Meet the guy who plagiarized JoBlo.com’s entire review collection in 2010

The site has been buzzing the past few days with news that a UK YouTube movie reviewer had been caught plagiarizing JoBlo.com movie reviews from our own Chris Bumbray and Jimmy O, and reading them like they were his own.

His name is Tom Perkins, and his web show was called FilmXTRA. On first glance he’s an energetic young Brit with a seeming passion for movies, but upon closer inspection, he’s a thieving bastard who has stolen nearly everything he’s ever posted from JoBlo.com and a few other film websites.

For a prime example of this, check out this video review of IRON MAN 2, and while you watch, read along with Jimmy O’s review posted days earlier. This is only one of dozens reviews stolen from us and other sources, but it’s the only video we could grab before he took them all down. Below that, check out “his” synopsis of the same film he sent out in an e-mail.

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It’s kind of eerie to see that, and personally, as a writer, I just don’t see A) why anyone would fake reviews, as most of us do what we do because we love giving OUR opinions on movies and B) how do you think you’re going to get away with that indefinitely?

There are many more details to this story as to who all this guy stole from and for how long, and the entire saga has been chronicled very well here at TheFollowingPreview, which you should check out for the full rundown. Also, we’ve just been sent this video from FuryoftheFilmFan which explains the whole scenario:

Days went by without any word from Perkins, other than a few frantic tweets, but he’s just sent us an apology letter which you can see below.

Firstly I would like to apologise for the lateness of this email. Unfortunately I’ve been away from a computer all weekend, which has also given me time think about what I’ve wanted to say.

Yes I have plagiarised many of your reviews (and other website reviewers) and even though there is no excuse for what I have done, I am deeply sorry for my actions. I was stupid to think that I could get away with it. Now I know you don’t want to hear any excuses but my main reason for starting to plagiarise a while ago was mainly because YouTube has become so easily corruptible these days I kind of wanted to see how corruptible it can be. Which of course got way out of hand and I forgot that I was taking advantage of your hard work. I now want to thank you and everyone else involved for making me see the horrible errors of my ways. I love your site and didn’t want to hurt anyone.

I also need to mention that the website HeyUGuys.co.uk (which was the website i was apart of) had no idea of my actions and were just in the dark as everyone else. I have apologised to them as well but I urge you to not hold them responsible for what I’ve done. They are victims of what I’ve done as much as my viewers and I hope you continue to see them as a valued movie blogging site.

Moving on from what I’ve done. I’d just like to say I love movies and will continue to do my own full video reviews whether or not anyone watches them. I understand that you are extremely angry with what I’ve done and it’s up to you if you want to believe me but I will say that I’m very sorry and it will NEVER happen again. I have taken all my previous videos down and will be starting from scratch.

Thanks for your time

Tom

FilmXTRA

He wanted to “see how corruptible YouTube had become”? That’s like going out and robbing a bank to figure out why crime rates are so high.

Anyway, to all you writers out there, NEVER plagiarize, not even a little bit. It’s OK to be inspired by other critics and journalists, but copying is never OK, and is disrespectful to the hard work they put in when you try and pass it off for own. And you’ll likely be caught, and end up like this guy, internet douche of the year.