Online retail using CellarTracker notes?

EDIT* Fortunately the retailer promptly removed and replaced the description, mentioning they were given the note from the sales rep.

I was looking for a US source to reup on one of my favorite cheap Friulian white wines, and came across this listing,
https://madwine.com/misc-italian/92751-vigna-del-lauro-sauvignon-blanc.html

my first thought was what a wonderfully eloquent description they had of this wine, my second thought was how familiar it sounded. Sure enough it was from my first CellarTracker tasting note! Has anyone else noticed retailers using Cellar Tracker tasting notes w/o attribution?

  • 2016 Vigna del Lauro Collio Sauvignon - Italy, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Collio (11/3/2017)
    Once again, the Vigna del Lauro Sauvignon Blanc is a stellar example of what is great about Friulian white wines. Bright fruits on the nose: lime, melon, papaya. Palate shows cool toned acidity and mineral notes leading to a broad but vibrant texture with medium body and a hint of bitter grapefruit on the finish. Just about perfect for the price…

Posted from CellarTracker

The attribution is to Cellar Tracker, not an individual.

There is no attribution whatsoever on the web site. It simply put the exact wording of Rory’s TN in quotes and attributed it to no one. In my book, not cool.

Not cool at all. Foolish and lazy gaff on seller’s part.

However, all is not lost, great note!!

i guess i dont understand the thought process behind doing this. how does some random person who i have no idea who they are’s thoughts convince me to pick a wine? for all i know, it was your first cellar tracker note because it was your very first wine ever tasted! (i’m assuming it wasn’t!)

Yeah that seems pretty suspect. Technically that might be an infringement on your property rights – though not clear what the actual harm is. I would contact them and thank them for using your description and ask that they at least indicate it is from CT or, more appropriately, you.

My mistake. I wasn’t referring to this specific instance. I’ve seen scores and notes attributed to CT elsewhere. If memory serves, Garagiste sometimes lists CT scores too. Whether it’s cool or not I don’t know - the notes are up there for the public anyway so they probably thought the author wouldn’t mind, which seems pretty reasonable. If someone states something in public, why would they mind being quoted, attributed or not?

I used to think like Matt - how will some random person’s score influence me to buy something. But if you think about it, other than the people on this board and elsewhere who know who some critic is, what’s the difference? You walk into a store, see a score, and have no clue who the person on the other end is or was.

Yesterday I saw a wine for sale with a random CT score and description without saying which CT user wrote it. I thought it very strange.

Sorry I’ve forgotten where I saw it and which wine it was.

Whatever else one might think about garagiste, they always (I am pretty sure always) just provide a link to “community” comments/scores. That to me is very different than this. What is interesting, is that even if I knew nothing about CT, I would want to know, who is being quoted? It could be the store owner’s daughter for example. I guess if people are impressed with a statement within quotation marks without anything else, there is little that can be done.

Well, Eric would need to chime in, but it looks like 6d and 6e of the CT user agreement gives CT sole license for tasting notes (I guess unless you are a pro), but I didnt see any language in the user agreement stating how retailers should identify or use the note.

Randomly, I’ve seen 2 retailers call out my personal notes in ads.

Well that is something different. I think the harm suffered by any individual here is probably minimal, but if CT owns the rights, then that is a different story. I guess if I were Eric I would want them to attribute the note, rather than have them remove it. But of course it would be his choice.

You should post to the CT forum to make sure Eric sees this.

I have not licensed these notes and generally have not ever licensed individual notes. This is a violation of my terms. And it is a copyright violation of the tasting note authors (the authors hold the copyright, not CT).

My post was poorly worded, it was my first of two CT notes on this wine, not first ever!

Greatly appreciate you chiming in Eric, I’ve emailed the retailer.

I out to be flattered that they used it, but in the case of these notes, I actually make half my living writing content for wine so I don’t love the idea of them using it!

Not related to CT, but I remember that feeling of oddity seeing your tasting notes in places where they shouldn’t be.

I write a wine blog and every once in a while some importer sends me a bottle for a review. Once I got a bottle (I had already reviewed in my blog) with a press package and cover letter including some general blablah, technical details and a tasting note. A TN that was copypasted from my blog without consent or any attribution.

I sent an email to the importer’s PR guy thanking for the bottle and saying this kind of behavior is definitely not cool.

It’s only happened to me once that I’m aware of. It was the merchant I’d bought the wine off, and he attributed it to ‘IS’.

I’m ok with this, as although if he’d contacted me and said “can I use your TN, with your name against it?”, I would have been fine to say yes, I could imagine some people might not like their name used beyond CT. The initials was a decent compromise option, and as I’d put it out for public viewing on CT, and I don’t use a pseudonym, I personally don’t feel like I have much complaint unless what I wrote is mis-quoted.

I post on CT under my own name, so this comment has nothing to do with me directly, and I am not an intellectual property lawyer so I do not know the legal answer, but I wonder whether notes on CT that are published under the names Doubled1969 or GriffeyFan04 or Bestdamncab (randomly selected from TNs for 2013 Aubert Eastside) are entitled to be protected. Maybe an IP lawyer can chime in. Just another case for my long term crusade in favor of publishing notes under a name I recognize.

You should stick to your area of law…

Regardless of the pseudonym used, the tasting note author is still the copyright holder. And our terms make it very clear that it is illegal to harvest data from our site: “you may not, in whole or in part: (a) copy, distribute, transmit, display, perform, reproduce, publish, license, rewrite, create derivative works from, transfer, or sell any material contained on this Service”

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