“According to the proverb, imitation is the sincerest form of what?”
This is the first question of Tuesday’s instalment of the TikTok10, a viral trivia series that Melbourne quiz maker Miles Glaspole has been running since 2021. But it’s also a “tongue in cheek” message to The Daily Telegraph and Herald Sun – two News Corp-owned newspapers which he strongly suspects have been plagiarising his work in their daily Quizmaster quiz.
“The questions are word-for-word verbatim [from my videos],” he tells The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. “It is identical.”
TikTok10 creator Miles Glaspole has made a “tongue in cheek” video in response to questions that first appeared on his quiz being published in New Corp papers.Credit:Miles Glaspole/TikTok10
It’s a trend that he first noticed this Monday, after a fan brought it to his attention. All 10 questions from that day’s quiz (which were published in both papers) had previously appeared on the TikTok10 – across two videos on June 2 and 3.
And it’s continued through this week too. Wednesday’s quiz features seven questions from videos Glaspole posted in May and, though he says last Friday’s quiz doesn’t feature any of his work, he hasn’t looked back further to check for a broader pattern.
“There’s a part of me that’s genuinely quite flattered that they think my questions are newspaper-worthy,” Glaspole says. “But at the same time… I wouldn’t mind a cheque in the mail.
“I’ve done all this writing myself. This is all self-penned … and it’s my research. I put in one or two hours a day writing and then putting together this show, so it does kind of feel like they’re just pinching that for free.”
It’s unclear whether these newspapers produce the Quizmaster quiz in-house or commission it from a third-party service.
The Herald Sun and The Daily Telegraph have been asked to provide clarification on who’s behind the Quizmaster section and for a response to the accusations of plagiarism, but a reply has not been received.
“Just some acknowledgement would be fine,” Glaspole says. “It’s not really the money I’m concerned about. It’s just that it’s my IP. It’s my wording. It’s my style. And also, I just think they really could give that job to a writer who needs the work.
“A lot of writers out there could use the money, and instead they’re just cribbing it from a show on TikTok.”
Though it started as a way to simply “stave off boredom” during lockdown last year, the TikTok10 has become a real sensation. The account – which features videos of Glaspole running through 10 rapid-fire questions while sitting in his car – now boasts more than 615,000 followers.
Glaspole, who works freelance in the TV industry and has previously contributed to shows like Hard Quiz, mainly produces the show to sustain the “loyal and kind” community it’s created. Like most Australian TikTok creators, the only money he’s making from the account is off the odd branded video.
“[The TikTok10] is something that people do as part of their daily routine and part of their bonding with other people,” he says. “I get messages all the time, saying, ‘This is something I do with my girlfriend every night’.”
Sitting “on the same wavelength of Wordle”, the TikTok10 is really just a new, digital version of the kind of quizzes and puzzles you’d ordinarily see in the paper. But Glaspole says that doesn’t give any publisher the right to lift its content for free.
This is why he decided on the subtle theme of last night’s video. Other questions in the quiz concerned Xerox, the term “deja vu”, and the copy and paste function on Microsoft.
“If any particular multinational media conglomerates want to pinch any more of my questions, they’ll be pinching questions about copying.”
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