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"... Great artists steal." -- Attributed to Igor Stravinsky
Someone at http://www.wattpad.com borrowed my story "Our Daughter's Prom Date", and made superficial changes before posting it as her own. She wimped out at the end, regarding who was taking whom to the Prom.
https://www.wattpad.com/499142868-life-2-0-mostly-sweet-shor...
I'm not sure yet what, if anything, I'll do about it. At least it appears she's not making money.
Comments
Another Kind of Borrowing
I will freely admit to borrowing from other artists, Morpheus, Snowfall, Casey Brooke, The Professor,and literally hundreds of others. Bits and pieces of their stories are scattered throughout my stories. A recent example is two of Snowfall's stories. Look at The Huntress & Faeries and Such and tell me you don't recognize some of her story telling in both of them. Bru, bless her heart has been, a victim of my stealing so many times, where do we begin. I'm not a writer, never claimed I was, but I'm really good at recognizing those who are and stealing from them.
hugs
always,
Barb
PS: I lay awake at night not because my conscience is bothering me but taking others stories and playing them in my demented mind. The cackling the dog hears at night isn't coming from the chickens.
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl
Likewise
I've borrowed some myself, that way. Perhaps a more blatant example than most is "Vengeance and Beyond", which I began after fuming over another story. And, of course, I did lift Bru's story "Thumping Hearts, Broken Hearts, Hearts United" for a flash of my own. My Bikini Beach stories were done with Elrod's approval, except possibly for one thought-exercise. I do have a never-completed story "inspired" by The Professor's "Ovis" and a little bit BB and other Reality-Shifting worlds.
-- Daphne Xu
Not making light of what she did to you Daphne
What you and I were tongue in cheek making a comment about "borrowing", although Thumping Hearts..., is so sicking I can't imagine ANYONE wanting to copy the style? Certainly is not the kind of wholesale stealing of anothers story. I dropped into the site you mentioned and reread "your story" another girl had blatantly listed as her own efforts. As I was reading I was thinking, I know the author, and it sure ain't you unless Daphne is using another alias.
Yesterday was an interesting day in more ways than a visit to the clinic. When I returned and opened up my email there was one from eBay questioning if I like the order I had placed on a bouquet of roses and would I make a comment. This isn't my first rodeo. I immediately forwarded it to the right department of eBay. I knew they have always been serious about con artists using the name and identity of the company as a way to get recipients to open the email and get a truck load of virus or other schemes. The email I received back from eBay, they opened up an investigation to track all components of the email, notify all authorities, and virus protection companies of what was loaded and contact the ISP where the mail come from. If the ISP couldn't or wouldn't remove the sender from their server locking them out permanently other legal actions would be taken.
Woof! This is a company that has the power and resources to do exactly what is necessary to protect their name and the company. We as individuals or even small publishers don't have that kind of power. The only way we could ever hope to achieve the same would be to join a writer's guild where the backing of hundreds of thousands of authors would congeal into a legal power house and do what eBay does. Our complaints to the web host they are allowing illegal fraudulent action on their site goes ignored. Usually they don't care.
Hugs hon and I hope you gave the site providers a heads up.
always,
Barb
Looking back, did the trials and blessings make us stronger or did it gut us?
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl
Flattery
I've decided I'm going to be flattered rather than take offense and go after her. I like the story being called "sweet".
You went and "reread" the story? You'd read it before, and perhaps recognized it then? That alleged author was definitely not me. For one, I would never have wimped out about the son and daughter going together to the prom. Except that... well, I do imagine subverting expectations by having Liam being one of the support girls getting Leigh ready -- perhaps as the character Mulva.
About "Thumping Hearts" -- well, I can imagine writing a story. I'd want to master not only the sickening sweetness but also the essential teenybopper excitement and emotion.
-- Daphne Xu
Problem for that author
The problem for that author will be when they bring forth other stories. A con-artist knows that a scam can only be reused so many times before people catch on but to pilfer other peoples stories inevitably leads back to people like Barb and others who may recognized parts or all of it and point it out. This is what should be done in the reviews. Point it out with links. Have the accusing author defend their work while causing doubt by current and future readers. Of course some may say that's not the same story but those with experience in reading other literature themes will see the difference.
Fan fiction
I understand that some fan fiction is nothing but a slight edit of the original story. Perhaps the writer is one of your fans. But fan fiction should be labeled as such.
Comments
Perhaps you can put a link to the story it was stolen from in the review section.
You know who else steals?
Thieves. Let's hope Karma is half the bitch people say she is...
~hugs, Veronica
"Government will only recognize 2 genders, male + female,
as assigned at birth-" (In his own words:)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1lugbpMKDU