Are your Lit submissions being plagiarized?

Artina Heartflash

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Joined
Oct 26, 2002
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Copy of my PM to Manu:


Could we post a sticky somewhere (site announcements perhaps) to alert the authors of plagiarism risks when submitting stories to Lit?

Exstory.net is a major site which is pulling stories from Literotica and posting them w/o authors' knowledge. The authors names have been removed from the stolen works.

I have had some of my submissions stolen from Literotica. The content---word for word-- of the stolen work was posted at exstory.net. I notice others' works are being plagiarized. This is the latest find:

http://www.exstory.net/2012/01/25/a-...sarah-colonna/

Note the ref to Literotica in the claim at the top of the story, written by the Lit member.

I know the fair use laws are shady. Still, some of us authors care if our literature is being used to promo other sites or posted for other purposes w/o our consent or knowledge...especially when our author names have been removed.

Help fight plagiarism. Report stolen content .

http://en.support.wordpress.com/content-theft-what-to-do/

http://www.plagiarismtoday.com/stopping-internet-plagiarism/3-finding-the-host/
 
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Artina, this is thread no. X on the same topic.

Posting to Lit is filling the thieves' shopping cart, as someone said in a previous thread (I think it was sr71plt, on one of the rare occasions when he and I agreed). This is a free site; while the author has copyright, and fair use definitely doesn't mean stealing the whole story (there's a US Federal case somewhere that says that taking one sentence from a book can be plagiarism and infringement, but I haven't time just now to look it up), you still have to pay the $35 and register your copyright to sue.

And notwithstanding the availability of statutory damages and legal fees (and our friends the Big Publishers are fighting to get rid of that tooth and nail), you gotta catch 'em if you want to fuck 'em.

So basically, Lit authors, welcome to the bottom of the food chain.
 
Well, Wordpress has a DMCA process in the link Artina provided. And a cursory search just turned up one of my stories. Anyone want to join me in making a large-ish DMCA complaint against exstory?

Edit: And of course the real joke is that had they asked, I'd have certainly said "Yeah, go ahead, put 'em up!"

Second edit: Okay, sent an email to WordPress to verify that they host the site and explaining the issue. I'm 100% sure they host it, but maybe they'll see it for what it is and take it down without needing to be buried in DMCAs.

Really not a big fan of plagiarism, even on stories written for fun.
 
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Well, Wordpress has a DMCA process in the link Artina provided. And a cursory search just turned up one of my stories. Anyone want to join me in making a large-ish DMCA complaint against exstory?




Edit: And of course the real joke is that had they asked, I'd have certainly said "Yeah, go ahead, put 'em up!"

Second edit: Okay, sent an email to WordPress to verify that they host the site and explaining the issue. I'm 100% sure they host it, but maybe they'll see it for what it is and take it down without needing to be buried in DMCAs.

Really not a big fan of plagiarism, even on stories written for fun.

I'll do what I can. I am waiting for wordpress reply to my own complaint about my own stolen submission. (Emailed them twice a few days ago.) Also have sent notice to exstory's domain registrant who lists his address as jian.zhang8102@gmail.com
 
Artina, this is thread no. X on the same topic.

Posting to Lit is filling the thieves' shopping cart, as someone said in a previous thread (I think it was sr71plt, on one of the rare occasions when he and I agreed). This is a free site; while the author has copyright, and fair use definitely doesn't mean stealing the whole story (there's a US Federal case somewhere that says that taking one sentence from a book can be plagiarism and infringement, but I haven't time just now to look it up), you still have to pay the $35 and register your copyright to sue.

And notwithstanding the availability of statutory damages and legal fees (and our friends the Big Publishers are fighting to get rid of that tooth and nail), you gotta catch 'em if you want to fuck 'em.

So basically, Lit authors, welcome to the bottom of the food chain.

I am ahead of you on the legal copyright issue. I have the registration number at LOC for copyrt of my works.

Not really looking to sue....just want the dang work removed from exstory and any other site who has stolen it for whatever reason...

I deleted all my submissions from Literotica.
 
Artina, this is thread no. X on the same topic.

Posting to Lit is filling the thieves' shopping cart, as someone said in a previous thread (I think it was sr71plt, on one of the rare occasions when he and I agreed). This is a free site; while the author has copyright, and fair use definitely doesn't mean stealing the whole story (there's a US Federal case somewhere that says that taking one sentence from a book can be plagiarism and infringement, but I haven't time just now to look it up), you still have to pay the $35 and register your copyright to sue.

And notwithstanding the availability of statutory damages and legal fees (and our friends the Big Publishers are fighting to get rid of that tooth and nail), you gotta catch 'em if you want to fuck 'em.

So basically, Lit authors, welcome to the bottom of the food chain.

Actually I was the one who used the grocery cart analogy. Not that I care, but Pilot gives himself enough credit for all the incredible things he thinks he's said and done, he doesn't need more.

But on this topic there is nothing more to say then we assume the risk. You have to be pretty naive to think that you can put a story here and it won't get lifted.

As for exstory they are a free site like this one (I believe) so no one is making money off this they just aren't giving credit to who they stole it from.

I told Artina and a few others I practice ignorance is bliss. I see no point in googling my work and getting upset when I see it all over the place.

And I have been seriously considering my Valentines day story as being the last story I post here. I am only doing that because it is a very different type of work for me and I am curious as to how it will go over.

Once the contest is over I am going to sleep on whether or not I want to delete all my work from here. For a variety of reasons it seems to be becoming more of a hassle and less fun which is what I was hoping it would be.
 
LC68, I apologize for the misattribution of your remark to sr71plt. I now owe you two beers at Jake's Saloon. I was there Wednesday night, sampling the ale to make sure it wasn't getting too warm. It's still cold.
 
LC68, I apologize for the misattribution of your remark to sr71plt. I now owe you two beers at Jake's Saloon. I was there Wednesday night, sampling the ale to make sure it wasn't getting too warm. It's still cold.

Yeah, well hopefully I can cash in on those beers. I think my wife has some business up your way come spring time.
 
Seems like this kind of thing happens more and more. :( I'm sad for the writers who are being stolen from, but glad I don't publish stories here anymore. Perhaps Manu and/or Laurel will be prompted to make some changes?

:rose:
 
There's nothing that can be changed.

There are a few little tricks that could block story-scraping bots, but they're easily defeated once the programmer realizes they're there. Ditto for blocking right-clicking and such. There's no such thing as a control to prevent copying text that can't be defeated with even average internet knowledge.

So long as you're posting anywhere on the internet, you are vulnerable to whatever you post being lifted and posted elsewhere, and there's not a thing anybody can do about it.

The reason Lit gets lifted from so often is that it has the largest presence in search engines and the largest userbase of any erotic story site.

If you want to reduce your exposure to story thieves, you reduce your exposure to readers by going with a less visible site. It's as simple as that.
 
But you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it . . .
 
There's nothing that can be changed.

There are a few little tricks that could block story-scraping bots, but they're easily defeated once the programmer realizes they're there. Ditto for blocking right-clicking and such. There's no such thing as a control to prevent copying text that can't be defeated with even average internet knowledge.

So long as you're posting anywhere on the internet, you are vulnerable to whatever you post being lifted and posted elsewhere, and there's not a thing anybody can do about it.

The reason Lit gets lifted from so often is that it has the largest presence in search engines and the largest userbase of any erotic story site.

If you want to reduce your exposure to story thieves, you reduce your exposure to readers by going with a less visible site. It's as simple as that.

Same with ebooks. So why do you bother publishing them? There are several ways for readers to grab content and take it for their own use, redistribute, etc. I was looking into publishing an Ebook, but after seeing all the ways it can be captured by others and passed along w/o author permission, I am discouraged about going THAT route.



To say there is "nothing" one can do is same as saying DMCA and other agencies which fight plagiarism are wasting their time. I don't think so.

http://www.plagiarismtoday.com/ <<< just a site for daily updates on the matters.


If all were apathetic/pessimistic about fighting crimes, the world would be a much darker place. I am not apathetic and will do what I can to report the offenders and support those who fight such people
 
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Seems like this kind of thing happens more and more. :( I'm sad for the writers who are being stolen from, but glad I don't publish stories here anymore. Perhaps Manu and/or Laurel will be prompted to make some changes?

:rose:

That's why I asked Manu to put a sticky in the AH, or somewhere, so any newcomers can be alerted to the fact the stories he/she posts may be plagiarised. They may opt to place the work elsewhere, not post at all, choose to post and take the risks... whatever...

Yeh, there are still folks who don't know how bad the situation is. A sticky won't SOLVE the prob, but it helps to pass knowledge along. Let's face it: NONE of us was BORN with the knowledge of the risks. Every one of us had to be told the info or learn it some way.
 
Seems like this kind of thing happens more and more. :( I'm sad for the writers who are being stolen from, but glad I don't publish stories here anymore. Perhaps Manu and/or Laurel will be prompted to make some changes?

:rose:

I really don't see what they can do. If I wanted to steal a story all I would have to do is copy and paste the thing into a word doc then format it to an e-book. How can they stop that?

Once a story has been reported as stolen It seems Manu does what he can and has battled sites like Exstory many times. Problem is needing and individual DMCA for each stolen story. These sites are lifting dozens at a whack. Do you have the time to do this? I am sure he does not.

We are at risk in doing this. I said before I am aware that I am putting this up for free to get some feedback and hopefully provide people with an entertaining story.

If my story ends up on another free site, what the hell is the difference? because my name is not attached? Well my drivers license does not say Lovecraft68 so its not like "I" am really getting credit anywhere anyway.

However finding it for sale is different. If anyone is going to make a buck off my crap, it should be me. Which is why I am contemplating my future stories here.

But back to my point, what exactly can the site do? Nothing that I can see, and I don't hold them responsible for this in anyway
 
I really don't see what they can do. If I wanted to steal a story all I would have to do is copy and paste the thing into a word doc then format it to an e-book. How can they stop that?

Once a story has been reported as stolen It seems Manu does what he can and has battled sites like Exstory many times. Problem is needing and individual DMCA for each stolen story. These sites are lifting dozens at a whack. Do you have the time to do this? I am sure he does not.

Lit has a statement (I think under "FAQ" ?) where they mention they will support the authors' copyright claims...something about filing with DMCA when a file UPLOADED to their site has been discovered as stolen material. I don't recall any statement made about what Lit does when a file is DOWNLOADED (taken from Lit w/o permission).

I merely suggested to Manu that he add a warning to lit authors of this latter possibility that the works can be stolen. That much they CAN do.
 
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Lit has a statement (I think under "FAQ" ?) where they mention they will support the authors' copyright claims...something about filing with DMCA when a file UPLOADED to their site has been discovered as stolen material. I don't recall any statement made about what Lit does when a file is DOWNLOADED (taken from Lit w/o permission).

I merely suggested to Manu that he add a warning to lit authors of this latter possibility that the works can be stolen. That much they CAN do.

Agree with your warning idea. I've busted a thief on Amazon, and Amazon pulled the story and credited the true author with words, not with money. The true author sent me an e-mail saying, "how sad".

Of course, the thief can go elsewhere with the stolen property and flog it. But I haven't the time to track down villains, especially when villainy is so easy and profitable, and the chances of economic recovery are so minimal.

The Somali pirates are in the wrong business--why risk getting killed by SEAL teams when you can steal from the comfort of your own home with utter impunity?
 
You're asking Literotica to discourage authors from posting here by telling them that their stories may be stolen if they do, when the simple fact is that they can and are stolen from anywhere they're posted.

Now, if you'd asked for a sticky concerning how to go about finding the proper information of who to send a DMCA request to, and the proper form for making that request, etc., that's a different story.

That's also a futile - but at least satisfying effort - that provides temporary relief for plagairized authors until the thieves start a new website or a new e-book author name and start all over.

The reason you get so much backlash here is that you're essentially blaming Literotica for the stories being stolen. The only reason so many stories are stolen from here is that Literotica provides you with the largest readership for erotica on the internet.

Your suggestion would punish them for being the best at providing the service the website is here for.
 
You're asking Literotica to discourage authors from posting here by telling them that their stories may be stolen if they do, when the simple fact is that they can and are stolen from anywhere they're posted.

Now, if you'd asked for a sticky concerning how to go about finding the proper information of who to send a DMCA request to, and the proper form for making that request, etc., that's a different story.

That's also a futile - but at least satisfying effort - that provides temporary relief for plagairized authors until the thieves start a new website or a new e-book author name and start all over.

The reason you get so much backlash here is that you're essentially blaming Literotica for the stories being stolen. The only reason so many stories are stolen from here is that Literotica provides you with the largest readership for erotica on the internet.

Your suggestion would punish them for being the best at providing the service the website is here for.

Yeah I think a "Authors beware" sticky would be a bit discouraging. There is nothing that can be done about this, and as I said earlier I think someone would be a bit foolish to think it won't happen.

The only way to somewhat safe guard against it would be to make lit a pay site. You can only access the stories with a log in and password and for a fee.

But that would be a disaster. The pirates will pay the fee to continue to lift stories (although with a membership, lit could track who accessed what stories and compare them to which were stolen), and mainly the cheapskates would find another free site to go to.

So it's simply assume the risk. It is not Lit's fault people suck
 
To be honest, if I post a story here I don't care where else it ends up as long as I'm correctly attributed as the author and the person isn't selling copies for money. My stories have been cut'n'paste into all kinds of forums and I don't mind, because it brings me new readers.

Once you post your work here, you no longer have full control of it, but you will gain access to possibly the largest reader base on the internet. It depends on what you want--control and money, or being read. Although without the latter, you're very unlikely to make money.

If you want to make your work totally safe you can always lock it in a box somehere, but then if no one is ever going to read it, what was the point in the first place...

For all the controversy, amazon does take the plagiarised work down and I suspect they will be more diligent about it after being embarrassed by recent coverage.
 
All of this is just suggesting that posters to the Internet remain dopey about what they are doing and, at the same time, expecting Literotica to do the impossible for them. This certainly is an invitation to make Literotica collapse--just because some stubborn and tunnel-vision folks don't want to accept reality and take responsibility for their own decisions (and do the proper objective research on what their actual protections are).

IF YOU DON'T WANT YOUR MATERIAL STOLEN AND REPOSTED TO THE INTERNET OR IN E-BOOKS, DON'T POST IT TO AN OPEN, FREE-USE WEBSITE.

(Can you hear me now?)

Reiterating your fantasies over and over again from thread to thread, Artina, isn't going to make them happen.
 
You're asking Literotica to discourage authors from posting here by telling them that their stories may be stolen if they do, when the simple fact is that they can and are stolen from anywhere they're posted.

Now, if you'd asked for a sticky concerning how to go about finding the proper information of who to send a DMCA request to, and the proper form for making that request, etc., that's a different story.

That's also a futile - but at least satisfying effort - that provides temporary relief for plagairized authors until the thieves start a new website or a new e-book author name and start all over.

The reason you get so much backlash here is that you're essentially blaming Literotica for the stories being stolen. The only reason so many stories are stolen from here is that Literotica provides you with the largest readership for erotica on the internet.

Your suggestion would punish them for being the best at providing the service the website is here for.

My suggestion of the info stickey was just meant to inform the public of the risks. Not to blame Lit. Wouldn't bother me if Manu added to the note that Lit is NOT responsible, that it can happen anywhere.etc. Just post it to pass the awareness along.

Sheesh...that's why I posted the links where to report such plagiarism (in the OP).

Sorry if anyone thought my suggestion evil or meant to lash at Lit. It was not.
 
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Nobody else says "Your stuff may be stolen by internet thieves if you post it here" because it's a fact of the internet.

For another example along the same degree:

"If you visit this forum, you may be exposed to messages from spammers"

Nobody is going to do that, because it's a fact of the internet. Spammers are ever evolving to break every control put in place to stop them - just like story thieves. Doing it ( whether with a disclaimer or not ) is a big flashing sign that will send potential and current users flying out the doors for no good reason. That's just the way people are. They're exposed to the same risk everywhere they go on the internet. My website has traffic limited to more or less my fanbase, and I still get an average of 8-12 spammer registrations blocked and banned per day.

"There is the possibility that some employees may not wash their hands after using the restroom and before preparing your food."

Would you eat there? Every place that serves food could have that disclaimer, because it's true, but nobody does it because it would be the height of stupidity.

Again, you're asking Literotica to apologize for the internet to its own detriment.
 
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