Plagiarism: the Ultimate Flattery?

[Susscrofa]

When searching for one of my own stories online, I happened upon another online erotic story whose content was basically cribbed from mine.

At first, I was a little irked by it, but since my story was posted under a pseudonym in the public domain, with no profit involved, no harm, no foul. More importantly, I was very flattered that someone liked the style and/or content of what I wrote to use it as his/her own, i.e. imitation (including outright plagiarism) is the sincerest form of flattery.

Specifically, a great deal of my short erotic story "A Night Along the River" (a fictionalized account of my first time)

https://www.literotica.com/s/a-night-along-the-river

was recycled into this guy's story a couple of years later. The characters' names and the setup leading to the encounter were changed, but the last 2/3 of the piece are otherwise taken almost word for word from what I had written:

https://lapetitemort17.wordpress.com/2018/09/20/wildwood-daze-lola-chapter-4/

I found this kind of amusing, and I'm wondering how many Literotica writers here have had a similar experiences with their own works - not just being reposted somewhere else, but used as a cut and paste in somebody else's work?

 

[WoodmanStark]

Imitation is sometimes considered flattery.
Plagiarism is theft.

 

[oggbashan]

After all the years I've been on Literotica and Yahoo Adult Groups before that, my stories have appeared all over the internet, sometimes in translation.

For some reason my stories seem popular in Czech and Cantonese.

 

[Susscrofa]

Imitation is sometimes considered flattery.
Plagiarism is theft.

I suppose so, but I really can't get too upset about it because it isn't as though I lost any money (none made by either party) or reputation (both writing with a pseudonym) from the theft.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I'd go to that site, leave a review, and shame the guy. A straight lift of text is theft, plain and simple.

 

[Handley_Page]

I'd go to that site, leave a review, and shame the guy. A straight lift of text is theft, plain and simple.

'Ere, 'Ere
It's not on.

 

[Ada Stuart]

When searching for one of my own stories online, I happened upon another online erotic story whose content was basically cribbed from mine.

At first, I was a little irked by it, but since my story was posted under a pseudonym in the public domain, with no profit involved, no harm, no foul. More importantly, I was very flattered that someone liked the style and/or content of what I wrote to use it as his/her own, i.e. imitation (including outright plagiarism) is the sincerest form of flattery.

Specifically, a great deal of my short erotic story "A Night Along the River" (a fictionalized account of my first time)

https://www.literotica.com/s/a-night-along-the-river

was recycled into this guy's story a couple of years later. The characters' names and the setup leading to the encounter were changed, but the last 2/3 of the piece are otherwise taken almost word for word from what I had written:

https://lapetitemort17.wordpress.com/2018/09/20/wildwood-daze-lola-chapter-4/

I found this kind of amusing, and I'm wondering how many Literotica writers here have had a similar experiences with their own works - not just being reposted somewhere else, but used as a cut and paste in somebody else's work?

I have experienced this. A member on Wattpad took one of my romantic werewolf stories - copied word for word - and added a different ending. I was not amused at all since the add-on was really hardcore stuff that didn't fit at all. And of course, this person never even mentioned where she'd grabbed it and from whom.

I reported the story and it was taken down. And that member blocked me.

There are countless of others on Wattpad that copy-paste directly from Lit and publish it as their own book. But sometimes they add the text "None of these stories are mine. I copied them from Literotica.com". And they don't even know that it's wrong - or pretend not to know. Instead they feel insulted when I want them to either remove my story or at least ask if it's okay that they copy it.

But, it seems hopeless to remove everything so I agree with the solution to add a comment as to where the reader can find the original

Well, unless they try to make money on it... then it's time to stop them.

 

[amofiga]

I have always assumed that since we don't really have any copywrite protection here, there will be a lot of copying. I don't really care about the one-chapter stories. My biggest concern with a couple of my multi-chapter "novels" and one I'm currently working on that may run to 20 chapters. I fear that someone could take it and actually publish for $$$ through some other outlet. Why don't I? Because I don't want to mess with all the issues of dealing with Amazon or other outlets. I have a friend that is a writer that publishes through Amazon and despite the work and aggravation, she hardly makes enough to make it worthwhile.

I also have to consider that some of the stories I post here under one name, I also post on Fetlife under a different name. ONCE in over 10 years I got a comment on Fet of, "Hey, did you steal this from Lit?" I had to explain that I have two different names for the two sites. I wasn't stealing a story.

In any case, I figure intentional plagiarists are just another form of scumbag. It's just something to live with when you're publishing here. In some cases, it's possible to do a story that is very similar to somebody else's since I've heard it said that there are really only "seven plots" in the world. How often has "Romeo and Juliette" been done as "West Side Story" or something else.

 

[KeithD]

Reality is that you've lost control of your work the moment you decide to post it here for free access. And the fact that you have posted it here for free access means that, legally, you've valued it at zero worth and, effectively, have dropped it into the public domain--because that's how the legal system, not wanting to get bogged down in any of this, defines it.

My response, being more interested in having it read than financially profiting from it, is to release it to the marketplace first--before anyone could find it anywhere and have a chance to release it themselves--and sometime later, after it's had its go, whatever that will be, posting it more broadly for a broader-based readership. And then just let what happens to it be. There's a whole hell of a lot of it; it's a renewable resource, not a grandchild.

If you can't tolerate it being swiped from here and posted elsewhere, without attribution, don't post it here. Doing so was a decision you took responsibility for.

 

[Ada Stuart]

My biggest concern with a couple of my multi-chapter "novels" and one I'm currently working on that may run to 20 chapters. I fear that someone could take it and actually publish for $$$ through some other outlet. Why don't I? Because I don't want to mess with all the issues of dealing with Amazon or other outlets. I have a friend that is a writer that publishes through Amazon and despite the work and aggravation, she hardly makes enough to make it worthwhile.

I have to agree with KeithD on that one: You should publish it yourself on Amazon first before launching it here.

And I don't think it's that much fuss to publish. The first time, yes, but after a while it's a lot easier than I thought it would be. These days I publish on Amazon, Smashwords and Google Play in just a day, and in multiple file formats. Well, you do have to prepare a cover and a brief description but that gets easier with practise

My response, being more interested in having it read than financially profiting from it, is to release it to the marketplace first--before anyone could find it anywhere and have a chance to release it themselves--and sometime later, after it's had its go, whatever that will be, posting it more broadly for a broader-based readership.

Thanks for the reminder and the good advice, KeithD You just solved my current problem about a longer story I planned to publish here. Guess I'll publish it next year instead

 

[KeithD]

I can empathize with the reluctance to doing all of the work yourself to self-publish to Amazon. I don't do that. I go through e-publishers for everything sent to the marketplace. A lot less profit to me, but I don't need money. I need to write. Using publishers to do everything but the writing/reviewing frees me to write three times as much in the same time that others are using to entirely self-publish. So, the profit angle (never much per work any way you cut it) equals out and I have three works in the marketplace for ever work a self-publisher has there.

The publishers I use let me be as involved in the production as I want to be. Just now I approved the cover for my latest anthology ("Music of the Night," soon to be released to the marketplace and advertised here). The publisher did the grunt work on it, but I selected the cover image.

I also approved a release list of works in production with a publisher today--seven works already with the publisher in various stages of completion. Nearly three quarters of a million words. If I had to do all of the work myself in getting those in the marketplace, it would probably take two and a half years. Using a publisher, the projected release date for the last of those seven is January 2021.