Just a minor update to this story…
On Monday morning 16/03 we got a series of tweets from Travel Republic, saying initially that they had updated their blog and wouldn’t be using the offending video in future marketing. They went on to apologise for any upset and assured us that this wasn’t intentional. I asked why it took so long when they had been alerted to copyright problems within minutes and therefore were aware it contravened their rules.. They said they wanted to make sure all the team were aware and that lessons have been learn. The prize had however been awarded as they didn’t believe the entrant had deliberately broken any rules.
There is the crux and your get out in future. As long as you do not deliberately not retweet or not follow someone on twitter…as long as you don’t deliberately flout anything else then you are ok.
We then had a quick look at their blog and it was the most ridiculous thing I have seen since, well, Katie Price was last on TV. Under rule 6 (which, to refresh you required you to ensure that they can reuse this video however they wish) they had tacked on an apology for not enforcing it. “it has been pointed out to us (so they didn’t notice themselves copyrighted music, video and product images) that the competition winner contains incidental elements of copyrighted material (well not incidental, the music is used in approx. 50% of the video, the nivea sun cream approx. 30% and the videos approx. 60%) and us such (we think they mean “as such”) we will not be using this in our future communications”
So in summary, the rule was broken, but so what. Travel Republic really should have noticed this but didn’t. The entrant apparently didn’t know he had nicked music, video and imagery from the internet so he must be absolved. If only someone had told Travel Republic there was a problem…oh hang on we collectively did, within minutes, on Twitter and facebook but they ignored us on twitter and deleted our comments on facebook (and yes, we checked with those people whose comments went missing and of the 4 that went, three have replied and confirmed they didnt delete their own post)
Travel Republic have now removed the whole winning tweet and facebook post. They know they got it horribly wrong but did nothing to stop it even when they had a chance… and hundreds of customers, including the 10,500+ who have read this entry up to this update, who didn’t break the rules aren’t going to Thailand. Lessons learnt then for them…you now know how to win! Rules are for losers.
The original story...
Our inbox began bulging earlier today (13/03/15) with various headers but mostly involving the words "cheat" "illegal" or "disgusted"
One common thread to all these emails was Travel Republic and a competition they had run entitled #DearSummer.
The idea was to use words, pictures, video, whatever you wanted to convey how much you love summer,
Take on the competition was huge as we saw and at 12.00pm today they announced their winner.. well they were a little late but hey, thats nothing to the furore that then errupted,
The winning video, whilst admittedly was hosted on Youtube. The video contains music which contravenes copyright law as no permission is given, making it illegal. Additionally a product made by Nivea is featured, again without permission. This also is illegal. It is clear that Nivea have been made aware of this, both these infringements means the video should not hosted on Youtube.
You might view that this doesnt really matter, in the grand scheme of things is it important. Maybe.
Except these copyright infringement causes Travel Republic a problem because of their own rules.. Point 6 of their rules:
6. Entering this competition grants Travel Republic a perpetual, irrevocable and royalty-free license to use any material entered in future communications.
Because of the copyright infringement which Travel Republic are now complicit in owing to the reposting and retaining of the offending clip despite warning being given to them on social media within minutes, they are unable to have a perpetual, irrevocable and royalty free licence to use...in future communications. They have no rights and must pay royalties to use it even this once
The entry broke the rules and must be void, or else why rules?
At the time of writing Travel Republic have not posted anything else nor commented at all. Its clear this will not go away and irreparable damage will be done to their reputation. Already words like unreliable, untrustworthy, shady are being bandied. Not good for a travel company.
One final thing, we noticed that on their facebook page that announced the winner, comments, admittedly highly critical kept disappearing. Even now, it lists 6 comments but only 3 are visible, the three missing ones? the three most critical. We know as we have the screen grabs.. Did Travel Republic remove them..who knows but it seems unlikely three separate people all decided to delete their own posts within seconds of each other.
Travel Republic need to speak, come clean and admit they made a mistake, then we can repair this mess, which only looks like getting messier.
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