What is the link between TG Mag and Fifth gear?

[edkwon]

And im referring to their common employee Tom Ford. he writes an article about bernie eccelstons car auction for TG mag a couple issues ago and covrage is also filmed for his Fifth Gea segment. Now he has written areview of the new Toyota Land Cruiser in the latest issue of TG mag, but hi review also appears on Fifth gear. Im guessing certain intellectual properties are being shared between the two entities. Still weird.

[Shawn]

I'm pretty sure they're unrelated. The BBC owns both Top Gear magazine and TV show and five.tv owns Fifth Gear. Tom Ford just happens to work for both FG and TG mag.

At least that's my take.

[Viper007Bond]

Yeah, they'd never share content.

[edkwon]

Originally Posted by Viper007Bond

Yeah, they'd never share content.

That's what i would figure and i know TG and Fifth gear are owned by two different parent entities, but youre familiar with the legality of intellectual property. I just wonder if Tom Ford was assigned to do a coverage of a specific topic (like the Bernie auction), wouldnt that become intellectual property of whoever first assigned him to do that job? isn't he legally hands tied so he cant do a piece or write up about the same topic with a competing journalism entity or medium? Or perhaps hes exempt because one was tv while the other was print medium. I dont know, Im more interested in the legal fine points on how hes able to cover the same topic for two different competition car publications/shows.

[jensked]

I imagine it would be theft if Top Gear made a transcript of it and used stills from the 5th Gear video.

If Tom Ford tells about it again, i don't think it's theft. You can't forbid someone to speak about something unless it's secret information or something

[Speedtouch]

Wow. I believe this was the first question I asked when I joined FG.

Good times...

EDIT: Found the link. Was my first thread. - BTW I am not asking for you to post on that thread. I am not asking for mega bumps!

[teeb]

Originally Posted by edkwon

That's what i would figure and i know TG and Fifth gear are owned by two different parent entities, but youre familiar with the legality of intellectual property. I just wonder if Tom Ford was assigned to do a coverage of a specific topic (like the Bernie auction), wouldnt that become intellectual property of whoever first assigned him to do that job? isn't he legally hands tied so he cant do a piece or write up about the same topic with a competing journalism entity or medium? Or perhaps hes exempt because one was tv while the other was print medium. I dont know, Im more interested in the legal fine points on how hes able to cover the same topic for two different competition car publications/shows.

Think of it as one journalist writing for two different newspapers. He can go with both his "Fifth gear presenter" and his "Top Gear reporter" hat on and do both jobs at once, be it with Bernie or with the Hilux.

Journalist sharing isn't uncommon between newspapers. Clarkson writes for both the Sunday Times and for the Sun. Martin Lewis, a UK financial journalist, writes for 3 different papers at the moment. John Barker, of EVO magazine, also writes for the Telegraph newspaper.

Now, yes, if it was the same thing in each case it would be plagiarism (of himself). If Tom said the same thing on Fifth Gear as he did in TG mag, then, well. But it's not - he writes and presents differently - for one, you can't just read out a magazine article to make good TV. For two, he goes about it a bit differently.