Click on the pics for a full-size image, or visit the links below and see for yourself.

Left: the original post at Engadget, courtesy of Google's caching system.

Right: the revised post at Engadget, as it appears now.

The story about the Ubiquitous Multimedia Informator originated from DAPreview and can be seen HERE. We were the first to find and write about this device, which we discovered at the CeBIT 2006 convention.

As you can see, the original post on Engadget (as it appeared briefly on the front page) included a link to DAPreview and the picture from DAPreview, including a blue version of our logo. We had no problem with this. In fact, we appreciate the support, since it sends traffic our way and brings new people to DAPreview.

However, on the revised version of the same story, the link to DAPreview was removed and it has a chopped version of our picture with the DAPreview logo cut out. We do have a problem with this. They have deliberately circumvented a credit to DAPreview. Instead, the story now links to another blog (mobilemag) that covered our story. This is equivalent to ripping us off.

Why they would do such a thing..? Why would they even bother to revise the news story, removing all reference to DAPreview, after the fact?

The reason is simple: DAPreview is blacklisted at Engadget. Somehow, the reference to DAPreview slipped through before Peter Rojas or Ryan Block could veto the credit.

We know this because DAPreview has a long, turbulent history with Engadget. Or more specifically, with two of the editors - Peter Rojas and Ryan Block. We have no quarrel with the other writers.

Click on the link below to read more about the history between DAPreview and Engadget...

UPDATE: Engadget has restored the news item back to its original state, before Ryan Block edited out all references to DAPreview. Replies from Engadget are posted at the end.

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We got off on the wrong foot with Engadget starting with THIS news post back in July of 2004. Engadget reported that the Creative Zen Touch had just starting shipping to customers, when in fact it had not. We verified this with several vendors. The title of our news post, "Creative Zen Touch now shipping? Or has Engadget lost its Touch?" was meant to be funny, but Peter Rojas took great offense to it in an email that he sent to us. Soon after, Engadget changed the news story so that it reads, "Creative taking pre-orders..." but you can tell from the user comments that it wasn't like that originally. The edited version can be seen HERE, and a later news item about it can be seen HERE, where they admit, "We sorta bungled this first time around..."

Anyway, not a big deal, right? Or so we thought.

Over the next couple of weeks, Engadget used a number of our news items, but without giving credit to DAPreview. At the time, we were the only blog that was digging up news about obscure digital audio players from China, Korea, Europe, etc so it was obvious where the news originated.

The problem appeared to be deliberate, since it was consistant and it only affected news from DAPreview. Peter Rojas was doing most of the news items back then.

We gathered evidence - taking screen shots and time/date comparisons between our news blog and theirs, and then we challenged Peter Rojas about it. Either they needed to give us credit when they used our news or we would take it public. It was obvious that he was stealing news from us, and it would be hard to deny.

Ryan Block stepped in and said that they would fix the affected news items and that they would credit properly in the future.

Everything seemed fine for awhile. They routinely used news from our blog, several items per week, and we enjoyed the influx of traffic.

But eventually they fell back into the same pattern, where they would neglect to credit us, time and time again. We would send emails to get things corrected, and sometimes they would. Sometimes they wouldn't respond, so we'd leave a comment in the news item with a link back to DAPreview.

Apparently, they didn't like that approach, because they went and deleted many of those comments. In late July (2005), we got a nasty email from Ryan Block saying that we "shouldn't air our petty grievances" in the comments. Mind you - we didn't put any nasty stuff in thier comment system, just links back to the place where they got news from - since they couldn't be bothered to do it themselves half of the time.

A couple of days later, in early August, Engadget made some kind of policy against DAPreview. They would no longer link to us directly. If they wanted to use something that came from DAPreview, they would wait for another blog to pick up the story and link to them instead.

Just like they did recently with our news item about the Ubiquitous Multimedia Informator.

See for yourself. Search Engadget for "DAPreview" - HERE. Over 100 items link to us before August 2nd, and only 3 since then... it seems that a couple of items made it past the Rojas/Block filter.

Of course, the people at Engadget can print whatever they want. If they don't want to use our news, that's fine. But they do use our news, and we have a problem with the deceitful way in which they avoid giving us credit. Basically, they're willing to rip us off because of some personal vendetta against Rob and me.

So here we are, making sure as many people as possible know what these guys are up to.

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If you recall, we had a similar problem last year with T3.co.uk, and we ended up having to bust them on the front page of DAPreview in order to get something done about it.

In the end, all we're looking for is fair treatment. Engadget, and anyone else, is welcome to use our content as long as they do the responsible thing and give credit where it's due - including a link back to DAPreview.

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On a side note, the CEO of Weblogs Inc., Jason Calacanis, has been known to get upset at CNET for stealing news from Engadget. He's complained about it several times on his own blog.

• CNET doesn’t give credit to blogger (again)
• Bringing CNET into the tent, Step One: The Hat Tip
• CNET’s editorial elitism evaporating?

Feel free to let him know what you think about this mess. His contact information is HERE or you can send him an email at jason@calacanis.com.

We can be reached at austin@dapreview.net & rob@dapreview.net.

Copies of our email correspondance with Peter Rojas and Ryan Block, along with all the evidence we've collected in the past, is available for other publications to review.

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The response from Engadget:


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