14 DAY TRIAL // This year’s Megadeth Christmas Card competition seemed to go off without a glitch. After the winner was announced though, word got out that he might have appropriated another man’s work and passed it for his own.
The band has responded to the plagiarism claims with a rather bland statement that says they’re looking into it, a WENN report notes.
“Although we were notified of the possible plagiarism by an anonymous fan in Brazil after the Christmas Day call was already placed, we are investigating this matter further,” the band says in a statement.
“We stand by the fact that the chosen winner is innocent until proven guilty, and if our winner did indeed use someone else's artwork, we will be notifying the second-place winner to award him the first place prize and he will receive a phone call from Dave Mustaine. We hope to clear this up as quick as possible,” Megadeth adds.
In 2012 as well, the rockers asked fans to submit original illustrations for the Christmas Card contest.
10 finalists were picked out and awarded, with the luckiest of them all, number 1, even getting a phone call from the band on Christmas day, among other things.