Plagiarism is a form of flattery, I suppose.

[rheasilvia]

An alert Smallville fan noticed that my story "Macellum" has turned up on FF.net as a work in progress, posted by andSHE.DANCES as her own story. She only has one other story listed - another Smallville fanfic called "Songbird" which, as far as I can tell, is very probably her own work.

I've written a private message to andSHE.DANCES and left a review asking her to take the story down. I also tried to provide links for any readers who might want to get to the bottom of the matter, but FF.net seems to have trouble with URLs in comments... So I ended up reviewing the other chapters advising people to google some key terms in order to prove my authorship.

Since Macellum has been archived at the Smallville Slash Archive since April 2003 and has been up at my site for the same amount of time, I feel pretty secure in my prior claim. :-)

Is there anything else I should do? This is my first plagiarism...


ETA: The story seems to have been taken down. That was quick. :-)

Comments

[lilacsigil.livejournal.com]

You can contact the stop_plagiarism community, they're multi-fandom and have often turned up other incidences by the same person.

[rheasilvia.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'll do that...

[ellensmithee.livejournal.com]

That totally sucks. Did you also report her to ffn?

[rheasilvia.livejournal.com]

No, not yet. Good point though, I should do that...

[trensaddiction.livejournal.com]

It never ceases to amaze me that people in fandom think they can get away with plagiarism. Seriously, for all that fandoms are huge, it's not as though any fic good enough to plagiarize isn't going to have at least a couple fans who will notice the repetition.

That said, I'm sorry someone was thoughtless enough to try it with your work and I'm glad the piece was taken down.

[rheasilvia.livejournal.com]

Word. I can only suspect that youth, thoughtlessness and entitlement conspire in these cases.

I also entirely fail to understand the motive behind this kind of plagiarism. If you copy someone else's fic, how can the feedback you receive for it give you any glow of accomplishment whatsoever?

That said, I'm sorry someone was thoughtless enough to try it with your work and I'm glad the piece was taken down.

Thank you. :-) I'm glad too - it really wasn't a big deal, all told, but it did feel peculiar.

[without-me.livejournal.com]

Grr. Why are people such morons? I'm glad it went away quickly.

[rheasilvia.livejournal.com]

Good question - if we could answer that, we'd win the internets. ;-)

I'm glad it went away quickly.

I'm glad, too. :-) It was an odd feeling...

[rheasilvia.livejournal.com]

Love your icon, btw. :-)

[without-me.livejournal.com]

Me, too. I just wish I didn't need to use it so often.

Yours, on the other hand, should be used multiple times an hour. :D

[scribblinlenore.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry that happened to you. And as always, I boggle at the idiocy of plagiarizers. "Macellum" is one of the Smallville classics. It's not like people weren't going to notice she was stealing it!

[rheasilvia.livejournal.com]

I've never understood the motive behind plagiarism of this kind - the apparent belief that they won't be discovered is one oddity, but there's also the question of what exactly they gain. Can they really derive personal satisfaction from receiving feedback for someone else's story? I'd think it would be depressing, if anything...

It would really interest me to know. I wish a plagiarist would speak up one of these days and lay the entire thing out for us - but then, it's probably just something fairly banal, like a wish for attention paired with sturdy mental blinkers.

/blather

Anyway. It was a really strange feeling, I have to say - I'm glad the story was taken down so quickly.

Thank you very much for your kind words! You made my day a lot brighter. :-)

[amaphone.livejournal.com]

Just wanted to let you know the summary post is up Here (http://community.livejournal.com/stop_plagiarism/59657.html)

[mysticdreamer32.livejournal.com]

I really don't get it why pick an older well
loved story ? I mean its like holding a sign
up saying "Attention I'm a plagiarist, and I
want to be caught!" Every one in the smallville
has read that story even newbies..how
does she figure she wouldn't get caught?
*Shakes head sadly* kids today they're
stupidity blinds me. I'm sorry this happened
you i really love your stories . :D

[rheasilvia.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much for your kind words! :-) Looking back, I have to say it wasn't a very determined or serious case of plagiarism - everything was over in a flash, the plagiarized story disappeared without fuss and the "author" never said a single word about the entire thing. No wank, no mess. *g*

It really was an odd feeling, though...

(Also, sorry about the late reply - my pc died on me two weeks ago and I only just managed to get the replacement up and running.)

Quotation of Plato

[(Anonymous)]

The punishment which the wise suffer who refuse to take part in the government, is to live under the government of worse men.
Quotation of Plato

One Sentence from Einstein !

[(Anonymous)]

"I never think of the future. It comes soon enough." - Albert Einstein !

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