Sadly, in League of Legends content creation, there is often the issue of crediting source material. After all, it can often be hard to prove that deliberate plagiarism took place. In the case of popular content creator Phylol, that is exactly what happened.
Phylol is known for his educational content, which often revolves around his main role, AD carry. A few days ago, he uploaded a guide on seven different Jhin builds. It wasn't long before people began to notice that the video strongly resembled a Jhin itemization guide on Reddit by "I Keep It Taco."
Jhin's itemization is now more diverse and situational than ever before. In light of his recent buffs, here's an i…
— /r/leagueoflegends (@RedditLeague) June 18, 2017
Author I Keep It Taco himself brought the matter to attention in a Reddit post. In the post, he provided a wealth of evidence showing how Phylol drew from the guide. Crucially, I Keep It Taco noted that Phylol did not give any credit, and instead claimed that the video was based on his own opinion.
Phylol has since deleted the video and apologized, acknowledging that he had indeed plagiarized and offered to return any ad revenue. He expressed that he has never done anything like this before, and will not again.
As mentioned, this is unfortunately not an isolated incident. Phylol himself stated that he felt able to do what he did because he'd seen other YouTubers do it. It seems pointless to omit giving credit when it costs nothing.
Hopefully, this trend of copying information can come to an end.
But I seriously doubt it.
