Plagiarism

[Darkraptor1]

From my understanding of copyright law, you cannot copyright an idea...only the specific expression of an idea.  If someone had copyrighted the story idea, "Gal gets mummified and buried", then there would be about a million less stories on line right now.   when it comse to plagarism, I'm definitly against it.  It's fine to be inspired by someone else's story, take the idea and try to put your own spin on it.  I've done that many times, and it would really please me to know that someone was inspired by one of my stories and wrote their own take on it.  But when you start copying someone else's writing word for word, that's not acceptable.  You're taking someone else's work, that they spent hours, possibly days working on, and trying to pass it off as your own.  It's not the right thing to do. It's okay to share ideas and be inspired...but it's not right to copy someone else's words.Darkraptor12009-07-08 15:05:32

[stephanie_cd]

[quote="Master" Stephen]Maybe I missed something, but do we have a definite timeline on the two stories to know whose story came first?  Are we accusing the right author of plagiarism?Just wondering.[/quote]Is this a case of "TL;DR" as the kids on other forums say?    Here's the salient point above that I think you perhaps missed: [quote=Gromet]The author has apologised to me for 'being lazy' and including theparagraphs in the story. "I did use much if its imagery woven into myown thoughts. It was probably not such a good idea at the time."[The author] goes on to say "...in many cases I just found the wordswere perfect and hard to improve from the earlier stories, both theTamara one and the one's I put together. In many cases I just found thewords were perfect and hard to improve from the earlier stories, boththe Tamara one and the one's I put together."[/quote]That sounds as though the author in question admitted the act, as opposed to denying and claiming his story was first, doesn't it?

[Master Stephen]

[quote="stephanie_cd"][The author] goes on to say "...in many cases I just found the wordswere perfect and hard to improve from the earlier stories, both theTamara one and the one's I put together. In many cases I just found thewords were perfect and hard to improve from the earlier stories, boththe Tamara one and the one's I put together."That sounds as though the author in question admitted the act, as opposed to denying and claiming his story was first, doesn't it? [/quote]Yeah, it sure does.Master Stephen2009-07-08 15:52:54

[hekate]

[quote="Master" Stephen][quote="gromet"]Using characters from another authors stories (ie: writing a part two) is permissible as long as acknowledgement is given, but as a courtesy it would be better to email the author prior to posting the story on the plaza. [/quote]Anybody else around here remember a stretch of time when it seemed like every other story had a "Slave Marie?"Too bad the real Slave Marie needed to remove herself from the web. [/quote]yes she had two shoots on gromets that i found amazing one was with that hobbler stick that fastened as ankles calfs and thighs to wrists, the other was the boot one.I used to have the images then lost them, when i went back to look again i heard about what had happened and found the whole thing a bit sickening, its a shame they were removed as her work was very good but under the circumstances i think we can all understand why.

[LockedInALocker]

     What was that about?  I seem to recall something was going on about that just before I joined the forum, and I never quite caught up with that, and all I recall was that someone seemed to be cyberstalking Marie and harassing her, and it made her and her partner feel they had to disappear from the web.  I never understood why they were doing that, though, and it seemed a pretty low-down thing to do.Regards, Michael.

[stephanie_cd]

[quote=LockedInALocker]...all I recall was that someone seemed to be cyberstalking Marie andharassing her, and it made her and her partner feel they had todisappear from the web.  I never understood why they were doing that,though, and it seemed a pretty low-down thing to do.[/quote]The really short version: sadly, Marie isn't the only member of this forum who was "cyberstalked" and went into a sort-of self-imposed exile as a result. However, I'm not sure if dredging up the details of that (or the other case(s)) are really necessary.As for the "why" -- again, the short version is that there's a lot of sick, creepy, and/or stupid people in the world. The interwebz not only gives them more venues in which to be sick, creepy and/or stupid, but also grants them whole new levels of anonymity, enabling those who can control themselves in public a worldwide playground to make pains in the arse of themselves. /end rant/end threadjackstephanie_cd

[rubberwolf]

The idea of the part 2 given by Gromet has a recent comparison.  Another author wanted to write a second part to one of my stories.  "How Lisa Learnt to Sleep Standing Up".  They sent a PM to me requesting permision, as well as discussing this on the forum.  I gave permision because I was interested to read what other writers would do with my idea.  Although the charactors were the same, the situation was different.   Another example of this sort of thing is Star Wars.  Lucas stated that, although prequels were his domain, other writers were free to write about events after the final film had finished.  In this manner a great deal of stories were written about events after the death of the emperor. Another definition to consider was the famous Apple vs Microsoft.  In this, Apple cliamed that Gates had stolen their operating system.  However, because the line by line program codes were different to those of Apples, even though the screen layout operation were the same, it was viewed that copyright had not been broken. In this case, we have a clear breach and the author has confessed.  This is no longer a question of copyright having been breached.  It is a question of community.  What are we, as a community, expecting now? I do not personally think that the authors work should be removed, other than this story.  I think we will be looking at this author with interest to see if he does it again.  I don't think he will.  I think he has learnt his lesson.  I also think that, in future, if sections are to be copied, then the author whose work you are copying should give consent before hand, or at least be refered to in the story.  I also think that Grommet needs to state the policy of the site, both on the Plaza and as a sticky on this site. However, this is your community as much as mine.  What sort of community do you want to make? Rubberwolf

[RubberH]

So far to the best of my knowledge, I have not been a victim of outright theft of my words and phrasing. 'The Shuns' did acknowledge my previous work 'PS', so as long as an author references the material used for their own story, and does not try to present it as a totally original work, I am satisfied. BTW, I have started bringing my stories back to Gromet's.

[Mauser]

Important things to remember. Monetary gain is not a factor in copyright law, that's why the RIAA can bust people for giving away music for free.

Trademark is different from copyright law. And while you CAN lose your trademark over not pursuing violations you are made aware of, you can NOT lose your copyright that way.

As for the case in question. I would not advocate for wiping out this guy's entire oeuvre, but I think folks could spend a little time going over it carefully looking for other violations.

[meddle]

There was a time, 4 or 5 years ago, when somebody plagarized a whole story of mine -- I think it was about 11 or 12 parts.  It was something I had posted maybe 10 years ago and I guess the culprit figured nobody would ever notice it.  I did not like it.

[restricted]

Darkraptor1 and Rubberwolf has said it for me. I have no objection to anyone taking my ideas and improving on them. (Yes, I know there is a lot of improving to do) Copying is a form of flattery in my mind. It means the story is good enough to want to use as a base. (or at least take ideas from it). That is why I tried the inter-active story.  Someone could have put a piece on it. Someone else would hopefully see a better scenario and use it. But it never came off.   

[OneStrangeGuy]

[quote="restricted"]Darkraptor1 and Rubberwolf has said it for me. I have no objection to anyone taking my ideas and improving on them. (Yes, I know there is a lot of improving to do) Copying is a form of flattery in my mind. It means the story is good enough to want to use as a base. (or at least take ideas from it).  [/quote]  I would agree, to a point. Using a quote from someones story, or recycling an idea from a story is certainly a form of flattery. There are limits though, a 'Quote' shouldn't be pages, or even paragraphs long. Write your own story, and if you like, and use a paragraph out of mine, especially if you re-word it, That's flattery. If you like my theme or an idea I've used. That too is flattery. Re-posting my story even with minor changes is plagiarism!