Sam Downie is a Sleazeball

I've been involved in the Macintosh Community for 13+ years and I have *never* seen anything as blatantly stupid and sleazy as the stunt Sam Downie pulled off this past week.

Most of you have no idea who Sam Downie is - don't worry about it, you're not missing much. He's been on the periphery of the Mac community for a few years now, never impressing anyone but not annoying them enough to make him go away.

He got into a brief spat with IDG a few years ago over a press release he was bothering people with at a Macworld Expo but, for the most part, he defines "innocuous".

Oh, Sam will tell you he is amazing - he quotes himself on his web site with this line:

"Some say I am amongst the best voice artists and presenters.. in the world!"

Ummm....OK....

But today on Twitter, Sam stepped over the line.

I noticed a guest from our February 13th show (Tim Gibbons) saying, "@samdownie Wait, I was on your show? I think I missed that! :)"

I went to Sam's Twitter feed to see what he was referring to and he had posted "@Tim_Gibbons hope u r listening to my radio show as U are about to be on it :) tune-in at: www.dsoundz.co.uk and click Listen NOW :) 05:25 PM February 20, 2008 from web in reply to Tim_Gibbons"

Sam went on to post:

"Hear TV Producer Tim Gibbons 'Curb Your Enthuasium' on my radio show NOW! Tune-in at: www.dsoundz.co.uk and click Listen LIVE or Watch me :) 05:32 PM February 20, 2008 from HelloTxt"

Tim sent me a message saying he had never appeared on Sam's show and asked if I had given Sam permission to rebroadcast our Your Mac Life interview (I had not)?

I went to Sam's web site and, sure enough, he had a message on his site, "You are listening to Shawn King talking to Tim Gibbons on my radio show NOW!"

WTF!? Are you kidding me? This guy can't find enough content of his own so he rebroadcasts Your Mac Life interviews?

You can listen to the audio of the show and, sure enough, with about 36 mins left, he starts pimping the interview with Tim Gibbons. Now, to be fair, Sam doesn't pass it off as his own interview or say I'm a "correspondent" or anything like that. He does mention Your Mac Life and our URL but he does *not* make it clear that he's simply taking our content and rebroadcasting it.

Stealing and plagiarism on the Internet is unfortunately too easily done and happens way too often. But when it happens so obviously, so blatantly and so boldly, it's even worse.

Do me a personal favor - don't listen to Sam Downie, unsubscribe from his mailing list, unFollow him on Twitter. When you hear others talk about him, point out that he's a thief and a stupid one to boot. Help me drive this guy completely out of the Macintosh Community.