Here’s an interesting first.
The Croppie has never shied away from declaring some crop circles to be hoaxes. (Read here to see the criteria The Croppie uses to define what a hoax is.) One of these was this year’s pretty formation at Muncombe Hill, near Kingweston in Somerset.
According to one particular Facebook poster, the maker behind the Muncombe Hill circle has requested that photographer Steve Alexander ‘remove all of my land art from your [Facebook] page, instead of using them to perpetuate false information*, then please start with your profile picture, and associated drawings. Many thanks, your fund supporting circle maker.’
Remarkably, Mr Alexander seems to have at least partly complied.
The problem seems to be that the said ‘land artist’ is unhappy that Mr Alexander seems to make some sort of monetary income from his crop circle photography. Is this a case of jealousy or a personal desire to make money from the circles. Only the ‘land artist’ can answer that. Note , the apparently false suggestion offered up by Mr Alexander is that ‘mystery is the key’ to the crop circle phenomenon. One would have thought this was self-evident.
The Croppie has to ask whether this is the most ironic intellectual property claim in history. If the circle maker is claiming to have made the Muncombe formation then he is also admitting to having committed criminal damage. Will he be willing to hold his hands up to this in court? The answer is likely a ‘no’ given the farmer will almost certainly seek recompense and make a complaint to the police.
