Plagiarism and Literoica

[N8Dreams]

Plagiarism and Literotica

This is intended as a warning for every author who submits stories to Literoica!
My partner and I have become the victims of plagiarism or more simply theft.

We wrote a beautiful story "The Magic Question" and submitted it to Literotica. It was accepted and received very good reviews. We were proud of the reception that the story received so we thought we would translate it into the German language and put it up for the German section of Literotica.

It was then accepted and once in the German section we received good reviews for the translation there. The German translation is located at http://german.literotica.com/stories/showstory.php?id=179401

Recently, we received a posting in the German language forum asking us to have a look at this story http://german.literotica.com/stories/showstory.php?id=186201
The person that told us of this story had noticed similarities between our story and this one.

In some instances the plagiariser was very clever and some passages were difficult to recognize as ours, but in other passages the plagiariser did it word by word, just like a student cutting and pasting from the Internet.

Our first attempts to right this wrong was to send several protests to the Literotica team but up to now they have reacted in their usual slow lacidazical manner and we have received no reaction from them.

We demand that they investigate this theft and make things right by removing the story from the site.

It looks like the people of Literotica are interested in only covering their own butts when there is some fear that they might have to face prosecution for something is legally copyrighted.

If something is not done to right this wrong, we will have no other choise but to notify the “Good” authors of Literotica and withdraw our stories from this site.

We are very disappointed with Literotica’s reaction.

 

[lucky-E-leven]

Wow. I'm sorry that happened to you but I've been here over a year and have seen Laurel act swiftly and surely to protect the writers here. Was it in PM you contacted her or through email? I don't know what's going on, but it sounds very atypical of how things are normally handled. Don't give up on them yet. They really do seem to care.

~lucky

 

[N8Dreams]

Thanks for your fast reply.
I did it in both ways several times and other friends protested too. In vain

 

[Weenieschnitzel]

Has Lit enough folk to check the german stories? If noone speak german, it could explain why the story is still there.

W

 

[brightlyiburn]

We demand that they investigate this theft and make things right by removing the story from the site.

You demand huh?
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to steal a story. And while Laurel is very good about protecting the authors on Lit, it's not her responsibility to "investigate".
I suffered two plagiarists in the last two weeks. And while I did contact Laurel and warn her, so she would know, I took care of it myself. She even offered to help me, but I decided to do what I could on my own, first.
Yes, plagiarists suck. But when you put your work online where everyone can see it, and you do it for free, you are the one taking the risk. There is very little legally that Laurel can even do in defense of your work. And let me tell you, I post on several different sites, and she was the only one to respond about it. Most places don't even care.
Why don't you contact the plagiarists and make your demands to them?

 

[Lisa Denton]

Thanks for your fast reply.
I did it in both ways several times and other friends protested too. In vain

What do you mean "in vain?" Are you saying Laurel refused to answer? I looked at the stories, don't read or write german, can see the post dates and would not be surprised if it takes awhile. Perhaps the other author made some allegation against you, perhaps Laurel is still translating or investigating.

Until you know what she is doing it may not be wise to publicly criticize her and the site. They may be fighting for you while you run them down. I have never heard of Laurel doing nothing in a situation like this. She and the site have no fear of you, prosecution, or the other author. If it is as you say, she has the submit dates and can delete the other authors work if he/she refuses to.

Perhaps she is busy helping other authors whose work was copied, who contacted her before you did. Please be patient, she always checks allegations like this. I know you are angry, rightfully so, but she has to be sure before she takes action, the language thing may be making it take longer.

 

[Belegon]

I've always know Laurel to be our best friend in defense of our works. Give her time, I am sure you will be rewarded for doing so.

 

[MelancholicDreamer]

Plagerism

It turns out to me that there had happened a lot of protests without any reaction of Lit. I bet this thread hasnt come up if a short message to the author was sent like "got your protest, I'm working on, be patient". This would be a polite and - essential information.

Submission of new stories is the elexier of life for Lit, if Lit wants not to be a simple forum for exchanging porn pics.
Therefore the protection of author's rights is vitally for Lit.

Im a native German speaker and had a look on both stories and it's easily to get there has happened severe plagerism.
(the original is great literature, the plagerism is lousy)

Btw, I very appreciate the closure of the main porn pic threads.

 

[wishfulthinking]

And while I did contact Laurel and warn her, so she would know, I took care of it myself.

What did you do? Got me curious

 

[brightlyiburn]

What did you do? Got me curious

I riled my readers into a frenzy and set them loose.
Really, there are a couple of them that are very overzealous in my defense and will get even more pissed off than I do. The last situation was especially difficult, because the story was posted on a message board that I couldn't get access to, since the owner banned my ISP. Since I had no way of protecting myself, I asked if someone would give her a message from me, that I would be contacting my attorney. Within the same day she's all the sudden the victim of plagiarism too, and has no idea how my story was posted on HER website and message board. She told me her computer had gotten hacked into, which was a terribly flimsy excuse, especially since she didn't use it right from the beginning.
Also, on a site called tucows.com you can find a WhoIS feature that will show you who hosts what website. So if, say, someone plagiarized your work, and you contacted the site and they did nothing about it, you could get the server information and either write or call the company hosting them. However, I find that isn't often necessary.

 

[pop_54]

This is intended as a warning for every author who submits stories to Literoica!
My partner and I have become the victims of plagiarism or more simply theft.

We wrote a beautiful story "The Magic Question" and submitted it to Literotica. It was accepted and received very good reviews. We were proud of the reception that the story received so we thought we would translate it into the German language and put it up for the German section of Literotica.

It was then accepted and once in the German section we received good reviews for the translation there. The German translation is located at http://german.literotica.com/stories/showstory.php?id=179401

Recently, we received a posting in the German language forum asking us to have a look at this story http://german.literotica.com/stories/showstory.php?id=186201
The person that told us of this story had noticed similarities between our story and this one.

In some instances the plagiariser was very clever and some passages were difficult to recognize as ours, but in other passages the plagiariser did it word by word, just like a student cutting and pasting from the Internet.

Our first attempts to right this wrong was to send several protests to the Literotica team but up to now they have reacted in their usual slow lacidazical manner and we have received no reaction from them.

We demand that they investigate this theft and make things right by removing the story from the site.

It looks like the people of Literotica are interested in only covering their own butts when there is some fear that they might have to face prosecution for something is legally copyrighted.

If something is not done to right this wrong, we will have no other choise but to notify the “Good” authors of Literotica and withdraw our stories from this site.

We are very disappointed with Literotica’s reaction.

Lucky sod, no one's ever bothered to plagithingie any of my stories

On a serious note have you contacted the other author either by PM or public comment to their story, accusing him/her of nicking your story. A public comment would probably be best as it would force the matter into public and tell the readers that you have this grievance.

I'm sure Laurel is doing all she can or needs to do on your behalf, but there has been the recent site upgrade so it's possible she's been very busy.

 

[Colleen Thomas]

I had something similar happen when I first started posting to lit. And it took a seemingly inordinantly long time to get it corrected, BUT it did get corrected. hen it is your ork that has been pirated, you feel a just angst and you want immediate action, but that isn't realistic in any way. Your demand that the pirateing author's works be removed is in effect, simply an accusation. that accusation, must be presued, the accused must be contacted, if they are willing to reply, and their side of the story must be heard. After that, investigaion of the two works must be done, and a decision must be rendered that the works are too similar to have occured accidentally.

If you pause for a moment, you will see the problem. If someone accused me of plagirism, how would I feel if I logged in to find my stories removed and my account blocked? If someone did, I would have to be contacted and asked for my side of the story, I would have to be given a reasonable amount of time to respond, if I protested the work was mine, I would have to be given suffcient time to produce proofs, in whatever form I could muster. the publication date on lit is not a dead lock, Ipost elsewhere too. So if someone saw my work on Lickalotapuss.com and grabbed it, then submitted to lit before I did, they would have the inside track with post date, until I could show where they might have stolen it and a post date there that precededs any publication by them.

When you are the victim, it seems to take forever, but if you were the accused and were innocent, you would want a full and fair investigation before action was taken.

I can understand & empathize with the frustration, but at the same time, you have to be patient while the possibilites are explored and the site operators make sure they are acting in the correct manner.

It would seem only fair to send an email to the accused and allow a fair amount of time, say five to ten bussiness days for him/her to respond. If they failed too, a final request with another sufficeint time to respond would seem in order. That's a couple of weeks, at the very least where you are sitting there watching your story under someone elses's name. It has to be agonizing, but it also has to be. this isn't a case where those involved can be quickly confronted, and not allowing the accused time to respond would be wrong.

Laural is a zealous defender of her authors. She is also very fair and has seen it all. I personally saw not too long ago someone from another site demanding an authors work here be removed, as it was obviously a cheap knock off of one of his author's works. A week later he posted apublic apology to the author here, who had provided proof positive the actual plagirist was not himself, but the author on the other site. With such experiences, I think Laural is probably persuing your complaint, but is doing so in a prudent and fair manner and like it or no, that usually takes time.

 

[Lisa Denton]

So if someone saw my work on Lickalotapuss.com and grabbed it, then submitted to lit before I did, they would have the inside track with post date, until I could show where they might have stolen it and a post date there that precededs any publication by them.

.

Colly honey, I was searching for Lickalotapuss.com, uh, well, cause it sounded like a real educational site. I couldn't find it. I got some site wanted to download toolbars and crap. Will you post a link if you didn't make that up?

 

[Lisa Denton]

Btw, I very appreciate the closure of the main porn pic threads.

Yes, close down porn pics threads!!!

What do they think this is? An x-rated site or something?

I hope you were not too traumatized as you clicked on those threads to see what kind of disgusting, perverted pics were posted every day.

Alas, the main porn pic thread was not closed in an attempt to protect your delicate psyche but due to possible hot-linking and copyright concerns.

But rest assured the many viewes and posters of one thead, myself included, appreciate the fact that you will not be subjected to filth and trash such as naked human bodies when you click threads which state the are for "Porn Pics."

Perhaps you can find some dirty words in books down at your neaest public library and have them banned, or heck, just burn them.

I am one who understood the site's concerns and agreed with them finding it necessary to close one thread, but don't quite understand your concerns.

Just my opinion.

 

[N8Dreams]

On a serious note have you contacted the other author either by PM or public comment to their story, accusing him/her of nicking your story. A public comment would probably be best as it would force the matter into public and tell the readers that you have this grievance.

I'm sure Laurel is doing all she can or needs to do on your behalf, but there has been the recent site upgrade so it's possible she's been very busy.

I did all of this, several times. Anyway, thank you for your consoling words. Its a fucking feeling to get plagerized, especially in a bad story.

Colleen, thanks to you too. Unfortunately Im a bit impatient and hot tempered...

 

[MelancholicDreamer]

Yes, close down porn pics threads!!!
What do they think this is? An x-rated site or something?

Lisa, you got me pretty wrong.
Nothing is more beautiful as a human naked body, even showing how mankind does breed.
I adore these perfect bodies and their beauty.
I adore the courage these ppl have.
Its my pleasure to watch them, though I wernt interested in a board like this.
Im far away from any bigotry.

But this thread complaind copyright violation and there I very agree. Really, there are some ppl around who earn their money by these pictures. Its their source of daily income. Unauthorized publishing of their pictures looks quite unfair to me.
Just my opinion.

 

[Lisa Denton]

Lisa, you got me pretty wrong.
Nothing is more beautiful as a human naked body, even showing how mankind does breed.
I adore these perfect bodies and their beauty.
I adore the courage these ppl have.
Its my pleasure to watch them, though I wernt interested in a board like this.
Im far away from any bigotry.

But this thread complaind copyright violation and there I very agree. Really, there are some ppl around who earn their money by these pictures. Its their source of daily income. Unauthorized publishing of their pictures looks quite unfair to me.
Just my opinion.

Sorry if I took it wrong, like I said, I could see the site's concern's over the closing of the one thread, and didn't know anything about the others.

Also my apology to N8Dreams for temporarily getting off topic on the thread, back on the subject, did the other author also post that story in english as you did?

 

[Colleen Thomas]

I did all of this, several times. Anyway, thank you for your consoling words. Its a fucking feeling to get plarerized, especially in a bad story.

Colleen, thanks to you too. Unfortunately Im a bit impatient and hot tempered...

When your work has been stolen, that's totally understandable. I can promise I was nowhere near as understanding when it was my work.

 

[Colleen Thomas]

Colly honey, I was searching for Lickalotapuss.com, uh, well, cause it sounded like a real educational site. I couldn't find it. I got some site wanted to download toolbars and crap. Will you post a link if you didn't make that up?

LOL

Made it up honey, although I have thought of making a site for my self and maning it that

 

[BlackShanglan]

It turns out to me that there had happened a lot of protests without any reaction of Lit. I bet this thread hasnt come up if a short message to the author was sent like "got your protest, I'm working on, be patient". This would be a polite and - essential information.

Submission of new stories is the elexier of life for Lit, if Lit wants not to be a simple forum for exchanging porn pics.
Therefore the protection of author's rights is vitally for Lit.

Therefore also, Lit is swamped in rafts of new stories constantly being submitted for posting. Someone has to read all of them. Yes, in an ideal world, it's nice to have an email acknowledging your complaint while it's still in process. But in an ideal world, I bet Laurel and Manu envision "sleep" as a possibility as well.

They give us an awful lot for absolutely free. I'm not about to go critiquing them for not giving me more, also for free.

(And for the record, I have a plagiarism complaint in on which I have not heard back. So pray don't think this is one of those "easy to say when it's not you" situations.)

Shanglan

 

[Lisa Denton]

LOL

Made it up honey, although I have thought of making a site for my self and naming it that

The name does kinda roll off your tongue, doesn't it. I can't believe I went searching for that site and you had just made up the name (Lisa is whisperin) Don't tell nobody, o.k.?

 

[Virtual_Burlesque]

. . . I was searching for Lickalotapuss.com, uh, well, cause it sounded like a real educational site. . . .

In point of fact, Lisa:


------------------------------------------------------------ (advertizement)---------------------------------------------------------------


Rachels Pleasures, a division of Wylde Enterprises does market a product called Lick-A-Lot-A-Puss which they claim is for “the Hungry Cunnilingus Connoisseurs seeking the ultimate in oral pleasures.”


Because a dirty mind is a terrible thing to waste.

 

[dAYoFdREAMING]

I have read all of your postings with great interest and I can understand your coming to the aid and protection of our benefactor, Laurel. But, I’m afraid you have all missed the point.

If the narratives we produce were a child, we would expect the greatest of care to be taken of that child by other people when it is in their charge. We wouldn’t expect the child to be taken, cloned and the clone then to be taken away to another country and finally shown to the crowd, in the other country, as the perpetrators own.

We trust that our stories, when posted on any site will be protected. It is an unwritten covenant between the site owner (the publisher) and the poster (the author) that

A) The story will be the author’s work.
B) The Publisher will protect the author’s work.

That’s why we publish through Literotica.

I agree with your sentiments that we should be patient but a waiting time of more than fourteen days before looking into testing the author’s complaint isn’t acceptable. When a child goes missing you only have to wait twenty-four hours.

A first response from any publisher on any site should take no more that 24 hours. Even if they don’t actually check out the complaint for a month. Without any response from the publisher the author will feel foolish and annoyed. I believe this is not Laurel’s intention.

I’m afraid that we, as authors, must take more responsibility as well. We must be more diligent in policing our own work. As well as notifying other authors when we find these kind of similarities.

If we want Literotica to retain its integrity we must become a volunteer “Plagiarism Police”.

 

[oggbashan]

I am sorry that you consider that Literotica has failed you.

However it is a fact of the internet that anyone can copy your posted story at any time. You own the copyright but only you can take action against someone who steals your work.

Literotica does try to prevent plaigarism but they do not have the resources to pursue everyone who downloads from this site. Even commercial sites (and this is a FREE site) fail to stop copying of their stories, pictures and videos. There is a limit to what can be done to protect intellectual property posted where it can be seen.

I include a copyright notice at the start of most of my stories here. That has not stopped my work being stolen and posted on thousands of sites around the world. I am surprised where some of it is posted but I do not have the power or money to pursue every theft.

The only way to stop your work being stolen is NEVER to publish. Even if it is printed in a book it can be scanned and reproduced. Some Far East countries duplicate books on an industrial scale and the forgery of CDs and DVDs is very lucrative. If the big companies cannot stop the theft, Literotica has little chance except by persuasion.

I am sorry. Either don't publish, or accept that your work will be stolen. There is no protection that works except vast amounts of money.

Og

 

[MelancholicDreamer]

...Also my apology to N8Dreams for temporarily getting off topic on the thread, back on the subject, did the other author also post that story in english as you did?

Sadly Im not N8Dreams co-author as you might believe, but I know for sure, the plagerized story was only posted in German.

It might be on some interest for you that in German erotic writng is much more difficult and more sophisticated than in English. German is in terrible lack of pretty words for all things refferring to beautiful sex (dont laugh) and a translation from English to German is a very difficult task if you want to keep the atmosphere.

It turns out to me that N8Dreams has recognized just this problem very well and is working on it, shown by an other essay she submitted in German (How to do) dealing with the difficulties of German and English language in erotic poetry.

N8Dreams has invented new pictures and new terms for bringing her story from English to German. Just these special pictures and phrases got stolen and I'm pretty convinced this is the point that made her so wild.
Any translation back to English of these terms and pictures will never work.