Entertainment site Deadline Hollywood fired a sharp warning shot at TheWrap Wednesday, sending the rival organization a cease-and-desist letter accusing it of lifting content from Deadline.com without properly crediting the source.
"TheWrap.com’s copying of Deadline.com content, which has been going on for some time now, is only getting worse and is apparently becoming an institutionalized practice," wrote Bryan Freedman, a lawyer for Deadline parent company MMC.
"As a result, both MMC and my office intend to make a concerted effort to monitor the TheWrap.com in order to identify and document any infringement of Deadline.com content that occurs on a going forward basis in case formal legal action becomes necessary," Freedman continued. "Rest assured, nothing will fly under our radar."
Hollywood force Nikki Finke, founder and editor-in-chief of Deadline, posted a copy of the letter to the site, noting that MMC's lawsuits against two other sites effectively shut down those operations.
The bare-knuckles move marks a low point in a relationship turned sour. Finke and Sharon Waxman, TheWrap's editor-in-chief, have a long history—first as friends, then as enemies.
Waxman, for her part, also has some experience with legal saber rattling over content rights. Last year, TheWrap sent a cease-and-desist letter to Newser (founded by AdweekMedia Editorial Director Michael Wolff) demanding more "prominent" links on items summarizing TheWrap's posts.
