Nokia MiniMO contest sparks plagiarism row

[wraggster]

Nokia appears to have run into trouble with its recent MiniMO contest, which got UK students to shoot movies using their phones, with a trip to the Cannes Advertising festival as a prize.
The contest included a Critic's Choice award, judged by ShootingPeople.org creative director James Mullighan. It went to a film called Forrest Chump by Jemma Lyon.
However, the award has sparked anger on web community b3ta, due to that film's similarity to a film called Forrest Gump in One Minute, in One Take, which has been available on YouTube since February 2009.
"Someone's sent me an entry to a Nokia filmmaking competition that's literally a shot for shot, line for line, idea for idea remake of it," writes the outraged co-creator of the original film.
"I wouldn't mind except the person who entered it has won a "Critics Choice" award out of this rehash, including a ****ING TRIP TO CANNES."

On its official Twitter feed, Nokia has said that neither Nokia nor Mullighan was aware of the original YouTube video, and that "The Critic's Choice Award will be unchanged as winner is already in Cannes".
Update: Meanwhile, Nokia's Mark Hindle has also commented on this story, saying that Nokia is investigating the alleged plagiarism.
Chalk this down as a useful lesson in the perils of user generated content. Meanwhile, the controversy doesn't end there, with commenters on Nokia's blog post announcing the winners of other MiniMO awards criticising the actions taken to fight vote-rigging.

http://www.mobile-ent.biz/news/37540/Nokia-MiniMO-contest-sparks-plagiarism-row

[jemma]

To Whom It May Concern,
I would like to make a statement regarding the alleged plagiarism accusations from the Nokia Minimo movie competition.
I was approached by a Nokia representative who asked me to remake any video in under two minutes for his Nokia assignment. I was unaware that this was a competition at the time and did not receive a brief. The representative also promised to give me a mobile phone in exchange for assisting him with his project. I never received the phone. The Nokia representative was present during the filming of my video and after being asked several times if the film was ok to submit he insisted it was and persisted to show the actors the original video to direct them where to stand and what to do. At no point did the representative inform any of the people involved that the film was breaching the terms and conditions and I was led to believe that the entry was valid. Further to this, Nokia became aware that my entry was based on another video three days prior to sending me on the trip to Cannes, but they still sent me on the trip and refused to act until the public outcry. My name has been tarnished by this event. I have been branded a cheater amongst many other things too awful to write and I have yet to be informed of how Nokia aim to rectify this. I aspire to pursue a career in the creative media industry and this libel is a great hindrance to my progress to achieving the career I want. My efforts to expose the truth have been greatly subdued by Nokia and the rule of law seems not to apply to large powerful corporations in certain instances. In conclusion, I would like to reiterate that basing my video on Mr Tribble's creative work was done in ignorance. I was not aware that I was breaking any rules and the Nokia representative never informed me that I was doing so. I previously had no interest in submitting an entry but I was misled into thinking that I was merely helping the Nokia representative, he has since personally apologised to me for the way I have been treated. Nokia has allowed my name to be dragged through the mud by shrouding the situation with half truths and even some out right lies in order to save their own reputation.