HMMMM Suspicious?!?!

[DK2]

I tried to cross reference a few older reviews cause I always wanted to be a crime fighter, and I can’t work all day!!!
His site keeps crashing my browser! wth….. maybe I’ll just stick to what I know.
Good luck, sky

[Deathspawner]

I have never thought too much of 3D Gameman's web site, so when I saw an e-mail sitting in my inbox this morning about this, it didn't come as much of a surprise. The fact of the matter is, the image used in that video review is undoubtedly SKYMTL's and the fact that Rodney continually denies it is just absurd. W1zzard's image is a little more difficult to pinpoint, but with a sharp eye, it becomes obvious.

Despite it going against my better judgement, I decided to check out a few of his previous reviews, and from what I can see, I wouldn't be surprised if this has been going on for a while. You'll notice his own personal images are decently lit and sharp, whereas GPU die shots and other odd viewing angles look cropped, flat, sharpened or with a higher contrast applied. I'm not insinuating that all of the images are taken from other sites, but his constant denial of of these two blatantly obvious images doesn't instill much faith.

What I don't understand, is that in his reviews, such as a GPU, he talks more about the accessories and how the fan moves, rather than the GPU itself. He's even lightweight with the graphs, benchmarking with five tests at most, and only on one setting each. That's all fine, to each their own. But if his reviews are so lightweight, I have no idea why he even deems it necessary to show a GPU die shot at all. It's clear that's not the audience he's after.

Normally I would ignore this situation. In my own case, I've caught other sites taking my images, but have never felt the ambition to ask them about it. But, I'm sure if I did ask them about it, the owner or editor would at least admit to his mistake. Rodney's clearly insistent that he's done nothing wrong.

Rodney has been doing this hardware review thing longer than most of us, so you'd expect that he'd have a good handle on what's accepted and what's not. It's apparently not the case. His goals are to do as little work as possible, then reap the rewards of ad money and the sales of products he reviews. The fact of the matter is, he's not being honest about these images, so who's to say he's honest about anything he writes or says in a video?

Regardless, that's all a matter of opinion. Kudos to HC for actually catching this plagiarism and good luck in getting it settled.

[freakgeek1337]

Yay, HWC is becoming more famous! But seriously I've been covering this topic on the NCIX forums and XS. Man, Rodney is one hell of a douche. Ughh, good luck SKY. Better sue him until he's on the streets.

[Cptn Vortex]

I really hope he is taking a second thought to a polite apology. If not, he's in trouble

[jdrom17]

Originally Posted by Cptn Vortex

I really hope he is taking a second thought to a polite apology. If not, he's in trouble

Too late now, this news is like everywhere. His image is tarnished.

[SKYMTL]

He did retract the videos which included material from Techpowerup and HWC. There is so much I would like to say but I will just copy my statement from XS:

In all reality, I will be honest with everyone here since you all brought up good points. He did use our images but in the end I am NOT here to outright ruin the competition and deface someone's name. It probably would have been very easy to get our lawyer to draw up a letter and move from there before giving him the chance to set things right. No matter how much I hate what happened, I am a firm believer that the community as a whole should stick together through good times and bad. Rain or shine...and all that mumbo jumbo.

Lunging towards an open throat in a split second just isn't the way I roll and it never will be. 99.9999% of us reviewers and / or site owners are never the rich, successful people some people may think we are or how we WISH we were. So, going forward with financial retribution through legal routes just wasn't in the cards for the next 12 hours since I originally gave him 48 hours and he stuck to it. While I would never, ever do what Rodney did I gave him the chance to set things right and he did to a certain extent. If he wouldn't have stuck to that 48 hour deadline, w would be having a completely different conversation here.

What I am still waiting for is an apology and it is concerning that other sites seem to be in the same boat. So, we will see what the near future brings in the way of an apology and other discoveries of potential copyright infringement by 3DGameman. I know I am keeping my eyes WIDE open.

[werty316]

First he denies the whole ordeal and now he takes the video review down..., guilty much? There goes his creditability as a reviewer down the toilet.

If he gave an apology, I wouldn't accept it since he lied about the whole situation. Its like when Cliniton said "did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky." An apology would be too late in my view.

[Supergrover]

Dugg!

This is the type of people that shouldn't be receiving review item's, HIS should be notified ( I'm sure they have been by now ) and HIS should definitely take action against Rodney. Other manufactures should also note his practices.

I wont recommend HIS products unless they take some form of action, after all it wasn't even their card but a competitors.

[werty316]

Originally Posted by Supergrover

Dugg!

This is the type of people that shouldn't be receiving review item's, HIS should be notified ( I'm sure they have been by now ) and HIS should definitely take action against Rodney. Other manufactures should also note his practices.

I wont recommend HIS products unless they take some form of action, after all it wasn't even their card but a competitors.

Right on, I'm with you

Maybe this could be the start to his downfall where companies will no longer give him review samples (yeah I know its a stretch).

[Spawne32]

XFX’s monster OC GTX 280 - The INQUIRER

inq worthy now as well