Blogging and Plagiarism

[T'Keira Lea]

There was an interesting case of plagiarism that's set Twitter afire. It's a visible YA Book blog and here's what happened if you're interested.

(via Smart Bitches <3 Trashy Books)

[FelsGoddess]

I've had articles lifted and re-posted other places without permission. It's hard to fight. It costs writers and editors hard-earned money. It doesn't increase exposure. It kills creditability and affects internet search results, which in turn lowers ad and site revenue. Lower revenue means writers are let go. Anyone who participates in lifting articles without permission or plagiarism deserves the public thrashing and any legal action that occurs.

This post has been edited by FelsGoddess on Apr 25 2012, 07:59 PM

[T'Keira Lea]

You had that happen?!?

It's bizarre how plagiarists react - it's always sort of a "I didn't mean to do that" to outrage at the accuser, then defend mode, then "whoops, sorry, I'll go crawl in my hole"

[Darth Lex]

Wow, that YA situation is astounding!

Sorry it's happened to you, FG.

[FelsGoddess]

It happened at my old job. A fair number of us writers' work was lifted by several websites. I remember there was one website that whoever ran it claimed they wrote the work. The site I worked for had complete ownership of the articles. Most of the offenders took everything down after they were caught and contacted. I don't know how much money was lost from the whole ordeal, but traffic was affected.

Plagiarists make me sick. I remember pulling up one of the websites. I read the introduction and knew that it was mine. Word for word plagiarism. It's horrible enough to copy, but to claim that the work is yours when it's not is down right despicable.

[oldjedinurse]

All of this is outrageous - but sadly, not surprising.

So sorry you've been a victim, Fels. I suppose its a twisted compliment when someone thinks your work is worth stealing.



That's pretty cold comfort, though.

[Shinar]

There was a really huge plagerism blow-up in the WoW world last year, a blogger was lifting whole pages of customized strategies and builds from some very famous and well-known bloggers. When she was caught the reaction was exactly the same: denial, covering up, blame game, pointing fingers, you name it It got very ugly there for awhile.

I'm so sorry this happened to you FG

[FelsGoddess]

Thanks all.

That's horrible! Did she remove the content, Shinar?

[Shinar]

That blogger is gone entirely. After things really got heated (two of the most popular bloggers publicly called her out posting damning evidence) she shut her page down. I heard for awhile she tried a new blog under a different name but eventually that one died as well.

The WoW blogging community tends to be a very close knit one, the blogger was fairly new and had very little original content of her own. She got caught very fast (I forget how old her site was, maybe a only a couple of months).

[Shinar]

I guess it was a year and a half ago, my timing is a little off. Unfortunately one of the sites involved was recently hacked and since the author hasn't been active lately (she just had her first child) she decided to take the site down all together. Sad day for druid blogging

But here are links to two of the other bloggers that spoke up about it:

http://www.restokin.com/2010/10/stealing-is-always-bad/

http://dreambound-druid.blogspot.com/2010/...plagiarize.html

All eight of the 'excuses' in Kae's post (Dreambound) came straight from Keeva's post (Tree Bark Jacket, the main victim of the plagiarizer). Those are all 'reasons' the plagerizing blogger gave to Keeva when she was talking to Keeva trying to get out of trouble. Very nearly direct quotes.

As a bit of perspective on how big Liss is (Lissana at Restokin), she's considered one of the premier WoW bloggers out there. She's an MVP (Most Valuable Poster) at the official WoW forums and personally knows enough folks at Blizzard that she apparently got into the Friend and Family Alpha. It would be kind of like pissing off Ashley Eckstein.

[T'Keira Lea]

Interesting how bloggers self-police. Good for them.

[Darth Lex]

Wow that's some crazy stuff!

Guess it shows up in all kinds of fandoms, huh?