Why do people plagiarize?!!!

[Elianna]

GRRRRR....
So I just Googled one of the characters in my story... Alexander LeGaulle, and what do I find? Someone took my FIRST 2 CHAPTERS of "FALLING INTO DARKNESS" title and all, and posted it as their own story on Quizilla.

Please look at the link here

http://www.quizilla.com/stories/7284006/falling-into-darkness

I've sent an email to the site administrator about it. I mean they stole 2 whole chapters...(they couldn't steal ch 3 because they're not allowed to post anything erotic on the site) BUT STILL!!!!!

Then I went down a little further, and someone has Chapter 3 posted word for word on their Blog site as a fantasy piece with some visuals.

http://nudecarmenelectra.blogspot.com/2008/03/leelee-sobieski-in-nude-julian-mcmahon.html

Now the blogger didn't claim the work was their own, but still... it's implied. Anyone know what to do here? I know some of you have also had stuff stolen. I feel so... violated.

It makes me not want to post anymore.

 

[FatDino]

Hire the FBI to track them down, then have Al Quaeda plane-crash their homes?

 

[Elianna]

Hire the FBI to track them down, then have Al Quaeda plane-crash their homes?

If only. Actually I prefer the perps on the ground groveling and saying. "I'm so sorry Elianna. I shouldn't have stolen. Look I'll cut my right hand off so I won't do it again."

The worst thing is... they're people from HERE! This is the ONLY place I post.

 

[FatDino]

Well, at least, yours are worth stolen.

Think of the bright side.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Why? Laziness and total lack of talent . . . and they know it!

 

[Elianna]

Well, at least, yours are worth stolen.

Think of the bright side.

Yeah. Great. Please. Just help yourself.

I love posting, but I hate the "just raped" feeling (not that I know exactly how raped feels) you get when you see someone else claiming they wrote it.

Okay. I'm over it now.

I'm really just asking if there is anything I can do to PREVENT this from occurring in the future. I might want to send things off to see if a publisher might like them someday. I don't want someone stealing them and doing so first. How do you protect yourself... other than never posting online?

 

[neonlyte]

Posting on-line implies copyright to the poster of original content.

PM Laurel (see header threads on AH) with details of infringement, she usually manages to have them removed.

Good Luck.

 

[Elianna]

Posting on-line implies copyright to the poster of original content.

PM Laurel (see header threads on AH) with details of infringement, she usually manages to have them removed.

Good Luck.

You're a doll.

I'll have to see if the person stealing has the same username here. But I will PM Laurel anyway.

 

[starrkers]

What makes you think they're even a member here? Anyone can see the stories, anyone can copy/paste.

 

[Elianna]

What makes you think they're even a member here? Anyone can see the stories, anyone can copy/paste.

True. I really HOPE it wasn't someone who is part of the community. This place has been so supportive and it breaks my heart to see this kind of crap happen. Human kind never ceases to dissapoint me.

 

[Tricialen]

Just wanted you to know that I sent an Email to the webmaster there and told them that your story was stolen and to do something about it.

I hate thiefs. It is so dirty and rotten to do that when you spend so much of yourself to write it.

I hope they do take it off.....

 

[sr71plt]

Posting on-line implies copyright to the poster of original content.

PM Laurel (see header threads on AH) with details of infringement, she usually manages to have them removed.

Good Luck.

Umm, copyright has no relationship to posting anywhere. Copyright is established by creating it; unfortunately, however, copyright ownership in law (in the United States) is established only by actually registering the copyright. You can't get a court date without a copyright registration in hand.

 

[Elianna]

Just wanted you to know that I sent an Email to the webmaster there and told them that your story was stolen and to do something about it.

I hate thiefs. It is so dirty and rotten to do that when you spend so much of yourself to write it.

I hope they do take it off.....

Thanks. I think if we can get people innundating them with emails they'll remove it.

Umm, copyright has no relationship to posting anywhere. Copyright is established by creating it; unfortunately, however, copyright ownership in law (in the United States) is established only by actually registering the copyright. You can't get a court date without a copyright registration in hand.

Ok Sr... so here's the question. Currently I can't even THINK about publishing this because of my job. Not a good idea. However, it's always been one of my dreams and my response here has been far better than I expected.

Are you telling me someone can legally steal this sucker and then publish it under their name claiming it was their work?


Interesting... this is what the site says about copyright:

If I submit a story to Literotica, do I still own the copyright?

Absolutely. You are simply granting us a non-exclusive right to post your story on Literotica.com. All rights to the story still belong to you, the author.

 

[neonlyte]

Umm, copyright has no relationship to posting anywhere. Copyright is established by creating it; unfortunately, however, copyright ownership in law (in the United States) is established only by actually registering the copyright. You can't get a court date without a copyright registration in hand.

That is why I said 'implies' rather than confers.

 

[sr71plt]

Ok Sr... so here's the question. Currently I can't even THINK about publishing this because of my job. Not a good idea. However, it's always been one of my dreams and my response here has been far better than I expected.

Are you telling me someone can legally steal this sucker and then publish it under their name claiming it was their work?


Interesting... this is what the site says about copyright:

If I submit a story to Literotica, do I still own the copyright?

Absolutely. You are simply granting us a non-exclusive right to post your story on Literotica.com. All rights to the story still belong to you, the author.

A. You don't have to THINK about publishing it; if it's posted on this Web site, it's been published already. And, as this thread illustrates, posting to a Web site leaves you wide open to theft that you can rarely find and even more rarely do anything about (in real life). You can always bluster and bluff and that might work.

B. No, no one can "legally" steal your sucker (unless they've registered it with the U.S. copyright office and you haven't). You just can't get into a court to sue anyone for stealing your sucker (in the United States) unless one of the parties involved has a copyright registration form in hand (which is proof of ownership--if both parties have a registration form, the one with the earliest date will be considered the legal owner).

By U.S. copyright law, the work is yours as soon as you have created it. The kicker is that there's no way to legally/effectively assert it's yours (in the United States) unless you registered it with the U.S. copyright office. So, in practical terms, you can't legally get any redress unless you hold a copyright registration on it. (And to get that, you have to apply for it and pay $35--although you could register a bunch of stories as an anthology for the $35.)

(In the UK, this is trickier--because the UK has no copyright office/formal copyright procedure. You would have to go through more hoops to prove it's yours in a court of law there.)

Most writers have no concept at all of how copyright works in the real world. They assume they are protected when, in practical terms, they aren't. The law was written as protecting the work upon conception, but nothing was put into effect to back up that law short of formal registration.

 

[Elianna]

So I did some research....

Do I Need to Register?
Your works of art, music, etc, all have copyright protection with or without formal copyright registration with the Library of Congress or any other copyright office. However, copyright registration adds proof of copyright ownership and aids you in fighting copyright infringement. Copyright literally means the right to copy.
In general, copyright registration is a legal formality intended to make a public record of the basic facts of a particular copyright. However, registration is not a condition of copyright protection.
Even though registration is not a requirement for protection, the copyright law provides several inducements or advantages to encourage copyright owners to make registration.

Advantages of Copyright Registration
Copyright registration establishes a public record of the copyright claim.
Before an infringement suit may be filed in court, copyright registration is necessary for works of U.S. origin.
If made before or within five years of publication, copyright registration will establish prima facie evidence in court of the validity of the copyright and of the facts stated in the certificate.
If copyright registration is made within three months after publication of the work or prior to an infringement of the work, statutory damages and attorney's fees will be available to the copyright owner in court actions. Otherwise, only an award of actual damages and profits is available to the copyright owner.
Copyright registration allows the owner of the copyright to record the registration with the U. S. Customs Service for protection against the importation of infringing copies.

This was taken verbatum from
http://inventors.about.com/od/copyrights/a/copyright.htm
accessed 6/4/08

I guess I interpret this to mean that I DO have a copyright to my own work, however without the document it's tough to sue in court. Not that I think my story is so great that it's worth all that, but some of the stories on here are. So I suggest if you really think your story is worth something, you might want to look into getting a copyright.

 

[sr71plt]

That is why I said 'implies' rather than confers.

"Implies" is false comfort. It has no legal/practical/real effect.

 

[Elianna]

B. No, no one can "legally" steal your sucker (unless they've registered it with the U.S. copyright office and you haven't). You just can't get into a court to sue anyone for stealing your sucker (in the United States) unless one of the parties involved has a copyright registration form in hand (which is proof of ownership--if both parties have a registration form, the one with the earliest date will be considered the legal owner).

Do you know how much you just amused me?

Yeah. I guess we both posted the same info at close to the same time. Oh well. I think my current job will make me more money than my little erotic vampire story.

It's just the principle of the thing. And then if someone really does steal my "sucker" and make money... I will be sad.

 

[sr71plt]

So I did some research....

Do I Need to Register?
Your works of art, music, etc, all have copyright protection with or without formal copyright registration with the Library of Congress or any other copyright office. However, copyright registration adds proof of copyright ownership and aids you in fighting copyright infringement. Copyright literally means the right to copy.
In general, copyright registration is a legal formality intended to make a public record of the basic facts of a particular copyright. However, registration is not a condition of copyright protection.
Even though registration is not a requirement for protection, the copyright law provides several inducements or advantages to encourage copyright owners to make registration.

Advantages of Copyright Registration
Copyright registration establishes a public record of the copyright claim.
Before an infringement suit may be filed in court, copyright registration is necessary for works of U.S. origin.
If made before or within five years of publication, copyright registration will establish prima facie evidence in court of the validity of the copyright and of the facts stated in the certificate.
If copyright registration is made within three months after publication of the work or prior to an infringement of the work, statutory damages and attorney's fees will be available to the copyright owner in court actions. Otherwise, only an award of actual damages and profits is available to the copyright owner.
Copyright registration allows the owner of the copyright to record the registration with the U. S. Customs Service for protection against the importation of infringing copies.

This was taken verbatum from
http://inventors.about.com/od/copyrights/a/copyright.htm
accessed 6/4/08

I guess I interpret this to mean that I DO have a copyright to my own work, however without the document it's tough to sue in court. Not that I think my story is so great that it's worth all that, but some of the stories on here are. So I suggest if you really think your story is worth something, you might want to look into getting a copyright.

*Sigh* It's not "tough to sue in court"--it's impossible. Since you can't pursue a legal suit in court without a registration in hand, of course there's no real protection (and no day in court) short of having a formal registration form in hand (which anyone who steals your work can apply for just as well as you can. The U.S. copyright office doesn't investigate competing claims).

You can feel protected if you like--but you are not protected without a registration form in hand. Anything short of that means squat. They passed a law indicating protection that they gave no actual teeth to.

This isn't much of a problem in the print world, because a publisher will file for copyright before anyone else even knows about the work. When you post to an electronic Web site, however, you have no real protections if you haven't registered the work (and who does that?). And in the porn industry, theft is rampant; it's not the most moral of worlds.

So, if you post to a Web site like this, you are completely open to having your work ripped off. You might as well resolve yourself to that happening with little you can do about it--or just don't post here.

 

[Elianna]

*Sigh* It's not "tough to sue in court"--it's impossible.

Alas... someone missed the sarcasm in my gross understatement.

Yes. You're right. I'm screwed... and not in a nice way, though some people on this site like it that way.
Hell. Some like to be screwed unwillingly. They LOVE it.

I suppose I should just be resigned to the fact that people will steal, and I won't publish or copyright because I make a hell of a lot more doing what I do than I ever would writing little porn stories. But...

I'm going to harass the shit out of people I catch! Damnit!

 

[sr71plt]

The horse's mouth on the requirement to have registration in hand to pursue a copyright infringement court case (from article 411 of the U.S. Copyright Law, as posted on the U.S. Copyright Office Web site at www.copyright.gov):

"(a) Except for an action brought for a violation of the rights of the author under section 106A(a), and subject to the provisions of subsection (b), no action for infringement of the copyright in any United States work shall be instituted until preregistration or registration of the copyright claim has been made in accordance with this title."

 

[sr71plt]

Alas... someone missed the sarcasm in my gross understatement.

Yes. You're right. I'm screwed... and not in a nice way, though some people on this site like it that way.
Hell. Some like to be screwed unwillingly. They LOVE it.

I suppose I should just be resigned to the fact that people will steal, and I won't publish or copyright because I make a hell of a lot more doing what I do than I ever would writing little porn stories. But...

I'm going to harass the shit out of people I catch! Damnit!

Sorry, I didn't catch that you were being sarcastic about this . . . because, in fact, we have thread after thread here of posters not wanting to believe that reality is reality on this topic. I thought you were just another one of those.

Harassing the shit out of thieves and bluffing them is probably the closest thing to success you can count on.

 

[Elianna]

Harassing the shit out of thieves and bluffing them is probably the closest thing to success you can count on.

Yesssss
And I think I will put a little note to my fans to torment as well...

Perhaps we should create a link called:

SEEK AND DESTROY
where you post the site that stole your work, and then directions on how to innundate that site with complaints and to harrass the thief until they remove your stuff. (Though in some cases, as I have seen on this site, some people are like puppies and they enjoy any attention, even negative attention. In fact, they get off on it.) But... I bet something like that would work for the "weekend plagiarist." And we'd be supporting each other, too.

Just a thought.

 

[neonlyte]

The horse's mouth on the requirement to have registration in hand to pursue a copyright infringement court case (from article 411 of the U.S. Copyright Law, as posted on the U.S. Copyright Office Web site at www.copyright.gov):

"(a) Except for an action brought for a violation of the rights of the author under section 106A(a), and subject to the provisions of subsection (b), no action for infringement of the copyright in any United States work shall be instituted until preregistration or registration of the copyright claim has been made in accordance with this title."

I would have thought that implied exactly the opposite of what you claim. Whilst it remains advantageous to have author copyright registration, application of registration is impractical given the volume of creative writing. Authors are free to pursue copyright infringement in Civil Court, with or without the US Registrar of Copyright, as the rest of #411 makes clear.

 

[SweetPrettyAss]

Yesssss
And I think I will put a little note to my fans to torment as well...

Perhaps we should create a link called:

SEEK AND DESTROY
where you post the site that stole your work, and then directions on how to innundate that site with complaints and to harrass the thief until they remove your stuff. (Though in some cases, as I have seen on this site, some people are like puppies and they enjoy any attention, even negative attention. In fact, they get off on it.) But... I bet something like that would work for the "weekend plagiarist." And we'd be supporting each other, too.

Just a thought.

We did something like that here:
http://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?t=592247