but other Allan Bryce-edited publications, to include DVD WORLD and books such as AMICUS, THE STUDIO THAT DRIPPED BLOOD.  This story is astounding in scope and the amount of time the plagiarism has been going on.


The Dark Side, edited by Allan Bryce: The current count: 128 reviews confirmed as stolen;
45 others await confirmation from original writers/websites.
DVD World, edited by Allan Bryce: 94 reviews/articles confirmed as stolen; 38 await confirmation.
The Australian version of DVD World, edited by Allan Bryce: 13 reviews confirmed as stolen;
7 await confirmation.


What we, the aggrieved parties, want:

1) The real name of the person or persons who stole this material for THE DARK SIDE and DVD WORLD.
2) The publication in the DARK SIDE and DVD WORLD of the full list of stolen material, with proper credit given to the original authors of that material and the websites or print publications from which the material was taken.
3) Respectful monetary recompense for the authors and websites whose material was stolen.

We would also like to request that writers not contribute work to THE DARK SIDE, that advertisers withhold financially supporting the publication with ads, and that the public not buy this magazine until the matter is resolved.  Despite what you may hear from the editor, Allan Bryce, the matter is not resolved. Far from it.


Contents The Latest News
The Honors List - What was Stolen

 

Sample Pages (This will astound you)

 

Explanations from Allan Bryce

 

Frequently Asked Questions

 

Editorials

 

The New Controversy:
Britain's Websites Censored Over Commentary about The Dark Side and its Writers
(forthcoming)

ALERT - December 8, 2007: Google's cache still has the page that caused Calum Waddell to run to the solicitors

December 3, 2007: In a surprising turn of events, the Dark Side debacle has been revived courtesy Calum Waddell, a frequent contributor to the magazine and an admitted "loyal supporter" of The Dark Side's editor/publisher, Allan Bryce.  We're going to devote an entire page to this new controversy, which involves not only the popular Sex Gore Mutants site (which was served with notification from its server that the server would terminate hosting based on the complaints of Calum Waddell's solicitors), but also Anchor Bay's UK website and forum, which found cause, very suddenly, to delete a long-standing thread on The Dark Side. Stay tuned.

March 27, 2006: Members of the British site, SEX GORE MUTANTS, voted IS IT UNCUT? as the best genre magazine of 2005. In the last three years THE DARK SIDE won this award easily with hundreds of votes, but, after last year's revelations of massive plagiarism, the magazine was able to only garner a pathetic three votes. SEX GORE MUTANTS headmaster, Alan Simpson, notes: "In the six years the SGM Awards have been running we have never seen such a swing in readers votes."

January 21, 2006: The Dark Side Scandal gets nominated as "Count Alucard's Controversy of the Year" in the annual Rondo awards.

January 9, 2006: The latest issue of DVD WORLD contains more unauthorized material taken from the internet! Click on Honors List to see the updated listing of all text taken from the internet for the pages of THE DARK SIDE and DVD WORLD.

The 2005/2006 Winter Issue of the Dutch SCHOKKEND NIEUWS carries an editorial by Bart van der Put directly addressing The Dark Side scandal. Thank you, Bart and Schokkend Nieuws! We hope to provide a translation soon. (The translation is now here.)

If you have more information about what's been going on at THE DARK SIDE and other Bryce-related publications, please feel free to contact me at eurosin@aol.com. Though we very much want voices to speak out publicly on this matter, requests for confidentiality are understood and immediately honored.

If you wish to publicly comment on this plagiarism, the Latarnia Forums have a thread devoted to the subject here.

-- Mirek Lipinski

A special thanks to all who have helped in this investigation.  Without your assistance, the scope of this exposure could not have been possible.