Wow.
You’d think Linus would know better than to ask GN for receipts.
How many times do we need to teach you this lesson, old man?!?
He genuinely believes that he’s above all of that now, or almost too successful to fail. If the last huge controversy hasn’t put a dent into his cult of personality, not too many other things will
I just checked out r/pcmasterrace and Linus might be right then. Most people over there seem to be parroting Linus excuses and down voting anyone who says otherwise.
I dunno. I haven’t watched another episode since I heard that girl’s story about sexual harassment and toxic culture while working there.
I’m team Suop. Linus is a cunt.
Yeah he seems like a real dick.
Those allegations were proven to be false by an independent third-party investigation
No, it found no evidence one way or the other. It also found that LMG didn’t ignore things and followed their policies, which seems to imply something was being reported. They certainly presented it as absolving them while threatening a lawsuit, but it didn’t prove anything.
I blocked all their channels on YouTube after that too.
Same! I stopped watching any of his company’s content
I’ve unsubbed from all but the main channel a while before that, but this was the last drop in the ocean too. Even if half of the accusations were false, they way how their response was completely soulless, and full of dumb jokes, was unheard of
You are a drop in the bucket. LTT is at 16 million subs to GN’s 2.5 million. That story was investigated by a third party with no wrong doing found. LTT isn’t going anywhere.
I don’t care.
Ok, thanks for letting me know?
I stopped long before then because the content had turned into garbage. There’s too many tech content creators out there to watch his company’s click bait crap.
If I hadn’t already, I would have stopped then though.
Never heard this do you have a link or something?
I had read Madison Reeve’s post somewhere but it was in Twitter I think. I can’t access it anymore without an account it seems. So here’s a couple it articles.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/linus-tech-tips-youtube-controversy-1.6940087
Thanks I actually started searching myself too and found this https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1691693740254228741.html
Edit I also found this
Quote from Madison: I purposefully cut my leg open so badly I would have to go to the ER to get it stapled back together. It was genuinely the only way in my mind to take a day off without being harassed for a reason why.
I think I would leave a crappy job way earlier than even considering commiting self harm.
Thanks for providing these links.
I responded elsewhere in this thread with more commentary and I’m also not done reading yet, but how is receipt 1 anything at all? It seems both parties closed that email chain satisfied with the resolution outlined by Linus. If GN was upset with the resolution, maybe they should have said something?
Edit after further reading: How is receipt 2 anything at all either? Steve literally says in the opening of his email that the information is intended to be useful for future attempts. If he wanted LMG to edit old videos or provide extra detailed information then maybe he should have asked?
Receipt 3 is rough for Linus though, he has to do better when it comes to communicating. Not only with the choice of language but when it comes to understanding the the intent and body of a message before responding himself (the latter not too surprising given his history of wan show live responses to misunderstood chat messages).
Why do people like gamersnexus? All I ever see is them stirring up shit for views.
Do they even make real content that isn’t just “I called out entity x for reason y and now everyone should be angry”?
Literally none of their “stirring up shit” videos (like the ones for msi, gigabyte, newegg, etc) have been neither unwarranted nor discredited. They’ve also all led to positive outcomes for consumers.
If you don’t find it entertaining, don’t watch it. I personally think that it’s great to have people like them looking out for consumers.
Dude makes money calling people out. He’s not here looking out for consumers, he’s here for the paycheck. Don’t be deceived. Ragebait makes money and they know it.
They make money because people watch their videos and/or contribute directly to them by buying their products. I honestly see absolutely nothing wrong people supporting a channel that they like. Especially when they’re not only producing content but also potentially burning down bridges with brands/sponsors when they need to call them out. If you look at Linus, on the other hand, he deliberately chose not to call out the issues with Honey over fear or repercussions. To this day I still don’t understand why he would think that informing their viewers that they were being scammed would have any negative impact at all. Except, maybe, he wasn’t thinking about his viewers…
It’s really weird that you’d accuse GN of going after profits when Linus has repeatedly said, and shown, that that’s precisely all he cares about.
Wasn’t the issue with honey that the creators were being scammed? They were replacing the codes being used with their own, so that honey was getting the affiliate money and not the creators themselves?
To the end user, the issue would be moot. The users themselves weren’t even being impacted, unless they were trying to specifically use the affiliate code to support their favorite creator.
If they realized it was an issue and cut off their sponsorship because it was negatively impacting their own business and not the viewers, they have no reason to tell the viewers about it. On the same note, had they stated their reason publically for discontinuing the partnership and made an erroneous claim which, if you believe GN, they are very likely to do, it could open them up to a lawsuit with honey, and ultimately PayPal, who has a lot more money than a relatively large YouTube entertainment company.
As you said, Linus had claimed that their primary goal is making money. They’re a business with over 100 employees, you have a responsibility as a business owner to ensure you can keep paying those people. He also has said that their primary channel creates edutainment and pure entertainment content because it’s the only thing that can maintain their viewership at a level high enough to support LMG.
I can’t see GN as anything but the annoying, self righteous redditor type who stands on his soapbox claiming everyone else is doing wrong and getting a sense of superiority out of it. Their content isn’t anything particularly special, so they have to drum up the view count by creating drama. It’s okay to like it, but at least hold them to the same scrutiny you would the channels they call out.
Wasn’t the issue with honey that the creators were being scammed?
I think you haven’t watched MegaLag’s video (at least not all of it) or other channels that covered this properly. As you can see in this section of MegaLag’s video, Honey also hurt consumers because it claimed that there either weren’t any coupons available when there were or it gave you a coupon that wasn’t the one with the highest discount.
unless they were trying to specifically use the affiliate code to support their favorite creator.
Exactly. This also “hurts” consumers because, if I use an affiliate link, I want the channel I got it from to get that kickback so they can keep making content.
If they realized it was an issue and cut off their sponsorship because it was negatively impacting their own business and not the viewers, they have no reason to tell the viewers about it.
They do because the issue impacted both parties. Also, this is very cliché but also true, “if you see something, say something”.
If you watch MegaLag’s video, you’ll also see that LTT then partnered with “Karma” (kinda ironic) which also does at least some of the same shady stuff Honey does. Here’s the timestamped video.. They also ignored/refused to answer many of the questions MegaLag had.
it could open them up to a lawsuit with honey, and ultimately PayPal, who has a lot more money than a relatively large YouTube entertainment company.
GN, a smaller channel, is taking Honey to court so I don’t see why a lawsuit would’ve scared them. They’re also not alone, other creators and lawyers are doing the same thing. Honey will lose because there’s undeniable proof that they’ve been stealing sales and offering coupon’s that weren’t actually the best to their consumers (if they offered any at all).
you have a responsibility as a business owner to ensure you can keep paying those people
While that’s true, it’s also true that the end doesn’t always justify the means. Ethics are very important. Not only for yourself as the owner of the company but also to your employees and the audience.
I can’t see GN as anything but the annoying, self righteous redditor type who stands on his soapbox claiming everyone else is doing wrong and getting a sense of superiority out of it.
Again, you say this upsets you but can you point at a single case where they called out a company/product and were wrong? I really don’t understand why you’d be upset about someone literally fighting and looking out for you.
Their content isn’t anything particularly special, so they have to drum up the view count by creating drama.
Please name other channels that review hw as well as they do. GN and Hardware Unboxed are the only ones that I know of that are actually decent. I don’t see how you could consider them “not special”. Considering not only their reviews but also all of their methodology videos, technical deep dives with industry workers and/or experts and factory tours.
at least hold them to the same scrutiny you would the channels they call out
I do, not sure why you’d say I don’t. Is there anything specific you’re referring to? Afaik, they have literally no problems with other youtubers and no one (that I know of) has generated any content denouncing them. The only thing I could criticize is that Steve seems to be a bit of a workaholic but, at least according to him, that’s not something he demands of his coworkers.
Truthfully, I’m not that invested in the stoty and I was under the impression that the honey issue was solely on the creator side, so knowing otherwise does change my perspective some.
That said, I don’t think we know if LTT knew the entire story at the time. If they did, I also believe they should have said something. AFAIK they haven’t come out to say they knew of the whole story at the time of dropping the sponsorship, just that they knew of some of the issues. Without doing a deep dive like other creators have, I still think they would rather avoid the publicity for fear of retaliation, like they stated.
Ultimately, to each their own on whether you like GN or LTT. I still think GN goes out of their way to stir drama, whether it’s called for or not, and it sure seems like he just has an issue with Linus overall.
That said, I don’t think we know if LTT knew the entire story at the time.
This is also discussed in MegaLag’s video. They did know at least about this issue affecting them, financially. So, they brought it up with Honey, who refused to make any changes. After that, they ended their sponsorship. If they didn’t figure out the full extent of the issue, it’s because they didn’t want to. I doubt you seriously think they didn’t have the resources to investigate further.
they would rather avoid the publicity for fear of retaliation, like they stated.
From who? Honey? If so, that’s a very mistaken mentality. They basically decided to stay quiet about something that was demonstrably hurting creators and consumers out of sheer selfishness. Coming from linus, who seems to be rather narcissistic, that doesn’t surprise me. It does suprise me that this excuse would be accepted by their viewers, who were negatively impacted by this decision. Again, if you see something, say something.
I still think GN goes out of their way to stir drama, whether it’s called for or not
Once again. Has there been an instance where it wasn’t called for? I think they just have a very strict moral compass and they respect that regardless of any financial hit or extra work it might cause them. That’s something I respect, a lot.
it sure seems like he just has an issue with Linus overall.
Did you read their post? Wouldn’t you have a personal issue with someone who says you’re autistic, quotes your work without actually quoting you, reaches out to your personal phone over random tweets because they think they’re about them and also misrepresent you publicly?
For example, after the GN video, Linus said he reached out to Steve and was ignored. What actually happened was that linus sent a message to Steve’s old phone, which they hadn’t used for over 2 years. If you want more examples and details, you can read GN’s post.
Honeys issues are two fold:
Honey steals/replaces affiliate links/cookies meaning 100% of the commission earned by creators goes to Honey instead.
Several small creators have come out to say this has essentially bankrupt their channels as the entirety of their affiliate revenue just disappears overnight, then their sponsors pullout because it appears they are generating no traffic.
Honey also collude directly with retailers to control exactly what coupons are made available to you, explicitly preventing you from getting a better deal; while telling you they’ve gotten the best deal possible and convincing you to not even bother with other coupons or other sources. They even have a mechanism to ‘submit’ coupons they hadn’t applied to be distributed to other customers, to convince you you’re helping others get a good deal; but those submissions NEVER go to customers.
This happens on every transaction within a browser that has Honey installed; even in cases where Honey knows before trying, that they don’t have coupons to offer. It will still popup, tell you they don’t have anything to offer, then replace the affiliate connection with their own.
Through this they are stealing both from the customer and from any creators/affiliates that sent that customer to the store.
I briefly fact checked myself before my comment but the first few articles I saw didn’t mention the issues beyond creators. Good information and definitely changes my perspective of the overall problem. Thank you!
I know this barely means anything but it really is refreshing to have an interaction with someone who not only treats others respectfully but who is also able to admit they didn’t know a part of the story.
It’s obviously totally fine if you still don’t agree with what I said or have other reasons to dislike GN or prefer LTT, but this type of attitude is precisely one of the things Reddit lost a long time ago.
That’s all. Thank you <3
Yes they do, and its good content too.
Youll be happy to know theyve split up the 2 content too.
Gamers nexus will be tech reviews and news while their investigations moves to another channel because they noticed people like yourself dont like the content while others (like me) do. This way we both get what we want.
After skimming the comments I can confidently say there are 4 types of people here: people who hate LTT, people who hate GN, people who don’t know what plagiarism is and me. Best course of action is to just move on to the post. The second best is getting the popcorn ready before diving in, you’ll feel like you’re back on reddit.
Thank you for saving me from a potential headache. Maybe I’ll come back later with a rum and coke.
Just finished reading. In summary: everyone loses here.
Linus made some silly but understandable mistakes, had some very poor word choices in private communications, and got Steve on the defensive by publicly mentioning he didn’t want to sue but implied he could. LMG is also (in the youtube world) a large company and is likely always working on process improvements, and the improvement Steve seems to want to happen that they are definitely lacking in, is to update old content with corrections or omissions.
Steve poorly or never communicated what he thought were satisfactory resolutions to past comments or incidents and is upset that those resolutions didn’t happen, and is only escalating the situation further by softly threatening legal action, while also hinting that they have way more evidence they are just conveniently leaving out despite their current evidence being mostly empty (specifically receipts 1 and 2).
They both run very different channels with different focuses and staff sizes and production values, and each has made mistakes. None of this spat should have been public, but it seems both parties are just bad at communicating with one another and it has only escalated due to LMG actually publicly responding to public allegations by GN.
If I had to declare a winner so far, Steve is looking worse for wear to me given the poor examples provided as receipts and the continued threat of legal escalation, but again - everyone loses here. Everyone looks worse and this should have been handled privately. Maybe LMG should appoint someone other than Linus to handle fellow media contacts, because it doesn’t seem like he’s the best for that job.
Steve poorly or never communicated what he thought were satisfactory resolutions to past comments or incidents and is upset that those resolutions didn’t happen.
Steve very clearly says he would be happy with being attributed in a pinned comment on the video in question. Linus agreed to do that, then… didn’t do that. Steve is justified in being upset with the lack of action here, he isn’t Linus’s dad, he shouldn’t have to ask more than once for such a simple request.
and is only escalating the situation further by softly threatening legal action
If someone with as much money as LMG threatens legal action against you, it’s prudent to lawyer up and prepare a case/countersuit.
while also hinting that they have way more evidence they are just conveniently leaving out
Because when you’re preparing a legal case, it’s generally a good idea to not give your opponents all the materials you’re building your case with.
despite their current evidence being mostly empty (specifically receipts 1 and 2)
How are those examples empty? They may not be very extreme examples, but they clearly illustrate the type of behavior GN is claiming LMG engages in.
None of this spat should have been public
I can agree with you there.
If I had to declare a winner so far, Steve is looking worse for wear
Lol you lost me again
Everyone looks worse and this should have been handled privately. Maybe LMG should appoint someone other than Linus to handle fellow media contacts, because it doesn’t seem like he’s the best for that job.
Motherfucker pulled me right back in lmao
LTT needs to treat Linus like SpaceX treats Musk.
built a wall of yesmen around him to agree to everything he says, and executes none of it.
At least to respond to the first segment here, the pinned comment on the VOD does attribute their GN’s reporting for the segment. It does exactly what Linus said he would do in communication with Steve.
Does the pinned comment do a great job? Absolutely not, but it does what Steve agreed to, and he should have spoken up sooner if he didn’t like it.
They didn’t attribute on the clips channel cut, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the result of poor internal communication at LMG (likely by Linus since he likely handled the request on the VOD) to remember to include that attribution in that upload. Again, it would have been good if Steve let them know about it and asked for them to be more careful in the future. Its hard for a large group of people to be organized in that way and reminders are helpful. To bring it up years later in a legal threat is poor form, even if he is technically in the right.
To add onto my last comment though, I like watching the content from both of these creators and will continue to do so. My interpretation is neither is evil nor bad, but that there has been a series of poor communication and differing standards and expectations between them.
This whole writeup reads like an angsty high-schooler. It’s all about personality conflicts and petty BS, even the plagiarism email shows that GN appeared to be happy with the response, but now they’re acting like they never were.
Gaslighting all around.
even the plagiarism email shows that GN appeared to be happy with the response, but now they’re acting like they never were.
LTT never made any corrections or proper attributions, like they said in the email (which is what GN was happy about - that LTT agreed they were due credit and said they’d give it to them). LTT never followed through so it’s pretty justifiable that GN’s initial feelings would sour.
Honestly I’d have liked to see a very short response where they took the high road. By Internet attention spans it’s just mudslinging that drags them both into the mud. There’s some really damning nuggets buried in that long response but the shear fact that it’s such a long text response hurts optics significantly
We also allege that there were derogatory comments made by Linus Sebastian in a conversation with Steve Burke on a private phone call on August 31, 2021 at 7:31 PM Eastern lasting 9m 43s, where Sebastian referred to Burke as being “less autistic than you used to be;” however, with no recording of said call, this can only be alleged and there is no additional evidence to provide.
Well that’s pretty fucked up
I have a person online I used to consider a friend that made similar commentary once.
Hilarious too cause he has a physical disability. So you’d think he’d have compassion but nope!
Yeah for someone who is not close friends, making remarks like that is not a joke. That’s fucked
Linus is just insufferable. Life has been great with his channels blocked for years and not paying a cent of attention to him. Everyone should try it.
Yeah; I only ever see his content when the drama spills into other channels now.
I miss the days of small-time LTT doing silly projects like whole-room water cooling. :/
Same. I feel like once Luke started taking more of a back seat content-wise and letting Linus get in front of the camera by himself more is when things started going downhill
I have a funny feeling Luke was the only one willing to talk at Linus behind the scenes to control some of Linus’s worse impulses… and once Luke was gone and having to focus on float plane…
To me LLT is basically best when it is somewhat similar to old Top Gear, where they do silly projects (which increased in scope with the companies growth).
For actual reviews on the other hand I’d never really trust them and would always look to other sources like GN or Hardware Unboxed (who e.g. seem to do great monitor reviews) for example.
But I’ve also scaled back watching the channel to maybe looking at it once or twice in the last year.
Like most internet beefs I’m guessing the truth lands somewhere in the middle.
Though as someone only sorta paying attention and I don’t really care what happens I will say that Linus appears to be more upfront about his mistakes and continuing to own up to them as they come up. Not like he can own up for things that either never happened or he doesn’t remember happening. He is still a human.
GN comes across more like the jealous angry kid that lashes out over text messages because they didnt get what they wanted. I can’t shake the feeling that the “sudden” turn of GN against Linus has something to do with something else entirely that none of us even know about… Yet.
All that being said I have always liked Luke the most and I stopped watching LTT stuff quite a bit when Luke left. I still watch WAN because I find the information and entertainment combination the perfect background audio while I’m tinkering or whatever. I think both the GN and LTT videos generally both suck these days. GN just stands there with some paper in his hands and word vomits at the camera. Linus reminds me of the annoying orange at times.
You are prolly right about some hidden issue here but at least GN does proper journalism and Linus is just does content IMHO
So I favour GN until Steve is properly discredited
Yep.
GN brings the receipts and can back up any claim they make.
Linus just bitches and moans while being called out on his legitimately bad behavior/thievery/etc,… and hes used to being able to just lean into his cult, that laps up everything he says, and use them to pressure any smaller critic into silence… Don’t work with GN though, lol.
Man, idk about any of that. The only thing I can say is too far is the alleged autism comment, but there’s no proof, just his word from 4.5 years ago
The WAN show is news commentary, that sometimes doesn’t accurately attribute. That’s reason not to watch, but not for claims of plagiarism or stealing.
And I rarely watch anything from LMG, except for specific videos that are exactly what I’m looking for. I’m not a follower of theirs, but just taking GN word as gospel seems just as dumb
The WAN show is news commentary, that sometimes doesn’t accurately attribute. That’s reason not to watch, but not for claims of plagiarism or stealing.
Commentary is
“And heres a news article from Gamers Nexus insert brief summary of story, brief back and fort, comments and opinions about it. And if you want more info, follow up with the original article at the link below”
And I rarely watch anything from LMG, except for specific videos that are exactly what I’m looking for. I’m not a follower of theirs, but just taking GN word as gospel seems just as dumb
There are literally evidence supported facts, and the fact that you are trying to handwave it away as dumb and as fools taking random empty words as gospel, Kinda really reveals the actual hand you’re trying to play here, and says a lot more about you than anything else.
Informing the subject of an investigation and requesting comment to the allegations is considered proper journalism. Otherwise it comes off more as an attack.
Wild to go, “That claim about our journalistic integrity is wrong! We’re actually far MORE irresponsible than you thought!” And think it’s a gotcha
What GN does is not proper journalism. It’s sensationalist bullshit. Please stop demeaning actual journalists.
What para social relationships do to a MF lol
I was similar but stopped watching the wan show when every episode became a product showcase for their merch. Real shame, I feel Luke’s a weight keeping Linus somewhat grounded.
Luke is a relatively sane normal person. Linus is like the tasmanian devil. If Luke and Linuses wife weren’t around who knows how canceled he would already have been lol.
It’s really funny how in Linus’s worst WAN show moments Luke just silently sits there doing nothing, every once in a while making a small attempt to prevent the imminent train wreck then leaving Linus to crash the train when it becomes obvious he’s intent on doing so. Honestly they should probably stop doing the WAN show given how many times it’s been WAN show clips that got them in hot water
I mean nothing super serious had come of it. The “hard R” incident was the funniest fucking thing ever. Luke’s face was one of pure panic as he thought everything was blowing up right in his face.
deleted by creator
It’s wild how Linus hasn’t pivoted into acknowledging his videos are like junk food. They’re fun but you shouldn’t take them too seriously.
Instead he’s doubling down in all the worst ways while continuing to come off as another whiny tech ceo
I find it really ironic, given that he’s spent the last 5-ish years trying to double-down on technical accuracy, while being entertaining. Now there’s no accuracy, and the entertainment has turned into repulsive cringe
He fell off after he moved out of the house.
When Nick van Berkel left it turned to shit. He probably left at the best time.
He has? Not to the degree you’re taking it, but that’s been a topic of conversation on the WAN show multiple times.
Yeah I’m a bit confused. He’s said they are trying to provide a pretty base level of education… Just enough to get started, but aren’t meant to be crazy deep dives. The labs content is a bit different, but I think it’s pretty easy to tell the difference.
I’m not sure these are the receipts GamersNexus believes them to be. They’re all kinda stretching things into a gray area.
The plagiarism part is straight up incorrect. LMG did not say that their discussion was original reporting. The WAN show is explicitly a podcast reacting to news articles and events (WAN = Weekly Analysis and News). Plagerism needs a “passing off as your own” piece, while IANAL given react content typically ends up in the fair use category because of additional commentary and thoughts being added, the WAN show doesn’t have to disclose sources. Usually on WAN show they mention where they heard of the story, and not mentioning GN is a dick move, but it’s not plagiarism.
The history of not following up on issues was definitely better addressed in the original GN video. But at the same time, this just makes it seems like GN is trying to use the argument “Hey we warned you once that some of your methodologies aren’t great and led to skewed results and you didn’t really react, so now we’re gonna release an hour long video on all of your previous fuck ups and not tell you, k thx bi*”
To Linus’s original point on not getting a heads up, that’s not industry standard behavior and also kind of a dick move.
The unprofessional communication part I can go either way with. Would I talk to my boss like that? No. Technical mentors and peers that I had a good relationship with? Absolutely and I have done it. By the book it’s unprofessional it’s hardly the damning statements Gamers Nexus is trying to sell them as.
Also for those of you who have not watched any LMG content since that original GN video, LMG has cleaned up their act quite a bit, so credit where credit is due. Linus also only asked for receipts since he was getting increasingly frustrated with several negative comments coming from GN whereas on the LMG side they’ve continued to praise and recommend GN content
Your understanding of what qualifies as plagiarism feels wrong. Just because an organization advertises itself as a “weekly analysis and news” doesn’t disqualify them from citing sources. They still are required to give credit where credit is due… Even mainstream news channels will let their audience know where they are acquiring their information whenever it isn’t coming from their own investigations.
At the end of the day, if a primary source privately requests a citation, then a citation is definitely required, so this is where lmg really messed up. GN (as the primary source) felt wronged when lmg used information from their own investigative journalism and did not give them credit (when they apparently gave Jayz2cents credit). At that point in time, lmg was obligated to give GN credit and lmg admitted to this mistake; but then did little to nothing to rectify it.
And moreover, the question is from Linus about why they weren’t given a right to reply to GN’s first big piece. The plagiarism and subsequent lack of resolution is stated as a reason that GN felt uncomfortable. GN evaluated that situation and felt it met their own standard. I dont know if LMGs reporting on EVGA actually qualifies as plagarism, but GN is successfully providing the context for their decision.
Ultimately, Linus asked why? And GN said essentially because you did ‘this’ and it crossed our threshold for hostility, and we actually didn’t give those other outlets right of reply either like your claiming we did so calm down.
Agreed. I think GN missed the point by not publishing the smoking gun receipts, but an avalanche of receipts for things LMG was guilty of and have admitted to. It kinda makes it look like GN wants it to look like they’re “burying LMG with evidence”, but in reality the smoking gun would only need to be a paragraph & some screenshots.
While I mostly agree with you, I do think there are problematic things in this article that make Linus come off as disingenuous at best, especially seeing that he played the “I have 0 idea what I did wrong, I want to sue you but i wont” card.
As for the reciepts for lack of citations, while I think it’s obvious that Steve is asking for citations and he shouldn’t have to ask, it’s always best to make your request explicit. It breeds animosity to have expectations and not state or ask them clearly. I could absolutely see someone being naive in these exchanges and thinking that Steve was reaching out not to get a citation but to fix future mistakes.
The worst thing about this bullshit though is the lmg clips video title. It’s a serious allegation that Linus allegedly wants to resolve, but they cover it in cringe memery. And I say this as someone who watches LTT and not GN.
I think if Linus had just called out Steve’s beef and publicly requested some forum to speak privately or publicly and sort out differences, that’d be one thing. But with the lmg clip title and the “want to sue, but I won’t” bs, it all just seems kinda gross. I know that Linus may not be personally responsible for that, but the company uses his name, and he started it.
I took Linus’s statement to mean that he doesn’t understand why he is continuing to get heat from GN since they have addressed the issues GN pointed out.
The could sue but won’t part I think it’s coming more from a context with the ongoing Honey lawsuit, since at least on WAN show its been brought up several times that people recommend LMG join the lawsuit and Linus repeatedly refusing because as he puts it, he’s not a litigious person. Given the rest of the his plea in that segment for the viewers to not go after GN, I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt on it. I also personally give a lot of leeway to people and organizations who have admitted mistakes in the past and corrected them so that definitely feeds into me choosing not to interpret things the way you are, even though I can see why you view it that way.
And yeah the dedicated clips channel video was moronically named imho. Linus or someone else at LMG should have vetoed it, it’s a serious topic and deserves to be taken as such. If they felt the need to make a joke, do it like the “channel this angry energy into powering RTX 5090s”. A small quip at the end, not leading into things
I’m my experience “I could sue, but won’t” is only ever used as a threat by narcissist assholes who got called out and don’t have enough evidence to sue, because if they truly did, they would. His ego was hurt by his own shitty attitude, so he’s using threats he can’t back up to be a bully. He’s basically saying “I have more money than you and can drain your resources with a frivolous lawsuit if I wanted to”
You can’t publish an entire NYT news article verbatim and then claim, “I’m just reacting.” The GN article is copyrighted.
Are we talking copyright or plagiarism here? GN is claiming plagiarism, not copyright infringement
Edit: spelling
Plagiarism is when you don’t make legal claims on someone copying your work or where the work wasn’t copyrighted.
GN was being nice about it by calling it plagiarism instead of invoking lawyers.
Edit: don’t just downvote. Explain why plagiarism of copyrighted work isn’t a copyright violation.
That is not what plagiarism means
The action or practice of taking someone else’s work, idea, etc., and passing it off as one’s own
to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one’s own : use (another’s production) without crediting the source
an act or instance of using or closely imitating the language and thoughts of another author without authorization and the representation of that author’s work as one’s own, as by not crediting the original author
All three definitions clearly state that Plagiarism is taking some production of someone else’s and claiming it as your own. That there is some kind of deception going on as to who created the original thought/work. Merriam-Webster’s definition has that second component talking about the act of using without crediting the source, which LMG didn’t do at first but later added a pinned comment. While not immediate and the barest amount of effort on LMGs part, but it still is credit.
Plagiarism has no legal component to its definition.
Copyright does have legal implications as it is someone’s right to duplicate a work. In general a creator of a work has exclusive rights to reproduce it, but there are exceptions (everyone’s favorite Fair Use laws). With LMG being Canadian the legal side is more complicated but in US courts it’s been tested that one such exception is around additional commentary and that the usage of the work was limited as to what was relevant to being actively discussed (big case here being H3H3 a few years back). Even by GN’s own admission the WAN show was taking phrases and repeating them verbatim, but just that, only phrases. Ones pertaining directly to the on hand topic of EVGAs ending partnership with Nvidia. They were not showing GNs video, reading his script word for word start to finish. Again, IANAL but I find it highly unlikely that a US or Canadian court would say that what LMG did on WAN Show meets the definition of a copyright violation
Edit:
And to answer your last point directly, Plagiarism and Copyright are orthogonal to each other. You could plagiarize by not giving public credit but still get copy permission from the copyright holder. Semantically kinda weird to think about
That’s the point I was attempting to make. Linus used Gamers Nexus copyrighted work without permission or even attribution. It was both plagiarism and a copyright violation. Steve was being polite by only calling Linus out on the plagiarism.
Did you not understand anything I typed out?
LMG used GN material, yes.
LMG did not commit plagiarism
LMG did not violate copyright law
Words have meanings, and by the definitions of the words plagiarism and copyright LMG does not meet the criteria. You and I do not get to change the definitions to fit whatever narrative we have in our heads on who we want to be the good guys and who we want to be the bad guys
From the Gamers Nexus website:
“The script nearly identically matched the order, topics, and words.”
I have not finished reading the article, but “Receipt 1” is just embarrassing to GN in my eyes. They claim LMG never addresses the plagierism and provides an email chain where Linus tell him what exactly LMG is going to do in response and GN responds indicating the solution is good. Where is the problem?
Specifically on publicly addressing it, Linus said they will pin a comment and Steve said that’s OK. That’s what happened. Is it truly unresolved? Just reading the emails provided makes it really look like an open and closed case.
I also dont get why they include the additional context in that part of their response. What does GN’s recent criticism of LMG have to do with that interaction?
Sorry, on mobile and just had to type something out before I forgot, because this is a long read.
deleted by creator
I checked out from all LMG videos after I found out about the treatment of Madison during the huge controversy. WTF is going on over there? I thought Linus and Steve were friends at one point, did Linus forget that Steve remembers everything?
From the article:
Sebastian’s recent calls for friendship were accompanied by serious legal allegations and claims regarding the ethics and motives behind our entire business. We believe this is a play on parasocial relationships, reinforced by Linus Media Group’s decision to re-title the LMG Clip “Can Linus & Gamers Nexus Ever be Friends Again?”, where it paints GamersNexus as a friend who just needs to make up with LTT so things can “get back to normal.” This suppresses dissenting views by pretending to be everyone’s friend, so a legitimate critique seems like a personal attack to onlooking viewers.
If they were, they emphatically AREN’T anymore.
I picked up on that one, I remember that they’d get pretty buddy-buddy for a while before it just stopped sometime around 2019. Apparently things have escalated a little.
I don’t think Linus has the ability to pilot a company, even as a C-Suite with no actual responsibilities. I went from respecting them to seeing them as just another shitty corporation.
The only friends Steve needs are at Level1Techs and GN.
And derbau8er, and hardware unboxed, and jay and, …
Ltt is a league on its own and lives on its own little island at this point (if that is a good or bad thing, i leave to you to decide)
I checked out from LMG when they did the video on the Velkase Velka 3, an uber-niche case in a niche segment, used bad parts, didn’t use exhaust fans, used a poor cooler choice, and got a pc running near thermal throttle when my near-identical spec pc was running 15°C cooler and benchmarking better. It made me realize that they have poor methodology and poorer research standards, so I just stopped watching entirely
Well, so much for ditching the R-slur from his vocabulary. It’s like everything Linus says is in bad faith. What a douchebag. And also texting while driving, class A shit-4-brains specimen.
Not defending and I don’t have the full context of both in my memory but when was the text sent and when was the promise made to never use it again?
Linus is dropping hard Rs again? 😜
Yo, why does the website play boss music in the background?
Like a boss
I’m 54 and I understand nothing about this 😂
Its a ride. Bit of backstory if you arent familiar. Linus media group (lmg) and gamers nexus(GN) are 2 content creators on youtube focusing on tech. Lmg focuses on ‘the best’ or ‘the most’ putting out videos like ‘the craziest pc ever built’ as a generic example. Theres a great team behind the videos and there are some pretty interesting one and the videos cover a wide variety of tech topics. GN on the other hand does mostly tech reviews and tech news and prides themselves on being accurate reporters.
The controversy revolves around a third party. Being content creators they have sponsors who help fund the show. One of those sponsors that LMG used is an app called Honey which is a browser add-on that claims to help find the best coupons when shopping online. They came under fire recently when it turned out they were colluding with certain websites/companies and somehow stealing money. Instead of saying anything about this when they discovered it, lmg just quietly dropped them from sponsorship a change from their usual trend of calling out the company (theyve done it before with other sponsors). In a recent video, GN announced they were filing a class-action lawsuit against Honey and at one point they made a remark about Linus not doing anything at the time and then the shitshow just went downhill from there
It also started before that when GN/Steve got tired of LMG’s inaccurate reporting, so he posted a deep dive into LMG issues with inaccuracy. That really started the public demolition of their working relationship.
Wasn’t that after one of LTTs benchmarkers shittalked GNs methods on a video?
Yep and then Madison “Suop” dropped a bombshell about toxic work culture and verbal abuse
That was later found to be unsubstantiated by a third party lawfirm hired to investigate the matter…
All they found was no evidence one way or the other. It wasn’t disproven, nor proven.
More specifically, a fan posted a video during a tour and an (ex) LMG employee started talking about ways he felt like his department (labs) was doing things better than other channels like GamersNexus.
So this isn’t even a story then. Got it.
Thank you for your actual reporting in the comment section below this bullshit that’s getting called reporting.
Instead of saying anything about this when they discovered it, lmg just quietly dropped them from sponsorship a change from their usual trend of calling out the company (theyve done it before with other sponsors).
If by other sponsors you mean Eufy, which happened well after They dropped Honey, then yes that was handled differently. Their logic was that Eufy’s (still-ongoing) security issues directly affected consumers, whereas all LMG knew about was Honey hijacking affiliate revenue trackers.
Source on what LMG as a company knew:
We ended the partnership with Honey due to the way their service interacted with affiliate links. Essentially, if someone clicked on a affiliate link (For example, one of ours below in the video description on YouTube), and then if they “use honey” and search for a deal, Honey will override that tracking links even if they don’t find you a deal.
https://linustechtips.com/topic/1415146-weekly-sponsorship-suggestioncomplaint-thread-feb-28-2022/
At this stage, Linus Media Group and GamersNexus have both made statements which are extremely serious. This is far beyond presenting a front of friendliness, and I am respectfully requesting that Linus Sebastian drops that facade publicly, as well as ceases the repeated personal emails requesting as much, as it is personally making me extremely uncomfortable.
Uh I’m sorry what the fuck
