Plagiarism Alert

[suki_blue]

The wonderful Harry/Draco fic All His Saints, a lovely H/C by setissma has become a victim of plagiarism. While I'm sure it's the highest form of flattery, it's also very upsetting for the author and it's just not right.

setissma, like most writers, put a huge amount of work into that fic and hotspur18 should be fucking ashamed of herself for copying entire sentences and making mockery of what it means to be a writer.

The offending fic is The First Concern of Amber - Btvs (Wesley/Lindsey). I see some familiar names in the comments to this fic and I'm angry on your behalf that you've wasted valuable time reading and commenting. I'm afraid you've been taken in.


Edit: Fine, it's just been taken down. But please do watch out for it on the archives and fic comms

Edit2: Summary here

Comments

[killerweasel.livejournal.com]

Aw man.

That blows.

Hardly ever get to see that pairing at all and it was plagerised? Bah.

[suki-blue.livejournal.com]

It's such a shame, isn't it? I mean, there's nothing wrong with being inspired by someone else's fic and then perhaps examining an element of it and putting a new and individual spin on it. But this? It was so very blatant, whole chunks copied pasted.

[soft-princess.livejournal.com]

Mir and I are dealing with the fallout for the maleslashminis community. Bannination and deletions are in order.

Also? OMG I FEEL LIKE SUCH AN IDIOT. I'm the one who read and commented on all the fics from this round of the minis. (maleslashminis which Hotspur's thing -- I can't call that a fic, seriously, gah! it makes me sick -- was posted for) *facepalm x100*

[suki-blue.livejournal.com]

You mustn't feel bad in anyway. You weren't to know at all. None of the people who commented were. The original was a stunning and well known fic in another fandom and I think maybe this person thought she could get away with copying and pasting it as no-one would recongnise it. Wrong.

I'm so glad it's being taken seriously. Well done.

[sheafrotherdon.livejournal.com]

You couldn't possibly have known - please don't feel bad. All that matters is now that people *do* know they take action, and you've done that in spades. I feel bad for setissma, but fandom's response has been so overwhelming and great that I actually feel *heartened* by this episode's resolution. ♥

[shay2.livejournal.com]

I've written things in the Soap Opera fan fic world and I always wonder if someone will use what I've written in their own stories. How are we to ever know...really know unless something like this happens? Where someone is an avid reader in two seperate fandoms and recognizes something someone else wrote.

Another concern of mine is...what if someone does use my writings somewhere. Later, I write a fic here in the Buffyverse and use a passage from my own story. But someone reading the story where the person plagiarized my original story, then reads mine; the person would think I am the plagiarist.

Did that make sense?

Hotspur is a favorite of mine and I was sad to read this.
*hugs to everyone*

Shay

[suki-blue.livejournal.com]

I totally understand what you're saying, but try not to worry too much. You've posted the original writings. They're yours and it can be proven with dates. In a lot of cases plagiarism is very obvious and if you can stand up and tell us, your friends, that you're the original author, we will stand by you.

These days, so many people are multi-fandom. I heard about this from a writer whose fics are mainly Stargate: Atlantis, and I've read the fic in the HP fandom and I know the name of the plagairiser in the Buffy fandom. People always cross and the rip-offs nearly always get found out in the end, especially if they repeat offend. By the looks of it, this 'author' posted mainly rip-off fics

It is a real shame and a blow to her fans. It's a betrayal of trust in such a close-nit community

~big huggles~

[vinniebatman.livejournal.com]

::whimpers::
Wow, you were mad.
::hugs::
Some people suck.
I could see one line getting plagerized, like a descriptive line that is so good that it sticks in your head.
A lot of writers read a lot, so it is concieveable that a line could end up reused.
But several lines is just lame.

[suki-blue.livejournal.com]

Yeah, grrr. It makes me mad because so many of us work so hard on craft and creation, on getting character voices just right and improving description, studying the art of writing. We should learn from our peers not copy them.

/rant. Hee! ~smooch~

Oh goodness, so many lines get reused and so do some scenarios. How many times do we see Spike saying familiar things and taking a chunk out of Xan's neck and shouting 'mine!' It happens and I personally find it wonderful and often amusing to see different takes on the same theme. Like, in McShep, there's the theme of 'Aliens made us do it'. Well, someone had to come up with that first, and hundreds followed. But the fun is in seeing the different variations and takes of it. But copying and pasting whole chunks? Nah, that stinks.

[vinniebatman.livejournal.com]

Yep, it stinks like hangover vomity morning breath.
::nods::
::whispers::
Which is very bad!

[kitty-poker1.livejournal.com]

That's appalling. Writers work hard to create something original and/or to put a new spin on oft-used ideas, and there's simply no excuse for someone else stealing their work. How on earth could she expect to get away with it? Perhaps she's does it in the past with little known fic without it being noticed, which is horrible, but it was just dumb to plagiarise a classic. Surely she knows how many people read in more than one fandom. It was bound to be picked up!

[suki-blue.livejournal.com]

That's what I think probably happened. She did it once and got away with it so she did it again and again until she slipped up by copying a very famous fic. It was bound to happen.

She does manips too and I'm told there have been problems there, too.

[kitty-poker1.livejournal.com]

I don't really know much about this since I don't read her, but I've seen her apology post and, as tabaqui said, she did stand up and accept that she was wrong without trying to lay off blame or make excuses. No dramatic bahleeting occurred. It's a good start.

[that_mireille]

She's plagiarized at least one other story that has been identified, in addition to the issue with her having plagiarized manips. (And was caught, *before* she posted the "Wesley/Lindsey" story.)

[suki-blue.livejournal.com]

Wow. That is disgraceful behavior. I've got to wonder if she has a conscience at all. And the fact that she was caught *before* the last incident ...

[that_mireille]

That's my problem. Yes, she responded calmly and didn't delete her LJ/throw a huge fit (although deleting so much of her solo fic does make me wonder how much of it was her own, I'm willing to accept that I've a suspicious mind), but this is the second time in about a month that she's been caught, and so I have difficulty in believing in the sincerity of her apologies.

[suki-blue.livejournal.com]

Yes, same here. I'm seriously starting to wonder. I really don't think hardly any of her stuff is her own. I've skimmed through a couple of them and they seem to vary drastically is style.

To publicly apologise and mean it is very brave, but to do it and not mean it is relatively simple.

[that_mireille]

Three fics have been positively identified now. At this point, I wouldn't assume she'd written anything herself. :(

OTOH, I'm reading some really good HP fic now; the fic really does work better with the original characters. :)

[suki-blue.livejournal.com]

Good lord, that is positively disgraceful. I doesn't sound like she's got an original bone in her body.

The HP fics she's chosen to copy are so very good. It was stupid of her to think she could get away with it.

[literati.livejournal.com]

Disgusting! All my Saints is one of my favourite fics. Ugh, and hotspur18 honestly thought they'd get away with it?

What a bloody idiot.

[suki-blue.livejournal.com]

So wrong, isn't it? I'm so annoyed.

There's no way anyone could get away with it these days. We're all too multifandom. It's going to get seen, especially when it's that blatant!

[tabaqui]

Wow.
Have you gone to her lj? She stepped up, fessed up, and apologized. Still a total suck situation, but wow. Gotta admire that.

[suki-blue.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I saw. She's definitely done the right thing. It's going to be difficult for her for a while because the trust needs to be built back up, but at least she hasn't deleted her LJ or gone off on a self-pity rampage.

[tabaqui]

Yup, exactly. That would have made me extremely scornful and dismissive.

[katekat]

thank you for posting about this and getting the word out. Unfortunately hotspur18 has apparently done this more than once. Her supposed Giles/Anya entry "Practical Magic"> for summer_of_giles was also stolen from penknife's fantastic fic "Practical Approach", a Remus/Tonks, Remus/Sirius fic. antennapedia helpfully saved the text file because hotspur18 had already deleted it by the time we got notified. It's pretty clearly a case where she searched and replaced the names but preserved almost everything else. As the SOG mods, both elizabuffy and I are frustrated and disappointed and I just wanted to thank you for letting others know as well.

[suki-blue.livejournal.com]

You're most welcome. I feel that it's so important for these people to be shown up for what they are, thieves. I can't believe she's even done this before and was caught! Hers is definitely a name we need to keep an eye on. she's obviously not banked on people reading HP and Btvs.

[raemcn.livejournal.com]

I just found out about everything this morning with her first apologetic post someone linked me to. Then of course I went in search of other stuff and found so very much more. I'm really ticked off because she was nommed at Fang and didn't even send us an email. She knew we wouldnt' keep her fics up there if we found out. Her apology was a snow trying to cover her butt because there are a lot more than one she ripped off.

I've not been on LJ much at all so I missed this post the first time around. Please if you ever see anything like this again could you email me at FFA email so I can put the person on our no nom list. *hugs*

We are now affliated with stop plagiarism, but just in case, I need all the eyes I can get.

[suki-blue.livejournal.com]

Shit, you know, I didn't even think of FFA ~headdesk~ I was far too busy being all outraged. Damn it!

So sorry, luv ~huggles~ I will certainly email you directly in the future if I see anything suspect.

What was this girl thinking? I can't believe she plagairised all those fics! I wonder how many more are ripped off. All of them?

[raemcn.livejournal.com]

Gonna link you to this post so you can read what I and another mod have said there. I want you to see just have insane hotspur really is, because I really want everyone to know. I'm almost ready to just post her email to me in its entirity on my LJ for the world to see. *hugs you*

Oh and no worries about not thinking of Fang right off. I understand you were in shock.

http://sheafrotherdon.livejournal.com/165491.html?view=8308083#t8308083

[suki-blue.livejournal.com]

For fuck's sake, so not only is she not sure if fics are hers or not, she also mixed up her text files??? What kind of drug is this chic on??! Hell, post her damn email, it's the least she deserves.

I don't know about you you, but if someone showed me some words which had been written down a year ago, two years ago or three years ago, I would know whether or not they were my words, my fic, my story, my work.

I'm tempted to do another post about this because she just isn't going to stop, is she?? GRRRRR!