Plagiarism: Theft vs inspiration (Important reminder)

Some of the examples aren't as obvious, but the others... I mean, it's one thing to imitate someone's style because you're a big fan (for instance, Dean Martin copying Bing Crosby until he found a style of his own). But to me that looks like she's literally lifting details and tweaking them slightly.

I wasn't all that interested in reading the book when it first came out (I couldn't understand the acronym business - my parents never came up with weird acronyms when I was applying to colleges ). In a way, I'm even more interested just to see if it's any good, regardless of the alleged plagiarising.

 

Having read all three McCafferty books, and various passages from the other book via articles I've read, it seems clear that there was some heavy duty copying going on, either verbatim or in terms of story concepts and scenes. She may have outright copied in early drafts, then changed some stuff around to disguise it. Or perhaps she really did do it unintentionally, though that's hard to believe.

 

I've heard from multiple people that the book is a fun read, and add to that the fact that Dreamworks picked it up for a movie deal only adds to notion it must be enjoyable. Too bad it's now tainted by this.

It's very easy to pick up ideas from other places and not realize where they came from, especially as stories develop. For that reason I think it's worth asking as a person writes, is this my own voice?

The young author in question now claims to have a photographic memory, which, if she knew that about herself, should have given her even more reason to make sure she wasn't "photocopying" ideas from her fave books.

 

Unlocked and upped by request.

 

I recently found this article about plagiarism in science fiction.

The author, Mr. Bill Christensen, raises some interesting points on a fair question. Of course we're writing fan fiction, playing in someone else's sandbox, but there's still the notion that it's good form to give credit to Mr. Lucas' GFFA with an opening disclaimer at the start of our stories. X-wings and lightsabers then become a credited idea, but what happens when an piece of "fanon" - as opposed to canon - sounds like something we as authors would like to use? What's just ideas running parallel or as we like to say, GMTA? And how do we decide?

 

This is a really interesting thread. I'm glad it got upped and unlocked. I hope it's okay for a relative newbie to dive right in.

I think most fanfic writers know to put a disclaimer at the start of their fics crediting the creators of whatever show/movie/book they're playing with (in previous fandoms it was always at the start of each chapter, but that would be down to each chapter having an individual thread rather than a single one that is updated such as here).

On the topic of 'fanon' though I always go with the more you credit the better. I tend to research quite a bit and will use various sites offering canon/fanon facts (not stories, I hurry to add) that have been established in a fanverse, eg wookieepedia etc. What I use is always credited to that particular site--hence my notes can be rather long Sometimes, I will use facts provided by a nonfandom site and that will also get credited as a 'source' i.e. I wrote a fic in the SG-1 fandom where the team ended up on a paradise world similar to to the likes of the Figi islands. I credited the site I used to get geographical and cultural info.

On a similar note, I have in the past (twice I think) loved a particular moment in an unrelated movie (say a fight action sequence) and used it in a fic. Both times I credited the movie just to be on the safe side.

I hope that helps.

On the topic of plagiarism. I've been plagiarised in two out of four fandoms. Either sections copy and pasted, or whole bloomin' fics word-for-word. It can be very upsetting, so my sympathies to fellow sufferers. I also agree that an idea cannot be plagiarised--although this would depend if two fics mirrored one another too closely on plot development etc etc.

I guess the last point could make things tricky. In a previous fandom, I've had a fic with a very unusual premise that another wanted to use, or had the same idea (I can't quite remember). In the end, she just added a note at the beginning of her story and went on from there. As it was quite different with the exception of the overarching premise, that was fine--no worries.

 

Plagiarism is always ugly. The fact that someone has the gall to do it and gets away with it (at times) is just appalling. I'm still having problems with adultfanfiction.net. One person stole several stories from theforce.net's Archives (including one of mine) and posted them as her own and although I've sent emails to the mods, the thread is still there. I was told it would be taken down but that was months ago and my subsequent emails have been ignored.

So what I did was leave a review detailing the theft and giving the credit to the real authors.

 

Wow! That is really bad. I thought most fiction sites had strong policies on removing proven plagiarism from their sites as swiftly as possible . I'm glad I didn't stick around there and won't be back if that's the case. I was lucky to have my own problems sorted out by mods and admins incredibly quickly (in one case before I'd even become aware there was a problem, lol. I found out afterwards), but I can still imagine your frustration!

 

What I always wondered was what if a profic author just happened one day to fishing around on here and saw something - a new story for LotF or something, and decided to make it as part of their SW profic? What's to stop them?

I'm always hesitant about posting my stuff on the internet. A published author told me I shouldn't, especially my original work, which I don't. But still, I've had people plagiarize my work before, and it's not a good experience.

- Serena

 

Professional authors are supposed to sign a form that says they don't read fanfiction for that very reason. It's actually very easy to sunconsciously pick up an idea and mold it into one of your own.

 

Serena, the professional authors I've talked to say that they don't read fanfic for that reason. Plus, like TKL said, they are often required to sign a contract about it.

 

The funny part about it is that I think a lot of fanfic writers would gladly give them our ideas...well, maybe only free on the first one or two

 

I didn't know that - that makes me feel a bit better. Do all professional authors in general have to sign that contract that says they won't read fanfiction?

 

I don't know but I've talked to people who have signed contracts not to read Star Wars, Star Trek, Dr. Who fanfic.

 

Marion Zimmer Bradley - the other side of the knife that cuts both ways - and sadly, it's incidents such as this that cause profic writers to be so leery of 'fan fiction'...


I can't begin to tell you how angry this makes me - I mean, here is a PROFESSIONAL, well respected author who not only embraced fan fiction, but actually participated in vetting fan fic for fanzines! One fruitbat ruins it for everyone...

 

The classic story of unconsciously picking up ideas from other people's work is from the original Star Trek. A producer, Gene Coon, needed a script, dashed one off quick (or as quick as that sort of thing can go) and sent it to the studio legal department to be screened as all scripts were. Shortly after the legal department called back to tell him his script was nearly identical in plot to a Frederick Brown short story, including the title. Horrified, Coon realized that he had read the story years ago. To solve the problem the studio pronto-quick bought the rights to the story, which is why 'Arena' is the only ST:TOS episode that has a "from a short story by...." credit on it. A TV studio can cover a mistake like that by purchasing the proper rights, but not fanfic writers, so it's best to be mindful.