Potential plagiarism advice, please

[Ommichron]

I recently joined Literotica, and was getting ready to post the first few chapters of my first story (which I had written before joining), when I discovered that another author has used the same story category and locations (Scotland and Australia (but different cities)) as I have. I didn't want to be accused of plagiarism, so I messaged them about 6 weeks ago, asking them if they would have any objections to me continuing to use those locations. I haven't heard back from them. How long do people think I should wait for a response?

 

[SimonDoom]

If you wrote your story independently of that author's story, then there's no plagiarism. Nobody has an exclusive claim to writing an erotic story in a particular category in Australia and Scotland, especially if the cities are different. This doesn't seem like a problem.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Plagiarism is a copy-and-paste type of issue. If the wording is exactly the same, that'd be an issue. Otherwise, all's fair in sex and adventure.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Geography can't be plagiarised. You only have an issue if your themes, plot, characterisation, style, language, sentences are so near identical, that someone might say, gee, I wonder which one came first? The test is the text itself, in a side by side comparison.

 

[Ommichron]

Thank you all very much for your advice. It's much appreciated.

 

[MillieDynamite]

You said what I said a bit more eloquently. You silver-tongued devil, you.

Geography can't be plagiarised. You only have an issue if your themes, plot, characterisation, style, language, sentences are so near identical, that someone might say, gee, I wonder which one came first? The test is the text itself, in a side by side comparison.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

Can't plagurize generic plots, dawg.

 

[Bramblethorn]

There are only about 200 countries in the world, and considerably more than 200 stories on this site, so some amount of reuse is unavoidable. The only requirement for writing stories set in Australia is playing along with the drop-bear thing.

 

[ronde]

I recently joined Literotica, and was getting ready to post the first few chapters of my first story (which I had written before joining), when I discovered that another author has used the same story category and locations (Scotland and Australia (but different cities)) as I have. I didn't want to be accused of plagiarism, so I messaged them about 6 weeks ago, asking them if they would have any objections to me continuing to use those locations. I haven't heard back from them. How long do people think I should wait for a response?

This exact thing happened to me. I had published a story on another site and one of my followers alerted me that the same story was published here on Literotica in the German language. I looked at the Literotica story and found it was indeed my story. The "author" had only changed the names of a couple towns, and since the story had a military theme, he changed my US Army to the army of his own country.

I sent a PM to Laurel and explained the situation complete with two separate paragraphs from my story and the copied story. I explained to her that I wasn't as concerned about the other author putting up my story in German as I was that if I published the story on Literotica I'd be accused of plagiarism.

The net result was the other story was taken down.

Being nice and explaining things usually works with Laurel.

 

[Bramblethorn]

This exact thing happened to me. I had published a story on another site and one of my followers alerted me that the same story was published here on Literotica in the German language. I looked at the Literotica story and found it was indeed my story. The "author" had only changed the names of a couple towns, and since the story had a military theme, he changed my US Army to the army of his own country.

I sent a PM to Laurel and explained the situation complete with two separate paragraphs from my story and the copied story. I explained to her that I wasn't as concerned about the other author putting up my story in German as I was that if I published the story on Literotica I'd be accused of plagiarism.

The net result was the other story was taken down.

Being nice and explaining things usually works with Laurel.

That seems like a different scenario - in your case, the other person ripped off your story with minor changes + translation, but in this case it's just two authors writing a story in the same two countries in the same category.

 

[Ommichron]

Many thanks to everybody who gave advice. It is much appreciated.

 

[Audiflex]

I recently joined Literotica, and was getting ready to post the first few chapters of my first story (which I had written before joining), when I discovered that another author has used the same story category and locations (Scotland and Australia (but different cities)) as I have. I didn't want to be accused of plagiarism, so I messaged them about 6 weeks ago, asking them if they would have any objections to me continuing to use those locations. I haven't heard back from them. How long do people think I should wait for a response?

Don’t stress too much, ideas and settings aren’t copyrighted, so using similar locations isn’t plagiarism. If you’ve already reached out and haven’t heard back, it’s probably fine to proceed. Just make sure your story and characters are unique. Go ahead and post your work; it’s your voice that matters most!

 

[Audiflex]

This exact thing happened to me. I had published a story on another site and one of my followers alerted me that the same story was published here on Literotica in the German language. I looked at the Literotica story and found it was indeed my story. The "author" had only changed the names of a couple towns, and since the story had a military theme, he changed my US Army to the army of his own country.

I sent a PM to Laurel and explained the situation complete with two separate paragraphs from my story and the copied story. I explained to her that I wasn't as concerned about the other author putting up my story in German as I was that if I published the story on Literotica I'd be accused of plagiarism.

The net result was the other story was taken down.

Being nice and explaining things usually works with Laurel.

That’s frustrating but great you handled it professionally. Plagiarism is no joke, and it’s awesome Laurel took action. Always good to document and communicate clearly in these situations.

 

[MillieDynamite]

It's very frustrating when your work is stolen. At times, you can get them removed from the net. At other times, they call you on it, as raise, fold, or call, like you're bluffing. The issue is not all of my stories have been registered, so when they call me on those, I have to fold. Other free sites have my stories on them... usually with my penname and taken from here or that other site. I've had a few that were not here yet and were still selling that were stolen. I let the publisher fight those out for me.