Plagiarism
Feb. 19th, 2006 11:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ravenUm. It seems I have a mystery to solve, and I'd appreciate some help from them that know about this sort of thing. It's rather weird, but here goes. I got an anonymous comment on this post (if it's one of my friends who forgot to log in, please do tell me, but somehow I don't think it is), telling me, basically, that someone out there is plagiarising me, here.
The link goes to some kind of singles thing on Lycos (anyone know more about it?) and shows a specific user profile. Anonymous commenter is quite right: a large proportion of what's on that page has been copied verbatim from me. In detail:
At the top of the page, "Glamorous indie Rock n Roll"[1] has been used as a title. I don't have any rights to that, it's the name of a Killers song, but it was the title of my journal for a very long time (where it now says "philosophy supernatural nude") and later things considered, I'm inclined to suspect.
The first paragraph is all blurb, nothing to do with me, but then there's this:
"Life, like fanfiction, appears to be a mixture of comedy and angst. The stuff here reflects life inasmuch as its also a mixture of comedy and angst; other than that, its all made up. Honestly."[1]
That is the text off the main page of my website, Sleeping With Ghosts, and has been since the site went live in June 2004. It is not a quote or paraphrase of anything, it is my own writing.
Below that, there is this:
"Dear Every Contemporary-Or-Otherwise Writer On Rousseau Ever,
Je ne parle pas francais parce que je suis bete et je voudrais aller a la maison maintenant s'il vous plait.
In other words, it may be a crime against humanity to study eminent political theorists in translation, and I get the distortion in meaning thing, truly I do, but please: I DON'T SPEAK FRENCH.
Dear self,
Regardless of the above, it is not big and it is not clever to type up sections of Rousseau and feed him through Babelfish. Kindly cease and desist."
That is from a very recent post of mine, the series of open letters here, and it is not attributed in any way.
Now I know that this is teh intwerweb and I do keep a public journal, and so I shouldn't really get all knickers-in-twist over this, but I think I'm justified in being a little peeved. It is still plagiarism, after all. Plus, something does smell a little fishy about this. Anonymous commenter, whoever you are, I'd really appreciate it if you gave me some means of getting in contact with you.
Anyone else: any thoughts? I'm not going to mount a holy crusade or anything; but I might take a certain pleasure in sending a displeased email in the direction of this mysterious person, if I could only find some contact info for them.
Edited to add: I just realised I was being idiotic in posting this publically. Hence, friends-only at least for the time being. Back to public.
[1] The grammatical errors in these are not copied verbatim from me.
The link goes to some kind of singles thing on Lycos (anyone know more about it?) and shows a specific user profile. Anonymous commenter is quite right: a large proportion of what's on that page has been copied verbatim from me. In detail:
At the top of the page, "Glamorous indie Rock n Roll"[1] has been used as a title. I don't have any rights to that, it's the name of a Killers song, but it was the title of my journal for a very long time (where it now says "philosophy supernatural nude") and later things considered, I'm inclined to suspect.
The first paragraph is all blurb, nothing to do with me, but then there's this:
"Life, like fanfiction, appears to be a mixture of comedy and angst. The stuff here reflects life inasmuch as its also a mixture of comedy and angst; other than that, its all made up. Honestly."[1]
That is the text off the main page of my website, Sleeping With Ghosts, and has been since the site went live in June 2004. It is not a quote or paraphrase of anything, it is my own writing.
Below that, there is this:
"Dear Every Contemporary-Or-Otherwise Writer On Rousseau Ever,
Je ne parle pas francais parce que je suis bete et je voudrais aller a la maison maintenant s'il vous plait.
In other words, it may be a crime against humanity to study eminent political theorists in translation, and I get the distortion in meaning thing, truly I do, but please: I DON'T SPEAK FRENCH.
Dear self,
Regardless of the above, it is not big and it is not clever to type up sections of Rousseau and feed him through Babelfish. Kindly cease and desist."
That is from a very recent post of mine, the series of open letters here, and it is not attributed in any way.
Now I know that this is teh intwerweb and I do keep a public journal, and so I shouldn't really get all knickers-in-twist over this, but I think I'm justified in being a little peeved. It is still plagiarism, after all. Plus, something does smell a little fishy about this. Anonymous commenter, whoever you are, I'd really appreciate it if you gave me some means of getting in contact with you.
Anyone else: any thoughts? I'm not going to mount a holy crusade or anything; but I might take a certain pleasure in sending a displeased email in the direction of this mysterious person, if I could only find some contact info for them.
[1] The grammatical errors in these are not copied verbatim from me.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
on 2006-02-19 11:24 pm (UTC)One thought (which is just me making stuff up, I have no evidence for it) is that it might be some sort of randomly cut and pasted spam account, that's just taken things from Google or something, rather than an actual *person*.
But it seems fairly unlikely, and it's not something I've heard of before.
no subject
on 2006-02-20 12:10 am (UTC)no subject
on 2006-02-19 11:38 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2006-02-20 12:12 am (UTC)no subject
on 2006-02-19 11:58 pm (UTC)A friend of mine had that done to her a few years ago. Do you want me to find out how she dealt with it?
no subject
on 2006-02-20 12:12 am (UTC)no subject
on 2006-02-20 02:06 am (UTC)no subject
on 2006-02-20 11:30 am (UTC)no subject
on 2006-02-20 03:56 am (UTC)no subject
on 2006-02-20 11:31 am (UTC)no subject
on 2006-02-20 08:18 am (UTC)no subject
on 2006-02-20 11:27 am (UTC)no subject
on 2006-02-20 01:32 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2006-02-20 09:36 am (UTC)If I were you, I'd try and report it to lycos, but then just forget about it and move on. Whoever she is, she's not worth wasting time and energy on.
no subject
on 2006-02-20 11:30 am (UTC)no subject
on 2006-02-20 11:35 am (UTC)Will this form (http://help.lycos.co.uk/abuseform.html) do the job? Just give them your e-mail address and tell them-- it doesn't say the 'username' field is mandatory.
And I see further down the comments thread that she's also taken from someone else's userinfo, which makes me suspect either someone on the edge of fandom with a sick sense of humour, or random Google-and-paste.
no subject
on 2006-02-20 11:37 am (UTC)no subject
on 2006-02-20 11:42 am (UTC)And yes, see other folks have to say. The complaint may well be taken more seriously if it comes from more than one person (put in a seperate form for each person copied from, if possible; it should attract more attention from Lycos).
no subject
on 2006-02-20 10:34 am (UTC)Keep us informed, anyway! *hugs*
no subject
on 2006-02-20 11:29 am (UTC)If it turns out she is just quoting, then I won't be bothered. What worries me, though, is the (remote, I admit) possibility that she might be trying to pretend to be me.
no subject
on 2006-02-20 01:41 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2006-02-20 04:19 pm (UTC)I don't mind the quote though - it's not mine, it's a quote from Quills.
xxx
no subject
on 2006-02-20 04:23 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2006-02-20 04:26 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2006-02-20 11:21 am (UTC)no subject
on 2006-02-20 11:23 am (UTC)Okay, now we have grounds for a holy crusade. What'd you reckon?
no subject
on 2006-02-20 04:39 pm (UTC)Also begs the question of does she somehow know us, for it to be linked like that, and who left the anonymous comment?
no subject
on 2006-02-20 04:49 pm (UTC)I have dashed off a quick abuse-or-harrassment email to Lycos, and am just about to post a notice to this effect on plagiarist-girl's guestbook. I'll keep you posted holy-crusade-wise. *g*
no subject
on 2006-02-20 11:33 am (UTC)no subject
on 2006-02-20 12:25 pm (UTC)I do like a good mystery. It beats doing my washing.
I signed up to lycos to get a better look at her account. Does any of the following (taken from the text she has put with her photos) belong to anyone?
"The single sheet wrapped round her body had become inexplicably tangled around her legs and feet. She was awake now; she’d hardly slept, swimming just below full consciousness in a sea of dreams.A memory rose unbidden before her..."
"Another memory, visual and brightly coloured, pink glitter and kohl-smeared eyes, ragged fingernails painted deep red, and a delighted voice chanting, “Fairy boys are pale and nervous, yeah...”
Safety, and warmth, and flickering firelight, and two goblets, one with white wine, one with red..."
"It was not your helping hand or those of my peers
that make me what I am
There are no defining moments
I simply am My Mothers Daughter"
"Every time a choice is made, the universe splits into two. For every might-have-been, there is another universe in which what might have been is reality. Alternative realities are roads not taken, an infinity of possibilities open for the taking until someone makes a choice. There are millions of billions of trillions of them, around each other and on top of each other and laid over each other, and all quite unaware of each other. As I write this, I brush my hair out of my eyes, and in doing so, I have touched a million other realities, who are as negligibly conscious of my existence as I am of theirs."
"They are all different. The one thread that binds them together is the passage of time, rolling on forwards, trailing them all in its wake. There’s a great wooden wheel of time, a lumbering, creaking wheel that takes millions of years to make one revolution, but revolve it does, for history does eventually repeat itself. The wheel has been here as long as time has existed, and its age can be clearly heard in the rumbling and creaking and groaning as it turns. On a cold, clear, still night, listen closely and you might hear the sound."
"It’s not perfect; nothing ever is. It has its flaws, and out at the edge of the wheel, in between the spokes, the fabric of the universes is stretched thin, too thin, and sometimes, small holes can be made. Just for an instant, of course.
But then, when you’re dealing with the whole of history from beginning to end, an instant is longer than you might think.
[...creak, creak, creak...]
Maybe an hour; maybe two.
Maybe an entire..."
"Disclaimer⁄legalese:
I'm doing this for my own amusement; no money is being made. I am permanently penniless and suing me would be like trying to squeeze liquid mercury out of a recalcitrant piece of brick"
Woah this last one is deffinitely from your journal, this girl is freaking me out now.
"(Since I wrote the above I have had several more glasses of red. But as I was just observing, my linguistic skills seem to be the last to go, after my motor skills and whatever the skill is that stops you seeing red-wine halos around everything.)
But everything is beautiful. Really,beautiful."
Do you want me to leave a message on her guestbook on your behalf? If so, what do you want said?
You should deffinitely report her to Lycos, she is breaking one of their user rules:
"Generally, it is not permitted to... distribute work protected by intellectual property rights or otherwise infringe on anybody’s rights."
Crusade
on 2006-02-20 12:35 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2006-02-20 01:01 pm (UTC)"The single sheet wrapped round her body had become inexplicably tangled around her legs and feet. She was awake now; she’d hardly slept, swimming just below full consciousness in a sea of dreams.A memory rose unbidden before her..."
is mine, from here (http://www.sleepingwithghosts.popullus.net/crossoverfic/sleepingwithghosts.html), but with the pronouns changed from "he" to "she". She's added "A memory rose unbidden before her", that's not mine.
This is mine (from the same story as linked above):
"Another memory, visual and brightly coloured, pink glitter and kohl-smeared eyes, ragged fingernails painted deep red, and a delighted voice chanting, “Fairy boys are pale and nervous, yeah...”
Safety, and warmth, and flickering firelight, and two goblets, one with white wine, one with red..."
And so is this (ibid):
"Every time a choice is made, the universe splits into two. For every might-have-been, there is another universe in which what might have been is reality. Alternative realities are roads not taken, an infinity of possibilities open for the taking until someone makes a choice. There are millions of billions of trillions of them, around each other and on top of each other and laid over each other, and all quite unaware of each other. As I write this, I brush my hair out of my eyes, and in doing so, I have touched a million other realities, who are as negligibly conscious of my existence as I am of theirs."
"They are all different. The one thread that binds them together is the passage of time, rolling on forwards, trailing them all in its wake. There’s a great wooden wheel of time, a lumbering, creaking wheel that takes millions of years to make one revolution, but revolve it does, for history does eventually repeat itself. The wheel has been here as long as time has existed, and its age can be clearly heard in the rumbling and creaking and groaning as it turns. On a cold, clear, still night, listen closely and you might hear the sound."
"It’s not perfect; nothing ever is. It has its flaws, and out at the edge of the wheel, in between the spokes, the fabric of the universes is stretched thin, too thin, and sometimes, small holes can be made. Just for an instant, of course.
But then, when you’re dealing with the whole of history from beginning to end, an instant is longer than you might think.
[...creak, creak, creak...]
Maybe an hour; maybe two.
Maybe an entire..."
This is off my website (http://www.sleepingwithghosts.popullus.net):
"Disclaimer⁄legalese:
I'm doing this for my own amusement; no money is being made. I am permanently penniless and suing me would be like trying to squeeze liquid mercury out of a recalcitrant piece of brick"
Except mine says "I am a permanently penniless student." She's changed it to suit her!
And this is from my journal again, here (http://loneraven.livejournal.com/469687.html):
"(Since I wrote the above I have had several more glasses of red. But as I was just observing, my linguistic skills seem to be the last to go, after my motor skills and whatever the skill is that stops you seeing red-wine halos around everything.)
But everything is beautiful. Really,beautiful."
Except mine says "several more glasses of rosé", and "white-wine halos". This is deliberate plagiarism.
I am very, very freaked. Thank you for finding these for me. Um... I don't know. If you've signed up just for me (thank you again!) could I perhaps have your username/password? I'd like to see for myself.
no subject
on 2006-02-20 05:09 pm (UTC)(Out of interest, where is the 'fairy boy are pale and nervous' bit from? I first heard that in HP fic.)
no subject
on 2006-02-20 05:13 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2006-02-20 05:18 pm (UTC)Also - is it worth signing up? I am curious to se what else she might have stolen. (And curious to observe your ust and swift revenge!)
no subject
on 2006-02-20 01:29 pm (UTC)She found it strangely flattering and horribly creepy. But not a lot you can really do save irritated e-mails. Hrrm.
no subject
on 2006-02-20 05:11 pm (UTC)