Writers are entering and publishing without truly reading or understanding the legalities of what is or isn't plagiarism. Nor do they understand the repercussions of filing a "that's my story line" lawsuit without researching prior publications. The large publishers did all that expensive legals for their authors. They knew whether they had a legal leg to stand on or not. Now with thousands of instant writer-publishers who read something somewhere about DCM (digital copyright material) they start firing off take down notices to everyone. They become instant lawyers from reading something posted on the net or something a friend told them.
It's like handing the keys to the kid who has seen a picture of a combine and telling him-her to harvest the crop. Those puppies are computer everything now, crop intake is computer adjusted, seed counted, axial flow rates regulated, and hydraulic-computer ground height constantly adjusted. The operators are pilots of a million dollar machine.
Get the picture? If one isn't a lawyer stick with writing and do NOT think about suing anyone or filing take down claims. That said, there isn't anything out there which hasn't been written one could truly claim was an original. BUT if a writer goes shadow writing close to a published copyright story be ready they may want to sue you just because they can. The almost get out of jail free card is if one is NOT publishing for profit or capital gain but putting out stories for free, it's almost impossible for anyone to sue as there was no malicious intent. Tricky word here, I said almost.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/23/business/omegaverse-eroti...
Here's the disclaimer to protect my own un huh. I'm not a lawyer and in no way is anything I have written or implied in this blog to be construed as legal advice. Let's clarify further by saying it is my personal opinion.
hugs writers, readers
Always
Barb
Life is a gift. Treasure it.
Comments
Scary
A Russian publisher was ripping off and publishing some DopplerPress and other BC authors' books on Kindle using a typography trick involving Cyrillic characters to conceal the ripoffs from Amazon's digital scanners. Not pleasant dealing with that but they went down after a bit.
Donna Lamb's Blue Moon has been repeatedly stolen and republished on other platforms. It was always the Lulu version of the text instead of the Kindle one, so I removed the book from Lulu and this stopped. Haven't seen it happen with other Lulu books.
Sigh.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
This needs a qualifier
Erin has a huge amount of years and experience most writers don't. I don't doubt her ability to figure out when a story is being stolen or not. It comes from time and experience. I'd trust her sooner than any lawyer I've ever used. Yes, she's right one may take care of plagiarism "IF" they are positive, know, and understand the laws.
It's a minefield so be careful writers.
Barb
Life is a gift. Treasure it.
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl
How many totally original plot lines are there anyway?
I've heard someone say that it is SEVEN.
Even if it is twenty or a thousand every work after that is to some extent plagurised.
Why?
Because it draws on the work of someone (often many works by different people) who came before them who in turn was inspired by the work of someone before them.
What is subjective is how close you can come to the original without being accused of plagurism...
In the future this will get a lot worse.
The news that Microsoft News is going to replace human reporters with so called 'Aritifical Intelligence' based machines will soon mean that you will see a sentence you carefully crafted appear in a news report. These 'so called' [1] AI bots won't care about copyright. That is a pesky human invention.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-52860247
I'm sure that it won't be long before we see whole scenes from a number of different authors 'taken' and put together and the result reaching the top of the best seller. Who do you sue if the thing was put togethet by a computer?
Good luck filing suit against Microsoft, Amazon and the like. The only sure fire thing is that you will end up deeper in debt.
There is a reason that I keep at the last count 754 google domains blocked at my firewall as well as a robots.txt on my blog computer. You really gotta keep those AI bots out of your life for at long as possible.
Samantha
[1] I say 'so called' AI because they are not sentient beings inside a computer. The current AI systems might learn patterns but they are incapable of original thought. We do it all the time. We imagine things. We look outside the box. We ponder impossible possibilities. Current computer technology is incapable of that.
When they make that happen the 'I' part will become true and we will become totally redundant. The machines will rise as predicted by so many SF writers. Where are the Asimov rules when you need them?
Writers????
A decade or so ago I invested heavily in a website.
To gain internet "authority" I was told we needed a lot of content.
I hired about two dozen writers. Many were either just-graduated college students or grad students. I had to fire about a fourth of them for wholesale plagiarism. We were told that google hates unoriginal content, so I checked everything before we posted it.
Each and every one that I fired argued with me that it wasn't plagiarism unless you stole the whole article. They all claimed that lifting entire paragraphs was totally legit. Makes you wonder how lazy their high school and college teachers had been in checking their work. Really! Is it that hard to see a chunk of writing that just doesn't have the same voice?
Imagine my surprise when I found out the whole website authority game was pure nonsense. Google has no intention of ever allowing you to draw significant traffic when they can sell you adwords. They were fined major bucks in Europe for that game, but here . . . crickets! After several years and a constant drain on my checkbook I noted the distinct correlation between a website's authority and the amount of their spend with Google. Ain't life grand!
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
An idea
I'm wondering if it's not prudent to actually write down what you can and can't do do with somebody else's story. Plan example let's take one well-known stories series Harry Potter. Let's start with the name you can have characters in your story named Harry something or even something Potter. The first question is could you have a character named Harry Potter story that is unrelated to the series such as a Crewman on a ship in a sci-fi setting. But it is probably guaranteed that that if you use the name I'm in a magical setting you're gonna get sued. The next question is how far can you take this for instance Hogwarts is definitely out but what is a magical School Rene name is probably good also so magic as a concept is ok but but any spells used in the books is not. One more thing the think on would be Hogwarts magical ceiling would that be considered an idea from the author or as I've not seen in any other stories would using it cause any problems ?
I remember watching a YouTuber explaining about a website that has correctly every possible combination English letters and spaces up to a certain character count. Do they own the text or do they only algorithm that created the website ? if I could find it again I'll post it later
I am a male lolita.
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What is in a name?
I share my full name with someone I went to school with. This includes our middle name.
I share my name (minus middle name) with several UK sportsmen. Does that preclude me from using my real name to write a story that is set in a sport? No it does not as long as I don't try to pass myself off as one of the well known people with my name.
My Grandfather signed up in a 'Pals Battallion' in August 1914. There were NINE people in the Batallion with the name 'Wyn Jones'.
No one can copyright a name like that (At least here in the UK).
As for the YouTuber with the site with all the word combinations. They only own the algorithm not the output because a human could actually arrive at the name themseves.
Samantha
What's In a Name
It all comes down to whose lawyer is bigger.
Thirty years ago I paid an ad agency $20,000 to create a logo and name for a branch of my business.
He was a friend so I trusted him. The name and logo now have a national presence.
Ten years ago,I caught someone using my name and logo and went to the lawyer I'd paid to file a copyright on both, The lawyer, a large Minneapolis firm, said, "Your name is too generic to protect." They declined to help us protect the logo misuse. The firm is still using our name and logo.
Other than raise my ire there are no real damages so I've never pushed the matter.
I've seen copies of my books all over the internet on sale. I hope Erin is cutting a cut from at last some of them.
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Misappropriation
Hi Jill,
I think you got bad advice.
Generic names and logos cannot be protected but there may still be an action in tort.
It is called misappropriation and is covered by the tort of unfair competition.
UK readers will know it as "passing off" and there is rich precedent.
There is an entitlement to damages.
The position regarding copyright for original artistic works is more difficult.
Copyright is automatic but it must be original and it must be art.
So a recipe might not be protected unless the dish is art in itself, because a description of how to make it is pure utility.
Is every idea art? Perhaps, if it is not a process of pure logic.
Is it original? Hmmm. In the world of self-publication, increasingly harder.
Recently I contact Erin about a story with creepy similarities to mine.
I think we agreed that it might be synchronicity - that is a thing, right?
Maryanne
You're Right
That is exactly how I analyzed it at the time. I accused the person of intentionally causing confusion in the marketplace in a letter, which he ignored. As I said, I know of no real damages so I've lived with it.
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Credited Content
I have to say that I don't write TG fiction for profit.
I am not sure why I started, but it is hard to stop.
I like feedback (lacking of late) and the exchange with others who have the same issues that I do.
But I also love the flow of words onto the screen page. The idea of copying somebody else's stuff just runs counter to that.
But I do pick up ideas. I would like to say that most of what I write just erupts out, like today's story - I think a novel idea.
But it may be that the same idea is in a story out there somewhere. The shear volume of information in the world is staggering.
But when I pick up ideas from others, I give credit.
Does that mean that it is my own art? Of course.
But the issue arose in music with "Blurred Lines" credited as inspired by Marvin Gaye.
It can be said that music is far more finite than literature as there are a limited number of notes and chords and most do not work together.
If I follow my rules I just expect others not to steal my work.
I have no publisher to police it so all I can do is to ask those in our TG community to look out for one another and bring to our collective attention any potential plagiarism.
Maryanne
Writing
I love to read, and have tried writing small things in the past. I do not write because, I am too fearful of plagiarism. I strongly believe that an author is entitled to their recompense, and appreciate those who freely share their writings for me to read. I do not mind similar stories if the author is telling their story and not simply rewriting a story they liked. So their may be similarities in some points, but if the author has different intent for their character, I am fine with that. I do not know how the law looks at that.
I have a story wrangling in my head, but have not tried putting it on paper. Maybe one day. I love the time and attention some of our authors on here put into studying characters and details to make certain that there is plausible reality to their fiction. That is difficult research and greatly appreciated. I love how when I then see a company or place it makes me think of the story.
For those whose works are being stolen, I am sorry. That is illegal and I do hope that you get a just recompense for your labor and that they are appropriately disciplined for their theft.
Melissa