Plagarism

[aleathiel]

Look at this

Then look at this which is mine.

"I've altered it a little" she says. She's done search and replace on the names. That's it.

I've left a fairly polite note asking her to remove it. What else should I do?

ETA: the post is gone.

Comments

[mithlondewen.livejournal.com]

woah, dude, that's like outright copyright infringement!! (if that sort of thing exists for fics)

[abluegirl.livejournal.com]

Copyright infringement does indeed exist for fics.

What a wierd thing for that girl to do. I hope that she takes it down, and quickly.

[aleathiel.livejournal.com]

Exactly. It's an exact duplicate. And then she was stupid enough to friend Razzle, who betad my original. Razzle pointed it straight out to me.

[aleathiel.livejournal.com]

I've left a comment asking her to. I'm not sure what to do if she doesn't.

[jasmineskie.livejournal.com]

Good lord, that's ballsy. I recognized your work from the first line. Crediting you as the original author and complimenting you doesn't give her the right to do what she did.

Other than what you did, the polite note, I'm not sure there's anything you can do. As soon as you write anything, you hold the copyright to it. RPS, like FPS (or any fanfiction) is such a gray area though. As fanfiction writers, we own the copyright to the story but not the characters we write about (my understanding of it anyway). *sigh* Usually we all rely on netiquette and fair play, which seems to be sorely lacking these days.

[syndarys.livejournal.com]

God, I hate it when people do stuff like this. If you have any more trouble with her, you could try reporting her to the abuse team? I mean, although the characters you used in the original fic technically do not belong to you, the story itself does, so it's copyright infringment.

I had something similar happen to me a while ago; I'd written a Mary Sue Harry Potter fic for a laugh, and then someone stole my Mary Sue. I was gobsmacked. They stole my Mary Sue. While that is nowhere near as serious as what's happened to you (and I myself found it rather amusing when I found out about someone stealing my Mary Sue, though I was still pretty annoyed it), I certainly know how you feel!

[afra_schatz]

Just adding two cents that aren't even mine :). Some time ago I read a discussion on fanfic copyright (though under slightly different circumstances) over at firesignwriter's LJ and there were quite a lot of intesting things posted in the comments. Mebbe this could help with the copyright issue *scratches head*?

[mithlondewen.livejournal.com]

ahahaha the poor fool, i can't believe she thought she could get away with that! we are an honest fandom!

[aleathiel.livejournal.com]

That's what I thought. I'll admit I'm totally gobsmacked since she didn't just steal the idea: it's word for word the same.

[aleathiel.livejournal.com]

I don't know about reporting it since it's not technically abuse. And yeah, thy're my words even if the names aren't. It's not like it's even set during filming and using LOTR information - it's completely mine except for the names.

I find it very amusing that someone would steal your Mary Sue. I can understand how annoying that must have been, but what a choice of thing to steal!

[aleathiel.livejournal.com]

Thanks, I'll go take a look at that now.

[whimsicalnotion.livejournal.com]

Heart-rending and breathtaking.

I found the link on my Friends of friends list. So sorry you're being plagerised; that sucks.

[aleathiel.livejournal.com]

Thanks for your comment!

I'm infuriated, to tell you the truth.

[moblo413.livejournal.com]

"I've altered it a little"? WTF? That's insane, hon...I'm so sorry! You were far more polite than I would have been, that's for sure. I hope she takes it down right away.

*huggles you*

[aleathiel.livejournal.com]

I've discovered being polite is the best way to get people to do what you want. If you rant at them it just gets their back up. I can do angry later if necessary. I hope it won't be.

[moblo413.livejournal.com]

I hope so too hon. :(

*hugs*

[lennongirl.livejournal.com]

Wow. That's just...wow.
*stares*
Unbelievable rude.
Only, after today, nothing really surprises me anymore.

[ladymalen.livejournal.com]

What a c***. I'd say excuse my language, but I'm not at all sorry for calling them as I see them. Altered a little my ass. Outright stole and then tried to be cute about to cover her ass is more like it.

If polite and nice doesn't work, just say the word. I'll be more than happy to give her a verbal smackdown along with everyone else.

I even looked at her user info, it's not like she's some 14 yr old who doesn't know better! She's almost 20!

*growls and snarls*

[aleathiel.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I saw your earlier post. Head down time.

It made me very angry, but I am somewhat cheered by your mesmerising icon.

[aleathiel.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'll do polite first. Then I'll try something a bit harsher.

[ladymalen.livejournal.com]

*passes you a cat'o'nine tails*

Here.

*weg*

[lennongirl.livejournal.com]

Hehe. I'm always trying to cheer others up. Good to hear it works.

But seriously, that's a damn tough case of plagiarism. I mean, hello? The girl got guts (not meant in a positive way, only used because I cab't think of the better term right now). Or is completely insane.

[aleathiel.livejournal.com]

I know, it just doesn't make sense. I've only seen it because Razzle found it because the girl friended her. And Razzle betad my fic, so she was an immensly stupid choice to friend considering she recognised the fic from the first sentence.

[shay-tay.livejournal.com]

Wow, I'm sorry that happened to you. I read the first line and started shaking my head like a crazy person. People are too strange. She likes your writing so much she's going to steal it. Now that's logical. I hope she takes it down soon. :hugs:

[lennongirl.livejournal.com]

Some people are just plain weird, trust me. It never ceases to amaze me.

[londinensa.livejournal.com]

Oh for fucks sake!

I recognised your story from the first line, altered it a little my arse! Substituted different names and that's it *growls* I'm really sorry you've had to put up with this crap ;-( Can't offer any practical advice but if she refuses to take it down and needs an kicking count me in...

Excuse the language but today has not been good for various reasons so not really in a reasonable mood.

[aleathiel.livejournal.com]

:) Thanks. I appreciate all the arse-fucking offers I've had. I'll let you know. I've not heard anything from her at all, but it's only been a couple of hours and she might not have been online yet.

It's not altered at all, which is what makes me even angrier.

[mellacita.livejournal.com]

:-O

What is WITH people???

[seasidh.livejournal.com]

That's just unbelievable...that's fucking word for word *blinks*

Anyway...I believe, if she refuses to delete this post you and others can contact the guys who created LJ and tell them the story, 'cuz if she still refuses to delete it when those gentlemen tell her too, they can delete her journal or something. But hopefully she's clever enough to just delete it, otherwise I snap her head off. I extremely hate people who steal the works, thoughts and ideas from others...so if you need help, just tell me *evil grin*

And have fun in Canterbury!

[ithil-dae.livejournal.com]

That's so.. freaky! And she friended Razzle? *giggles* Busted! ;)

I am glad she did that though, because I'd never read anything by you before - and I am on my way to read the "stolen" fic right now :) The original version, that is ;)

[azriona.livejournal.com]

Screw the cat'o'nine tails. I'm going to Central Asia in a few weeks. Betcha I find all sorts of lovely torture devices there. *wink*

[ladymalen.livejournal.com]

Or how about you take the little theif there with you and drop her off in the middle of a nice pretty jungle? *weg*

[trimalynn.livejournal.com]

that makes no kind of sense, why the hell would she do that? why not just link you? my goodness

[finduilas-clln.livejournal.com]

wtf? That's just... wrong. She has to remove it.

O honey!

[matan4il.livejournal.com]

I'm a) angry this was done to you and b) glad she took it down. Now that it's over, though, I think you can be happy about two things. One is that your writing is so good that people feel compelled to steal it (doesn't sound good but you know what I mean! I hope) and the second is that there are good people out there, willing to kick the ass of complete strangers for you. Nice, isn't it? ;) *hugs*

[azriona.livejournal.com]

Not so many jungles in Central Asia, I'm afraid. I could drop her in the middle of the desert, though, or maybe atop a very high mountain?

[ladymalen.livejournal.com]

Ooo, either of those would work nicely!

((and totally unrelated, I'm somewhat jealous! I wanna travel *kicks stupid rl issues preventing her from anything but a day trip*))

[azriona.livejournal.com]

I'll see what I can do. I'll keep an eye out for an unappetizing spot and that's where I'll kick her out of the plane. Should we provide her with a parachute?

((i shall hopefully be posting lovely pictures and funny stories about non-working toilets so you can be very grateful you're not where I'm going, at any rate...*grin*))

[ladymalen.livejournal.com]

Dude, when you have a job that requires you to get decked out with way too much make-up, skimpy clothing and 5 inch platform stilettos and then deal with drunken, stupid men for their moeny. Someplace without any of the above, even if you have to use an outhose, sounds downright heavenly! *g*

And no, on the parachute! ;-)

[azriona.livejournal.com]

*g* I hear you. I don't think you'd have to worry about stupid men and platform heels - apparently the number one place for these guys to go when they come to the States is Hooters and other such establishments...

No parachute, check.

I seem to recall there were two girls at my college who somehow managed to go to Japan, and paid their way by dancing in the various establishments there. If I remember correctly, they made upwards of $10,000 doing it, too.

But I could understand if that's not exactly how you intend to see the world...:)

[ladymalen.livejournal.com]

Japan *shudder* Sorry, heard one to many horror stories about the clubs over there. I'll stay here in the nice comfy US for work, thanks! *g*

[azriona.livejournal.com]

Drunken Americans over drunken Japanese any day of the week, huh?

[ladymalen.livejournal.com]

Hell yeah! And it wasn't so much the drunken ones from what I have heard. It's the club owners that flat out lie to get American girls over there. They make shady US club owners look positively squeaky-clean.

[azriona.livejournal.com]

Eek, stay where you are then!