BigPond Movies & Webflicks
I have just signed up for a BigPond Movies trial. The link I got sent was:
http://www.bigpondmovies.com/user/homeExistingUser.php
This is curiously similar to the think for my old (2004) service, Webflicks:
http://webflicks.com.au/user/homeExistingUser.php
Hmmm… more than a superficial resemblance (look at the URLs, not the sites). Let’s delve closer:
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This shows a section of the rendered html, differing only by bits in bold. But wait, there’s more:
This Webflicks list is slightly larger than the corresponding BigPond Movies one:
Look at the striking similarities between not only the categories, but the option values ascribed to them (there is no technical reason for these having the same absolute numbers - it’s just a ranking mechanism). Anyway, you get the idea. Identical site infrastructure.
So far, it remains to be determined whether Webflicks have merely licensed the infrastructure to BigPond (which came later) or whether BigPond is essentially a reseller of Webflicks’ service. At the very least, they have different member databases. Webflicks is based on your email address whereas bigpond is based on your username (although it also asks for your email address). It also appears (as the following images attest) that they have different user ratings databases as well. In fact, whilst the vast majority of their library appears identical, there are some differences (also below):
BigPond Movies search for “Teenage” (Looking for TMNT):
Webflicks search for “Teenage”:
Both returned 9 results, but with slightly different titles and ratings. Evidence of separate databases. The code for these results pages is largely similar as well. Heck, even the html output has not only the same elements, but the same names (e.g. Top Movie Title Matches)
I tried Googling for any evidence of an overt partnership between the two, but found nothing (comment to update this view). Now, from here one can assume:
- Covert partnership/Out-sourcing arrangement
- Violation of copyright and trade secrets (e.g. BigPond could have poached some of the WebFlicks developers
- Theft of publically-available HTML output only
- Mere coincidence
The last two are not likely. You just wouldn’t steal html structures and not the design. It would be much harder to code the site to produce syntactically identical html output than it would be to rewrite it, and you open yourself up to massive amounts of litigation in the process. Mere coincidence is just not probable. BigPond violating trade secrets? Hardly likely.
What we have on our hands here is a SCOOP my dear readers. BigPond movies is at best a fork of Webflicks and at worst a reseller/front.
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