Fun With Copyright Traps: 1. Hoax Definitions, Paper Towns, and Other Things That Don’t Exist. Facts are hard to copyright—impossible, actually. Episode 6 The Affair. This is problematic for people who deal in information; any reference material is factual, and therefore difficult to protect from dirty, lying thieves who want to steal your work. That’s where fictitious entries come in: facts become very easy to copyright when they aren’t true.

These are people, places and things that exist only on paper, solely to thwart would- be info burglars. Lillian Virginia Mountweazel. Watch The Suffering HDQ. The mythical Ms. Mountweazel was a photographer and fountain designer. Her book, Flags Up!, was purportedly an unmatched collection of rural American mailbox photography. Unfortunately, she was killed in 1. Combustibles magazine. Lillian Mountweazel’s life was a sham, created to protect the contents of the 1.

After an all night adventure, Quentin's life-long crush, Margo, disappears, leaving behind clues that Quentin and his friends follow on the journey of a life-time. A portal for researching architecture, businesses, genealogy, literature, full text books, jokes, and obscure websites in Buffalo, New York. Free registration: When you register you will have access to 10 articles every 30 days. Subscribe and have full access to the site and to our e-editions.

At least for today, that means both the hardcore alt-right white supremacists and their alt-light camp followers are being driven back online to 4chan, 8chan.

New Columbia Encyclopedia, but it wasn’t without its perks: her (fake) life would become the subject of an exhibit in Dublin, and her (fake) name would later serve as a neologism for fictitious entries, thanks to a New Yorker article about the next Mountweazel in this list.. Esquivalience. The second edition New Oxford American Dictionary was published early in 2. Almost immediately afterward, a rumor leaked that the NOAD 2. E contained a secretly made- up word which began with the letter e. A man with a lot of free time set about isolating the fictitious entry from the 3,1. He narrowed the options to six words: earth loop, EGD, electrofish, ELSS, esquivalience and eurocreep.

Of a group of nine lexicographers, six pegged esquivalience as the fraud. This was confirmed by the dictionary’s editor- in- chief, Erin Mc. Kean, who said, “Its inherent fakeitude is fairly obvious.” (Fakeitude does not appear in the NOAD 2.

E.)3. Zzxjoanw. Rupert Hughes’ Music Lovers’ Encyclopedia of 1. Maori word for ‘drum.’” The entry persisted through subsequent editions, well into the 1. It was later proved a hoax when someone noticed that there are no Z, X, or J in the Maori language. If you’re wondering, zzxjoanw is pronounced just how it looks.

Dog of Norway. The Golden Turkey Awards is a weird 1. Golden Turkey. (It’s like a Razzie, only even less prestigious.)The authors, film critic Michael Medved and his brother Harry, revealed that one entry was a complete hoax, and then challenged readers to discover which movie never actually existed. This time, no cross- references or obsessive searches were necessary: the imaginary film, Dog of Norway, starred "Muki the Wonder Dog".. That dog’s name was Muki, too.)5. Agloe, NYThe town of Agloe, New York, was invented by map makers, but the practice of inserting fictional towns, roads, rivers or other geographical has been in place nearly as long as cartography itself.

The weird thing that happened with Agloe, though, doesn’t really ever happen: it became a real place. The Agloe General Store was built at its fictional location, prompting the (real) county administrator to declare Agloe an actual town. Paper Towns by John Green is partially set in Agloe, and one character has a dog named Myrna Mountweazel.)6 & 7. The Song of Love" and The Cysterz.

Joel Whitburn created a book series based on the Billboard music charts. To throw potential copycats, Whitburn’s pop chart compilations say that, for the week ending December 2. Ralph Marterie's "The Song of Love" peaked at #8. Sad news for Ralph Marterie, who was probably shooting for a single- digit rank, but it was all okay, because Billboard Magazine didn’t even issue a list that week, and “The Song of Love” was never recorded by Marterie.

In Whitburn’s rock charts, the song "Drag You Down" by The Cysterz makes an appearance, though neither the group nor the song ever did in real life. Beatosu and Goblu, Ohio. The official state map of Michigan from 1. Ohio. The chairman of the State Highway Commission (and Michigan alumnus) had Beatosu and Goblu (“Beat OSU!” and “Go Blue!” to Michigan fans) inserted in the Ohio side of the Michigan- Ohio border. Top Gear Usa 2015 New Episodes. They were removed from later editions, but Goblu was briefly of interest again later when it was revealed that Road Pig from G. I. Joe was born there.

Philip. In the 1. Fred L. Worth began publishing a series of trivia encyclopedias, imaginatively titled The Trivia Encyclopedia, The Complete Unabridged Super Trivia Encyclopedia, and Super Trivia volumes I and II. In order to protect his stake in the trivia encyclopedia market (which was not yet booming), Worth inserted a single entirely false “fact.”In 1. Trivial Pursuit hit the market and sold like gangbusters. Unfortunately, the company was about to get sued for a lot more than the $2. Why? Because one answer on the game’s cards was known to only one person—Fred L.

Worth, who’d fabricated it years earlier: The card said the answer was Philip, which was false. In fact, Columbo's name was never revealed, a fact that's been confirmed by both the cast and writers of the show. Unless you believe this screenshot of Columbo's badge has the answer.) Worth’s suit fingered the creators of the game as well as their distributors; aside from the fictitious entry, he showed that Trivial Pursuit’s creators had lifted his work so completely that the game even included his typos and misspelled words. Trivial Pursuit eventually admitted that they had, in fact, stolen Worth's work for the game—but they had also stolen trivia from a lot of other places, too, which they defended as "doing research."The case was thrown out before going to trial on the grounds that Trivial Pursuit was “substantially different” from Super Trivia.

Worth and his attorneys appealed all the way to the Supreme Court, but to no avail. Because of Trivial Pursuit’s persistent popularity (and more than a few original versions that are still in play), some shady- looking “fun fact” sites continue to insist that Columbo’s first name was, in fact, Philip. Image credits: Fact. Fixx, Nerdfighters, and Trivia Hall of Fame.