Our Response to Linus Sebastian | GamersNexus
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GN Extras Our Response to Linus Sebastian January 21, 2025 Last Updated: 2025-01-21 GamersNexus responds to Linus Sebastian's WAN Show segment Evidence Included PLAGIARISM: Receipt #1 - History of Failure to Resolve IssuesDATA ERRORS: Receipt #2 - History of Failure to Resolve IssuesEDITORIAL DISPUTE: Receipt #3 - Unprofessionalism in Prior Communications Table of Contents AutoTOC Intro On January 17, 2025, Linus Sebastian, Founder/CVO of Linus Media Groups and property Linus Tech Tips, explicitly requested that we produce “receipts” relating to comments we have previously made. The quote is below: “I would also be very curious to see receipts for the claims that we have a ‘history of failure to resolve issues or unprofessionalism in prior communications.” - Linus Sebastian Sebastian on multiple occasions insinuated that we were defaming him and his company and suggested that we are dishonest. In our publication on this page, upon explicit request by Linus Sebastian, we will be providing the requested evidence. We will also provide corrections to his additional errors.  This evidence provided highlights the following, all of which occurred prior to GamersNexus’ 2023 video:  Plagiarism by Linus Tech Tips of GamersNexus content wherein we previously privately reached out without resolutionUnprofessional and aggressive communications in privateHistory of failure to resolve data accuracy issues that were privately raised We have spent several years keeping all of this information private as a courtesy. However, with recent demands from Linus Sebastian to produce “receipts,” and with his segment containing numerous factual errors, we are now providing the details below. Additional history of Linus Sebastian’s failure to resolve issues or unprofessionalism in prior communications are available; however, as a continued ongoing and professional courtesy, only the minimum amount of interactions are presented below that are needed to prove the claims that were made and provide the requested evidence. Credits Writing Steve Burke Context In this publication by Linus Media Group on the WAN Show and LMG Clips, the latter of which was originally entitled “Is GamersNexus Ethical Journalism?” later renamed to “Linus emailed Gamers Nexus,” and most recently renamed to “Can Linus & Gamers Nexus Ever be Friends Again?,” Sebastian stated the following: “Since we’re at this: I would also be very curious to see receipts for the claims that we have a ‘history of failure to resolve issues or unprofessionalism in prior communications.’ OK. GN further writes, ‘we previously had non-public contact with this organization’ (LMG here) ‘about similar matters that were not resolved satisfactorily or wherein we sometimes were the recipients of aggressive messaging pertaining to review topics.’ That is an extraordinary claim that I believe requires extraordinary evidence.” For the full context of this clip, you may watch from approximately 10:22 until approximately 12:38. This is what we believe contextualizes the request for “receipts.” Of course, you may watch the entire video if you like and decide what you believe the context is. It is linked above. On the screen during the above quote, Linus Sebastian reads from a Gamers.Nexus mini-site post (click the “Problem with Linus Tech Tips” accordion), wherein we shared our reasoning for not contacting Linus Sebastian or Linus Media Group in advance of publication of our video entitled “The Problem with Linus Tech Tips: Accuracy, Ethics, & Responsibility,” published on August 14, 2023. The criteria being discussed is included in full below. 6 different criteria were met, of which this is one of them: “Criteria Met [for no contact]: History of Failure to Resolve Issues or Unprofessionalism in prior Communications (we previously had non-public contact with the organization about similar matters that were not resolved satisfactorily or wherein we sometimes were the recipients of aggressive messaging pertaining to review topics).” - Gamers.Nexus All criteria that were met can be found here. PLAGIARISM: Receipt #1 - History of Failure to Resolve Issues Context: In a September 16, 2022 publication of the WAN Show with over 2,000,000 views (“The Biggest Tech Divorce”), Linus Sebastian read from a script about the EVGA / NVIDIA split. The script nearly identically matched the order, topics, and words of a GamersNexus report with 1,800,000 views, and yet at no time in the segment did Linus Sebastian cite GamersNexus or its author.  As additional context, this incident closely followed a GamersNexus video published on August 12, 2022, one month prior to this EVGA WAN show segment, where GamersNexus publicly criticized Linus Media Group relating to LMG’s warranty policies.  In regards to the plagiarism, Linus Media Group never satisfactorily resolved this issue or publicly acknowledged this theft of content or lack of citation. GamersNexus did not previously bring this issue publicly. EVGA Coverage Context: GamersNexus was one of three members of the media with access to the story that EVGA would quit manufacturing video cards; further, GamersNexus was the only party of the three which was familiar with several matters of the EVGA / NVIDIA split. GamersNexus was the only party privy to this additional information as the conversation was held in Mandarin Chinese between this author, Steve Burke, and EVGA CEO Andrew Han. No other parties to the conversation spoke Mandarin, and as a result, GamersNexus had exclusive access to several pieces of information. Evidence: View full-size image here. This email was sent to the following individuals: Linus Sebastian, then CEOLuke Lafreniere, CTONick Light, COO Result As of January 20, 2025, nearly 3 years later, there has been no public acknowledgement of the plagiarism, nor retraction of the content in the WAN Show upload with 2,000,000 views. The WAN Show upload and LMG Clips videos do not reference or cite GamersNexus either verbally or on screen at any point for the EVGA story.  In the LMG Clips subsequent upload with an additional 107,000 views, as of this publication, there has still been no attribution to GamersNexus in any form, including pinned comments.On the WAN Show 2,000,000 view upload, as of this publication, there has still been no attribution to GamersNexus in any form, including pinned comments. The only change made, after responding to our email, was a pinned comment stating “shoutout to Jayztwocents and Steve,” which is not the same as a citation, without ever acknowledging GamersNexus or the plagiarism or naming the author in full. This does not adequately cite the author and does not resolve the issue. Jayztwocents had already been cited verbally in the piece. GamersNexus reached out privately and in good faith to inform Linus Tech Tips of this serious issue. The expectation was that LTT/LMG would resolve it satisfactorily and inform the public of any wrongdoing. The public was never informed, and GamersNexus was never attributed. DATA ERRORS: Receipt #2 - History of Failure to Resolve Issues Context In this thread, which was cordial by all parties, we privately addressed a number of errors made in the video “Delidding a $1000 CPU - Worth the RISK??” These errors contributed to the presented platform instability and poor thermal results shown at various points in the video. These were not publicly corrected by LTT/LMG, and this predates our 2023 publication (“The Problem with Linus Tech Tips”). Evidence Ordered left-to-right. We reached out privately and alerted Linus Sebastian to the issues. Sebastian copied a staff writer. We felt the communication was cordial; however, Linus Tech Tips never posted a pinned comment, never updated its description, and never otherwise publicly noted the numerous test setup errors on the video in question, as of the date of this publication, which is around 7 years later. The video has 2,292,280 views as of January 20, 2025. This was not included in our August 2023 coverage, as it was from several years prior and we only focused on the most recent year of errors, as disclosed in that video. EDITORIAL DISPUTE: Receipt #3 - Unprofessionalism in Prior Communications Context On June 2, 2021, GamersNexus both replied to and tweeted about a reddit thread relating to the pricing of the RTX 3080 Ti cards, preceding the launch of the 3070 Ti. The full conversation is included below and occurred on June 11th, 2021, following the launch of the 3070 Ti. As it is from an ongoing text thread which may contain discussions from earlier or following events, and does not have clear start and stop points, if Linus Sebastian publicly requests for any prior or following text messages to be published, then we will amend this article with additional evidence. We later privately followed-up via email providing the reddit thread and timeline to further assure Sebastian that the matter was not related to him. We are also prepared to release these emails if publicly requested by Sebastian. 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. Ultimately, these examples, among others still being kept private as a courtesy, made me personally uncomfortable engaging in private communications with Linus Sebastian when relating to editorial differences, perceived or actual. Additional Evidence GamersNexus believes that these “receipts” answer the demand to provide them to support our statements that Sebastian has a history of unprofessionalism in prior communications while still maintaining the maximum possible integrity of the privacy of the conversations. If publicly requested by Linus Sebastian to produce further evidence, GamersNexus is prepared to publicly do so. Additional Errors and Misrepresentations The WAN show publication (January 17, 2025) and LMG Clips segment (January 18, 2025) further included several wholly and provably inaccurate statements and misrepresentations. In interest of brevity, we are listing only a few of them below. ERRORS AND MISREPRESENTATION: Example #1 - “Special Treatment” Linus Sebastian, in his WAN Show segment (03:18), used a previously published video clip from Ian Cutress containing errors. This advanced inaccurate statements and was used as evidence for Sebastian’s own erroneous claims. In the time since his video went up, we publicly addressed these timelines, which we will detail again below.  We believe Linus Sebastian’s reliance upon these incorrect statements is used as evidence that GamersNexus treats Linus Sebastian and Linus Media Group unfairly and that GamersNexus reaches out to other companies in advance, but not Sebastian or LMG. The relevant quote from that clip, which Sebastian included in his recent WAN show addressing GamersNexus, is as follows: “One part of ethical investigative journalism is, unless it’s covering an explicit crime or breaking the law, reaching out to get a formal response in advance. GamersNexus did it with Principled Technologies and that blew up. GamersNexus did it with Newegg and that blew up. Somehow, those companies got special treatment, but Linus Media Group did not.” This quote occurs around 3:29 in the LMG Clips upload and can be watched in full for further background information. These statements relating to Principled Technologies and Newegg are factually incorrect. The facts of these two examples, as published on our site, are as follows: Principled Technologies: “Our first story (in the ‘Mix’ column) involved outreach from Intel and no contact to Principled Technologies. In that story, we stated that we’d be driving over to their offices as that video went live. While possible they had about 10 minutes heads-up if they saw that video, we did not contact before the content, because they were the content.” Newegg: “We did not contact Newegg in a non-public fashion in this piece. In the first piece, we publicly blasted Newegg on Twitter as the first entry (after anonymously contacting customer support — which was part of the review as a consumer) and then published our video. Newegg actually replied to our tweet and asked us to talk. We told them: ‘We can talk after our video goes up. I'm not a big fan of disingenuous attempts to fix an issue after it's revealed that the mistreated customer has a following.’ We ran the video without their comment because it had become a true customer service investigation — normal customers don’t get PR channels, so we refused those channels and also we publicly exposed them before they even attempted them. It wasn’t until we visited them that Newegg had a real chance to comment (see: ‘Contact’ to the right).” These errors could have been avoided by Linus Sebastian had proper research been conducted before making irresponsible and false statements. Further errors have also been documented but have been held for brevity.  MISREPRESENTATION: Example #2 - “I never got a response” - Linus Sebastian Linus Sebastian in his WAN show segment on January 17, 2025, timestamped at 14:35, stated that he sent a text message to Steve Burke of GamersNexus following the August, 2023 “The Problem with Linus Tech Tips” video.  Sebastian states: “My last message to him was on the day he published the exposé and I never got a response.” However, Sebastian did not text Steve Burke’s current phone number, yet he has previously been in frequent contact via the current, correct number.  Here is a timeline: In approx. August, 2021, Steve changed phone numbers due to his prior number leaking publiclySteve contacted Nick Light, COO of Linus Media Group, and Linus Sebastian, then-CEO, to inform them of the changeSeveral conversations ensued over the following 2 years between Linus Sebastian and Steve Burke on this phone number, an already-public example that proves this as follows:At approximately 05:00 AM on March 23, 2023 and from his current and correct phone number, Steve repeatedly called and texted Linus Sebastian’s personal number to awaken and alert Sebastian to a channel hack wherein Linus Tech Tips had been compromised and taken over by hackers. Sebastian has publicly acknowledged and shown these texts in this video (“My Channel Was Deleted Last Night”). Sebastian and Steve continued to text via this correct and current phone number numerous times in relation to the hacking event.On the date of publishing our August, 2023 “The Problem with Linus Tech Tips” video, Sebastian claims to have texted Steve a lengthy message. Sebastian did not, in fact, text this to Steve’s correct phone number. After investigation, we found that he sent it to Steve’s prior phone number -- one which Sebastian had not sent any texts to since approx. July 9, 2021, years prior.On January 17, 2025, Linus Sebastian claims he “never got a response” from a 2023 message sent to a number no longer actively monitored by Steve (but still held in storage for security reasons) Substantial evidence exists, and we are prepared to provide more upon Sebastian’s public request, to demonstrate that Linus Sebastian has been aware of and has actively engaged with Steve’s correct phone number for at least two years preceding the message shared on January 17, 2025. This is a mischaracterization of the actual events and publicly unfairly depicts GamersNexus, and in particular Steve Burke, in a negative light.  Additional Errors / Conclusion If Linus Sebastian would like to make a public video requesting our further elaboration, he can do so and then provide us with a full transcript of his WAN show segment. We will proceed to go line-by-line and dispute all false timelines, inaccuracies, and omissions from his WAN show segment, of which there are many more. Short of that, we have provided the above examples of some of the critical errors from his video, and provided the requested and sufficient receipts to evidence our claims. Email to Linus Media Group Upon publication of this article, we sent an email to Linus Media Group’s executive team. The email is enclosed below. -- Terren, Linus, Luke, Nick: In LMG’s WAN Show segment, Linus Sebastian stated the following: “I think it is undeniable that these omissions and errors are significant and that they've done significant, possibly irreparable damage to my reputation, to my company, and to my finances. To be clear, I'm only pointing out the finances because it's such an important factor in cases of libel and defamation.” This statement escalates tensions to the highest severity and necessitates our response. Sebastian also stated: “I would also be very curious to see receipts for the claims that we have a ‘history of failure to resolve issues or unprofessionalism in prior communications.’” Given the severity of these accusations and what we perceive to be veiled threats, and given the direct request of “receipts” by Linus Sebastian on the show, please find the following information: We have published our official response to the WAN Show segment on our website. In our publication, upon explicit request by Linus Sebastian, we provided “receipts” / evidence in regards to Linus Sebastian’s, and as a result, Linus Media Group’s and Linus Tech Tips’ “history of failure to resolve issues or unprofessionalism in prior communications,” as well as corrections to several of Sebastian’s inaccuracies, false statements, and misleading representations.  We unequivocally deny and reject your statements and false claims of defamation. In contrast, we assert that the provably false and misleading statements that have been distributed by Linus Media Group as a company, and Linus Sebastian in his own personal capacity, have caused extensive and significant harm to GamersNexus, LLC and the owner, Steve Burke, in both a direct financial manner, as well as a significant reputational manner, that continues to be unmitigated and accrue additional damages with each passing day that the content is allowed to propagate knowingly false information, including, but not limited to, Linus Media Group’s continued profiting off of content plagiarized from GamersNexus, LLC. We view your coverage as irresponsible, negligent, and damaging.  Frankly speaking: I feel Linus Sebastian has provided a manipulative and deceptive offer to try to “bury the hatchet,” create a “team media,” and encourage a “brotherhood” as if it is a personal spat between friends. I believe Sebastian’s statements are intended to diminish the seriousness and impact of any criticism by any creator toward Linus Sebastian or Linus Media Group, and suppress current and future coverage. 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. 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. That said, I think Linus Media Group has some well-intentioned and extremely intelligent people, including Luke Lafreniere, and I feel there could still be benefit to open discussions relating to his efforts in LMG’s Labs, the industry, or coverage types. At Computex, if Luke wishes to, or if Luke and Linus Sebastian (collectively only), wish to speak privately, please feel free to let me know and we can talk. Given the legal nature of Linus Sebastian’s allegations though and on advice of our attorneys, we are neither willing nor able to discuss this specific topic further, and any further contact related to this matter will instead be forwarded to GamersNexus, LLC’s attorneys if a response is necessary.  We will be at Computex and available on Friday, May 23 and can book a meeting room for a private discussion such as testing, hardware, the industry, or other topics unrelated to this matter, if Luke wishes to do so.  Regards, -- Steve Burke Editor-in-Chief GamersNexus

Wow.

  • GoodEye8@lemm.eeEnglish
    8·
    6 hours ago

    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.

    • padge@lemmy.zipEnglish
      4·
      6 hours ago

      Thank you for saving me from a potential headache. Maybe I’ll come back later with a rum and coke.

  • DogWater@lemmy.worldEnglish
    13·
    8 hours ago

    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

  • lustyargonian@lemm.eeEnglish
    186·
    9 hours ago

    I noped out of LTT after the initial reporting. What happened about the allegations of harassment and particular allegations by a former woman employee?

    • Trainguyrom@reddthat.comEnglish
      7·
      7 hours ago

      By memory the external firm they hired did not release documentation of the investigation but did release a statement saying LMG hadn’t done the things that were claimed

    • TBi@lemmy.worldEnglish
      134·
      9 hours ago

      Personally I’d wait for more people to complain. There are lots of women working at LMG, no one else has complained.

      I’ve see disgruntled workers before lie about lots of stuff. If she’s telling the truth then others would also be saying something.

  • Bieren@lemmy.worldEnglish
    329·
    13 hours ago

    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.

    • Darkassassin07@lemmy.caEnglish
      182·
      12 hours ago

      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. :/

      • zalgotext@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        11·
        3 hours ago

        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

  • dustyData@lemmy.worldEnglish
    306·
    14 hours ago

    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.

  • deroyonz@lemmy.zipEnglish
    557·
    24 hours ago

    why is there 0 response on the honey and billet labs thing, which is part of that same wan show? what’s with this half done response, why not show all the receipts? and also, why does he bring up a threat of legal action when there was no actual threat of legal action if you see that wan show?

    this is such a disappointment, I’m apparently meant to watch as these two adults constantly miscommunicate, misunderstand and ignore half of what the other has said online, and stretch the back and forth even longer than it needs to. This will take like 5 wan shows and gn articles to conclude properly

    • DacoTaco@lemmy.worldEnglish
      144·
      17 hours ago

      The legal action is, i think, because linus is basically dragging them through some deep mud by saying he is wrong and what he does are lies. Now i know gn kinda started it by mentioning them in the honey lawsuit video, and they shouldnt have, not like how they did ( but they were right that linus should have spoken up in 2017 because they knew what was going on ).

      I also suspect there is no reaction on the honey and biletlabs thing because there is nothing new to add. We know linus knew but kept his mouth shut about it and why, and we know ltt’s internal workings fucked up everything about the biletlabs prototype (the video, the mislabeling of item, the auction, … ).

      This whole thing is a shitfest and both parties need to calm the fuck down, which a threat at legal action might force them to do so.

      My opinion is that linus (again) shouldve kept his mouth shut about how “his head wouldve rolled if he spoke about honey” because that was wrong of him. Gn shouldnt have made the low punch towards ltt after that which caused linus to (again) not shut up and make things worse.

      • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.worldEnglish
        151·
        8 hours ago

        Now i know gn kinda started it by mentioning them in the honey lawsuit video, and they shouldnt have, not like how they did ( but they were right that linus should have spoken up in 2017 because they knew what was going on ).

        Which was only mentioned because the original investigator, MegaLag, also mentioned LTT as part of the investigation into honey.

        Funny how people are rather obessive over ignoring this crucial point, while trying to make Steve seem obsessed with Linus/LTT.

        • DacoTaco@lemmy.worldEnglish
          41·
          8 hours ago

          Oh i know, i saw megalag’s video before it blew up and ltt was indeed already in some bad spot because of it. Doesnt mean they (gn) should have gone with a low blow of showing the wan show bit and responding to it as they did.
          That said, i agree with the core of their problem though. Gn are doing the right thing in the end and linus shouldve done so too back then.

    • borari@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      219·
      23 hours ago

      Yeah I’ve come to the conclusion that anyone whose main job is creating “content” is a piece of shit.

      • nxn@biglemmowski.winEnglish
        209·
        19 hours ago

        But some have Jesusier hair than others, and as such my own allegiance has been destined without say.

        Edit: FR the deciding factor was the 70 dollar screwdriver along with the “trust me bro” warranty. He’s a scumbag. His “media group” primarily produces entertainment clips with no value. I get some informative content from GN in comparison.

        • rbesfe@lemmy.caEnglish
          65·
          10 hours ago

          Every warranty is a “trust me bro” warranty, that was his point from the start. Have you ever actually read warranty terms?

          • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.worldEnglish
            83·
            8 hours ago

            "Guys guys guys, you should totally know those legally binding warranty documents are just as bullshit as a guy on youtube saying just trust me bro. its all the same. Just trust me on it, bro "

            • rbesfe@lemmy.caEnglish
              31·
              7 hours ago

              They’re all explicitly written in legalese to give the manufacturer final say as to whether to honour it. You should really read one someday.

  • MajorasMaskForever@lemmy.worldEnglish
    9532·
    1 day ago

    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

    • reliv3@lemmy.worldEnglish
      332·
      19 hours ago

      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.

      • DogWater@lemmy.worldEnglish
        8·
        8 hours ago

        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.

    • kippinitreal@lemmy.worldEnglish
      404·
      1 day ago

      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.

    • Dalkor@lemmy.worldEnglish
      293·
      1 day ago

      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.

      • MajorasMaskForever@lemmy.worldEnglish
        211·
        1 day ago

        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

        • Cenzorrll@lemmy.worldEnglish
          35·
          11 hours ago

          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”

    • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2813·
      1 day ago

      You can’t publish an entire NYT news article verbatim and then claim, “I’m just reacting.” The GN article is copyrighted.

      • MajorasMaskForever@lemmy.worldEnglish
        153·
        1 day ago

        Are we talking copyright or plagiarism here? GN is claiming plagiarism, not copyright infringement

        Edit: spelling

        • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.worldEnglish
          85·
          14 hours ago

          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.

          • MajorasMaskForever@lemmy.worldEnglish
            4·
            12 hours ago

            That is not what plagiarism means

            Oxford English Dictionary

            The action or practice of taking someone else’s work, idea, etc., and passing it off as one’s own

            Merriam-Webster

            to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one’s own : use (another’s production) without crediting the source

            Dictionary.com

            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

            • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.worldEnglish
              32·
              11 hours ago

              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.

              • MajorasMaskForever@lemmy.worldEnglish
                38·
                11 hours ago

                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

                • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.worldEnglish
                  52·
                  11 hours ago

                  From the Gamers Nexus website:

                  “The script nearly identically matched the order, topics, and words.”

  • NOT_RICK@lemmy.worldEnglish
    976·
    1 day ago

    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

    • DogWater@lemmy.worldEnglish
      7·
      8 hours ago

      Yeah for someone who is not close friends, making remarks like that is not a joke. That’s fucked

    • SatanClaus@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      1·
      12 hours ago

      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!

  • Graphy@lemmy.worldEnglish
    837·
    1 day ago

    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

    • dinckel@lemmy.worldEnglish
      562·
      1 day ago

      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

  • rbesfe@lemmy.caEnglish
    1116·
    10 hours ago

    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.

    • zalgotext@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      6·
      3 hours ago

      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.

    • Trainguyrom@reddthat.comEnglish
      31·
      7 hours ago

      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

  • penquin@lemm.eeEnglish
    7114·
    1 day ago

    I get the different likes and dislikes, but seriously, at this point why would anyone watch Linus videos?

  • rockSlayer@lemmy.worldEnglish
    468·
    1 day ago

    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?

    • DaGeek247@fedia.io
      47·
      1 day ago

      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.

      • rockSlayer@lemmy.worldEnglish
        215·
        1 day ago

        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.

        • DacoTaco@lemmy.worldEnglish
          72·
          22 hours ago

          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)

    • mbfalzar@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      162·
      1 day ago

      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