RogueMudblood, one of our members who also fights plagiarism on ff.net, recently posted the following advice for anyone who finds their story being plagiarized on that site:

The complaint needs to be sent to copyright [at] fanfiction [dot] com, with the subject "Copyright Infringement Notification".


To Whom It May Concern,

I have discovered that my (short story/poem/novel), [insert story title], has been altered and posted without my permission by a writer on www.FanFiction.net named [insert plagiarist penname] [insert plagiarist profile link]. I am from [insert country you're from].

My original fan fiction short story can be found here: [insert your story link]. I published it on [insert publishing date].

Her/His plagiarized copy can be found here:

[insert link to plagiarized copy]. S/He published it on [insert plagiarized story date].

Copyright law in the United States implies that even a derivative work (which mine is) that cannot be sold enjoys some protection from copyright infringement. We can see this in the realm of approved derivative works such as tie-in novels. I realize this is still a gray area, and is disputed in many venues. However, until a definite ruling comes down which removes fan fiction entirely from under the copyright umbrella, I will claim what rights I do have. [Use this ONLY if your work is also fanfiction AND if you are from the US. Delete if your work is original.]

You may reach me at my email address: [your email address - that you don't mind a thief having].

I have a good faith belief that the use of the copyrighted work described above is not authorized by the copyright owner (or by a third party who is legally entitled to do so on behalf of the copyright owner) and is otherwise not permitted by law.

I swear that the information contained in this notification is accurate and that I am the copyright owner or have an exclusive right in law to bring infringement proceedings with respect to its use.

Thank you. I look forward to a timely resolution to this matter.

Signed: [Your name]

The bits about the good faith belief and the notification being accurate are required to be in the notice.

According to Rogue, they should remove the plagiarized work within a week. If not, please contact one of our Admins to get other emails to which you should address your complaint.

Also, be sure to post your belief that your story has been plagiarized on the forum... lots of us are more than willing to report said plagiarism through ff.net's reporting screen.

PLEASE, though, BE VERY SURE THAT WHAT YOU SEE IS ACTUAL PLAGIARISM and not just shared cliche. If you don't understand what constitutes the difference between plagiarism and shared cliche, please ask one of the Admins.

~~Wiccan~~

I'm so happy you and Rogue posted this! I used it just a few minutes ago when Aiko-san alerted me that my work was stolen along with so many others! I'm keeping this bookmarked for the future just in case!

Thanks again!

-MissKatt

MissKatt wrote:
I'm so happy you and Rogue posted this! I used it just a few minutes ago when Aiko-san alerted me that my work was stolen along with so many others! I'm keeping this bookmarked for the future just in case!

Thanks again!

-MissKatt

It's the least I could do after Rogue took the time to set it all out for us. Although I'm not much of a writer, the amount of plagiarism that takes place on that site infuriates me. Anything I can do to help stop it, color me there!

~~Wiccan~~

Awesome, thanks Wiccan. Yeah unfortunately it happens on Deviant too. I've seen numerous artist works, not from Dokuga as yet, but elsewhere that have been copied, recoloured, altered, or simply stolen and uploaded in a stranger's gallery on Dev. It's shameful, so I report every time I see it. Usually it gets taken down fairly quickly. I've had within a day or a few days of reporting something too. None of my own stuff has ever been plagiarised or stolen on FFNet or Dev, but I tend to watermark all images, and well we can't do that with stories.

T___T

It does make that frustrating for many authors.

I am grateful that the readers are so devoted though. It's amazing that we have that support out there, so many times the author's are informed of plagiarism from fans of their works.

Thank you to those people.

You guys and gals make writing so worthwhile!

~ Pyre

Pyre, actually, it is readers like myself that owe thanks to our intrepid authors - like you - who keep posting such wonderful stories for us even with the possibility of sneaky thieves making off with their hard work!! Anything we can do to help stop that from happening, or correct it when it does, is time well spent in my opinion.

Without our authors and artists, this site would be little more than people posting stuff on the forum. We owe a great deal to all of you who put time and effort into your work just for our enjoyment.

Thank YOU!!

~~me~~

well, Thank you Rogue for letting me know that "Do You Know How to Dance?" has once again been lifted and posted by someone without my permission. I'm now using this format to attempt to get it pulled down from here: www.scribd.com/doc/133970182/Sugar0o-Do-You-Know-How-to-Dance

I dunno if I should be flattered that someone took it or enraged. It makes me sad over all.

r0o... you know I was there when this story got ripped off on ff.net. I am SO VERY SORRY this has happened again!!

Here is the procedure that Rogue sent r0o for handling plagiarism on Scribd:

They won't let anyone other than the OA report it (or copyright agent, but as this is fanfiction...)

Their procedure is here: http://www.scribd.com/copyright/report-infringement

You'll also want to note the e-mail of the creator (not the person uploading it) of the item in question: flag@erayd.net. As I understand it, FFN has since edited their code so that FLAG cannot auto-create documents for download because of issues precisely like this one.

Keep this in mind, ladies and gents, cuz r0o's story isn't the only one that's been hijacked on Scribd.

~~Wiccan~~

well The Good People over there on Scribd havbe already pulled everything down. I must say i wish some of them were over on FFN! I actually used the FFN one that Rogue posted and it worked fine! :heart:faith in the system:heart:

sugar0o wrote:
well The Good People over there on Scribd havbe already pulled everything down. I must say i wish some of them were over on FFN! I actually used the FFN one that Rogue posted and it worked fine! :heart:faith in the system:heart:

HOORAY r0opants!!!!!!!!!!

I'm so very happy for you!

I'm glad to say that the one that appeared to be SunsetMiko's story was really nothing but a list of the fics on our site - not a word of her story anywhere. Unfortunately, I had to pay $9.00 just to find that out. What a ripoff site that is!

Still, though, I'm so glad that they took yours down!!!!!!

<3
HUGGLES r0o!!!!
~~me~~

The $9 was that monthly or one time payment? Doubt it's the latter, though that would make it easier to check on the site in the future for others.

Sadly, that $9.00 was only the one-day special. They want about $4.00 per month to have unlimited access to that site... and I don't have that to spend right now. One of the things I've found out in the past couple of years is that starting a business is TOUGH. We're working 7 days/week lately, many of them 10 to 12 hour days, and still just managing to pay all the bills.

If, at some point, things take off and we have "discretionary income," I'll consider a subscription to keep track of that site but, right now, that's not in the cards.

~~me~~

Wiccan, considering your position as the main admin for this site, are you not able to use some of the funds from the fundraising to pay for a monthly membership? Is there a yearly membership? Do we need to do another fundraising?

Shoot, I'd give you the money to cover it if it means you're helping to protect our writer's from plagiarism. Granted, there is your little issue of time (God Bless you for running your own business and running this site), so I can see where you might have problems with it.

I don't know. Just a thought.

And Bless YOU for thinking of this!

I am very careful about what I use site funds for. Since we are hosted by a somewhat expensive (but VERY GOOD) company, I zealously guard all the donations to make sure we can meet the yearly fees. And, since many of our donors are readers more than authors, I am reluctant to use their donations in such a manner, y'know?

I agree, it would be a terrific way to help our authors protect themselves from piracy, however. As you pointed out, though, my primary problem might be the time it would take to surf through such a site. Perhaps at some point in the future, I might be able to do this but it's not in the cards right now.

Thanks so much for offering, though, and don't forget us at fundraising time (starting soon)!!

~~Wiccan~~

WiccanMethuselah wrote:

I'm glad to say that the one that appeared to be SunsetMiko's story was really nothing but a list of the fics on our site - not a word of her story anywhere. Unfortunately, I had to pay $9.00 just to find that out. What a ripoff site that is!


Thanks again for doing that! They pulled the 'story' as well. At least the site is fast about removing plagiarized fics.

SunsetMiko wrote:

Thanks again for doing that! They pulled the 'story' as well. At least the site is fast about removing plagiarized fics.

Sweetheart, you know I couldn't just leave it the way it was... I HAD to know if it really was your story!! I'm just glad that it wasn't your story AND that they removed that whole listing. It just felt really creepy to have that up there with your story name on it!

~~me~~

EDIT: Am I toasty today, or what? I don't think I've overused the word "just" so much in one post EVAH!