Please Help Report Plagiarism


The situation has been resolved.

Thank you to all of the people who helped report, sent emails and spread the word. The authors appreciate it, and the fandom appreciates it as well.


Hello,

I'm reaching out to you today to ask that you please help report a plagiarist. Plagiarism affects us all, and we writers need to band together to assist one another when these things happen. Please, report these stories and share this post to get as many people working on this as possible.

The books have been stolen from indie authors, the character names changed, and then posted as the plagiarizer's own work on fanfiction.com. I have contacted the authors whose work was stolen and they're shocked and bewildered by this situation.

This situation has continued for five days (since Wednesday morning, the 6th), despite multiple reports to FFN. Thursday night, we reported another plagiarizer, and the stories were removed within hours. However, those authors were from the big publishing houses, and yes, I'm a little cynical that the indie authors haven't received as prompt attention as the authors from The Big Six.

I'm asking that you add your voices to the mix. Hopefully, if we can get enough complaints, we can get this situation rectified. To report the story, click on the plagiarized version in the links below. On the bottom left, there is a pull-down menu which allows you to report abuse. When the box pops up, select the option which states the story is not the property of the uploading user. Then, paste the URL of the real author's story in the box so they can easily confirm the plagiarism.

You need to report each story individually, unfortunately. FFN does not have an option for simply reporting a user. You can report the story as many times as you like.

You can also send an email to support@fanfiction.com. Put the tag "[Abuse]" in the subject field. You could include my list below to save time. Please note in your email that these are COPYRIGHTED stories being stolen and some of the authors are considering legal action if they're not removed promptly. Again, this situation has persisted for more than 48 hours, and FFN can find themselves legally culpable if they did not act to remove copyrighted material after they were made aware of it.

Thank you in advance for your help defending the rights of other indie authors.

After some research, we determined that fifteen of the sixteen stories on the plagiarist's profile were stolen from other authors: http://www.fanfiction.net/u/2371294/Bella5755

1. “This One was Just Right” is stolen from She’s Just Right by Diane Darcy http://www.amazon.com/Shes-Right-Fairy-Romance-ebook/dp/B0055V3R1I/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_3

2. “An Unexpected Event” is stolen from Sophia Sharp http://www.amazon.com/Shattered-Dream-Realms-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B0056U9X20

3. “Second Chances” is stolen from The Doctor Wears a Stetson by Anne Marie Novarkhttp://www.amazon.com/The-Doctor-Wears-Stetson-Diamondback/dp/1479225703

4. “Vampire Lover Book 2” is stolen from Night Breed by Loraine Kennedy http://www.amazon.com/Night-Breed-Immortal-Destiny-Book/dp/1463793111

5. “Angel Eyes” is stolen from The Ylem by Tatiana Vila http://www.amazon.com/Ylem-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B004XTKGQW

6. “The Edge of Darkness” is stolen from Shades of Twilight by Martin Sharlow. http://www.amazon.com/Shades-Twilight-Martin-C-Sharlow/dp/1453773657/

7. “Are You Going to Kiss Me or Not” is stolen from Tuned into Love by Karen Jerabek: http://www.amazon.com/Tuned-In-Love-perfect-ebook/dp/B0053YIHHQ/

8. “Outlaw” is Indian Outlaw by Lorraine Kennedy http://www.amazon.com/Indian-Outlaw-Paranormal-Romance-ebook/dp/B004OL2XP6/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_4

9. “The One” is stolen from Vampire Mine by Paige Warren http://www.amazon.com/Vampire-Mine-ebook/dp/B004V9XTL8

10. “My Vampire Lover” is stolen from Born to Darkness by Loraine Kennedy http://www.amazon.com/Darkness-Immortal-Destiny-Series-ebook/dp/B004SOYUR8

11. “Dream Guy” is stolen from Meant To Be by Tiffany King http://www.amazon.com/Meant-Saving-Angels-book-ebook/dp/B004SCS6V6

12. “Shades of Twilight” is stolen from Jayden’s Faith by Emma Daniels: http://www.amazon.com/JAYDENS-FAITH-ebook/dp/B005LPVRJ2

13. “Haunted Cottage” is stolen from Ghost of a Chance by Emma Daniels http://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Of-Chance-Emma-Daniels/dp/1409288838

14. “The Cursed Canyon: is stolen from Lost and Found by Lori Devoti http://www.amazon.com/Found-vampire-romance-bundle-ebook/dp/B003LSTE46

15. “Bella and the Royal Sheikh” is stolen from The Royal Sheikh by Katheryn Lane.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Royal-Sheikh-ebook/dp/B0052ZIQEK

Again, thank you for your time and for supporting your fellow indie writers.

Lissa
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12 comments:

  1. Crimson AtlanteanFebruary 9, 2013 at 6:49 PM

    Sad to hear that written work from indie authors were stolen and that fanfiction.com won't treat these authors the same way as work from big publishers. There needs to be something done about this problem to ensure that the creator of any artistic work is treated with the respect and recognition that they deserve.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lissa BryanFebruary 9, 2013 at 7:08 PM

      My thoughts exactly. Copyright is copyright, regardless of whether it's backed by a rich company or a small company, or even a self-published author.

      And that's why I'm going after this so fiercely. EVERY author, big or small, needs to know other writers have their backs. We're all members of the Brotherhood of Ink and we need to protect other authors' rights as diligently as we would our own.

      Delete
  2. credorosaFebruary 10, 2013 at 11:16 AM

    This is a shame, she is also getting graphic artists to make banners for her. She posted the links on her FF profile displaying them on Freewriters and Readers. I sent the link to Sarita Dreaming who is one of the admins there.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lissa BryanFebruary 10, 2013 at 11:57 AM

      She should be off FreeWriters. The admin said she was banning her.

      Delete
  3. BethFebruary 10, 2013 at 12:02 PM

    Is it just from this fan fiction site, or are there others? I've heard of this happening to people at Amazon as well, although I'm not sure how these other author's figured out that their work was being plagurized...

    It's a shame that this sort of thing is happening. We may find, as Indie author's, that some of these sites (even Amazon) might make it more difficult to publish with them. Maybe that's not such a bad thing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lissa BryanFebruary 10, 2013 at 12:14 PM

      This is just regarding the fanfiction site.

      I've suggested that the authors do a search just to make sure their work isn't posted elsewhere. The easiest way to do this is to take a line from the story--one which doesn't include names, since those are likely to have been changed--and put it in quotation marks in a Google search. If the work has been posted elsewhere, it should find it. That's how I determined the books had been plagiarized by this fanfic poster.

      This is the kind of thing that could have serious consequences for fanfiction as a whole. Fanfic exists in a sort of legal gray area, as it is. The sites have to show themselves willing to defend the rights of authors when plagiarism pops up, or they could find themselves in legal hot water.

      Delete
  4. AnonymousFebruary 10, 2013 at 5:50 PM

    the person's page might have to brought to the attention of the Eliminator and Critics United. they seem to get the site's attention when they report

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lissa BryanFebruary 10, 2013 at 6:04 PM

      I don't know anyone from either group, so I'll just hope they see a post. That's how this came to the attention of the plagiarism group on FFN:

      http://www.fanfiction.net/forum/The-Plagiarism-Report/124913/

      Delete
  5. AnonymousFebruary 10, 2013 at 6:17 PM

    i know the one of the members of Critics United reviewed one of the stories. now if the author/thief does not do anything after a few days then it will be posted in Critics United's forum for the other members to report it

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lissa BryanFebruary 10, 2013 at 6:20 PM

      Thank you.

      If you would, you might refer some of them to the plagiarism board I mentioned above. They're looking for members and are swamped with reports. If nothing else, it would be good information for the groups. The fellow who runs it, HorusTheAvenger, seems diligent in investigating the reports before taking action.

      Delete
  6. AnonymousFebruary 10, 2013 at 6:19 PM

    i would really hate for fanfiction.net to get in trouble over one person's account on there

    ReplyDelete
  7. Lissa BryanFebruary 10, 2013 at 7:22 PM

    Possible positive sign... A friend posted this on Facebook:

    "We have confirmed the abuse and the offending account/stories have been removed.

    Please note the deletion is final but due to caching, the stories belonging to this account might still how up on the public site for a few hours.

    Thank you for the report.

    Zack"

    ReplyDelete

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