Nokia Outted As Purveyor of Plagiarism in Cannes Video Contest Scandal

Here is a personal statement sent to us from Jemma Lyon, the woman who was accused of plagiarism for submitting what appeared to be a direct copy of a previous video created by Will Tribble. We covered the story originally here. As it turns out, Nokia is said to have sent a rep to help Jemma Lyons shoot her video submission for the contest. According to Lyons, the rep used Tribble's video as a template and told the actors to simply do what they saw the actors do in Tribble's video.

If anyone's to be accused of plagiarism here, it is Nokia. If Lyons claim is true, there is simply nothing Nokia can say to explain this away. Nothing at all. There's been some very bad social media moves over the past few years but this one, by far, will go down as one of the most egregious.

And to the industry; do not hold any of this against Jemma Lyons. She may, one day, come knocking at your door looking for a job. Treat her like any other candidate and don't let this Nokia-caused fiasco tarnish your image of her.

Below is her full comment explaining her side of the story and how it all went down.

Jemma writes, "I would like to make a statement regarding the alleged plagiarism accusations from the Nokia Minimo movie competition.

I was approached by a Nokia representative who asked me to remake any video in under two minutes for his Nokia assignment. I was unaware that this was a competition at the time and did not receive a brief. The representative also promised to give me a mobile phone in exchange for assisting him with his project. I never received the phone.

The Nokia representative was present during the filming of my video and after being asked several times if the film was OK to submit he insisted it was and persisted to show the actors the original video to direct them where to stand and what to do. At no point did the representative inform any of the people involved that the film was breaching the terms and conditions and I was led to believe that the entry was valid.

Further to this, Nokia became aware that my entry was based on another video three days prior to sending me on the trip to Cannes, but they still sent me on the trip and refused to act until the public outcry.

My name has been tarnished by this event. I have been branded a cheater amongst many other things too awful to write and I have yet to be informed of how Nokia aim to rectify this. I aspire to pursue a career in the creative media industry and this libel is a great hindrance to my progress to achieving the career I want. My efforts to expose the truth have been greatly subdued by Nokia and the rule of law seems not to apply to large powerful corporations in certain instances.

In conclusion, I would like to reiterate that basing my video on Mr Tribble's creative work was done in ignorance. I was not aware that I was breaking any rules and the Nokia representative never informed me that I was doing so. I previously had no interest in submitting an entry but I was misled into thinking that I was merely helping the Nokia representative, he has since personally apologised to me for the way I have been treated.

Nokia has allowed my name to be dragged through the mud by shrouding the situation with half truths and even some out right lies in order to save their own reputation."

Again, it would appear Nokia is entirely at fault here and there is no blame to be laid upon Lyons.