Those damn Harry Potter plagiarists!
I've been plagiarized. In Harry Potter fandom, of the all places I haven't been in the last four years.
I got an email from someone this morning pointing me in the direction of this Rose/Scorpius fic and said the first couple of lines were similar to my James/Lily fic The Incident in the Library. So I checked it out, and at first I was like, "Oh, it's just the first line, huh? Well, I'm no aja, so I'm going to let it slide," but then I read it again and now I'm kind of pissed.
The Incident in the Library (mine)
The top two buttons of his shirt were undone.
This hadn’t bothered her twenty minutes ago, when he had shown up at her table - freshly showered and changed after a grueling Quidditch practice - and asked to sit with her because all the other spots in the library were taken.
She had noticed those two buttons, of course - what self-respecting female wouldn’t acknowledge a partially open shirt on an attractive young male? She hadn’t let it bother her, though, because she had a nasty Charms essay to finish by Monday and she was hardly halfway through it.
Right King of Wrong (the other fic)
His top two buttons are undone.
It shouldn’t bother me. It doesn’t bother me. It didn’t bother me ten minutes ago when he first walked into the library -clean and fresh after a grueling Quidditch practice I might add- and it doesn’t bother me now.
But he’s just sitting there, his shirt tails un-tucked, his sleeves rolled up to expose tanned forearms and his top two buttons undone, revealing a hint of dusty blond hair on his chest. How in Merlin's beard am I supposed to concentrate on my Charms assignment when he’s purposely sprawled with casual elegance in a deep chair, directly in my line of vision?
The stories themselves are completely different from each other otherwise, so it's just the opening couple paragraphs that have been stolen.
I'll repeat this from what I said in my last post on plagiarism: I completely don't understand the people who do it, especially college students who should KNOW BETTER BY NOW (which this author is, according to her FFnet profile). If you'll allow me to be an arrogant brat for a moment, it's not like my fic is some obscure little piece in the monster that is HP fandom. It's a fairly well-known and popular fic in the Lily/James section for a one-shot. Like I said before, someone always finds out when you plagiarize...especially if you plagiarize from something popular.
The mean-spirited bitch in me wants to stir whatever Harry Potter fangirls I have left, report this fic to the FFnet mods and get it yanked without warning, while my more rational, "Let's not end up on Fandom Wank, shall we?" side believes I should at least send a PM to her first to let her know her I'm reporting her. Or is that still being too bitchy to report her without giving her a chance to change her fic? I'm risking creating a wank storm anyway because her fic is a fairly popular Rose/Scorpius one-shot, and it getting yanked will probably piss someone off.
Has anyone out there been plagiarized, and if so, what did you do about it? I'm not going to make a move until after I get off work, so you have plenty of time to respond.
The reason this isn't f-locked? When you're on the receiving end of plagiarism, it's not something you should hide and it's something everyone else in whatever fandom should be aware of. It's all about accountability, and when you've done something wrong, you need to own up to it and face the consequences. Or at least be publicly shamed for it.
And, no, this is not a plea for people to go out and harass this author. Not like I think any of my f-list would do that sort of thing.
I got an email from someone this morning pointing me in the direction of this Rose/Scorpius fic and said the first couple of lines were similar to my James/Lily fic The Incident in the Library. So I checked it out, and at first I was like, "Oh, it's just the first line, huh? Well, I'm no aja, so I'm going to let it slide," but then I read it again and now I'm kind of pissed.
The Incident in the Library (mine)
The top two buttons of his shirt were undone.
This hadn’t bothered her twenty minutes ago, when he had shown up at her table - freshly showered and changed after a grueling Quidditch practice - and asked to sit with her because all the other spots in the library were taken.
She had noticed those two buttons, of course - what self-respecting female wouldn’t acknowledge a partially open shirt on an attractive young male? She hadn’t let it bother her, though, because she had a nasty Charms essay to finish by Monday and she was hardly halfway through it.
Right King of Wrong (the other fic)
His top two buttons are undone.
It shouldn’t bother me. It doesn’t bother me. It didn’t bother me ten minutes ago when he first walked into the library -clean and fresh after a grueling Quidditch practice I might add- and it doesn’t bother me now.
But he’s just sitting there, his shirt tails un-tucked, his sleeves rolled up to expose tanned forearms and his top two buttons undone, revealing a hint of dusty blond hair on his chest. How in Merlin's beard am I supposed to concentrate on my Charms assignment when he’s purposely sprawled with casual elegance in a deep chair, directly in my line of vision?
The stories themselves are completely different from each other otherwise, so it's just the opening couple paragraphs that have been stolen.
I'll repeat this from what I said in my last post on plagiarism: I completely don't understand the people who do it, especially college students who should KNOW BETTER BY NOW (which this author is, according to her FFnet profile). If you'll allow me to be an arrogant brat for a moment, it's not like my fic is some obscure little piece in the monster that is HP fandom. It's a fairly well-known and popular fic in the Lily/James section for a one-shot. Like I said before, someone always finds out when you plagiarize...especially if you plagiarize from something popular.
The mean-spirited bitch in me wants to stir whatever Harry Potter fangirls I have left, report this fic to the FFnet mods and get it yanked without warning, while my more rational, "Let's not end up on Fandom Wank, shall we?" side believes I should at least send a PM to her first to let her know her I'm reporting her. Or is that still being too bitchy to report her without giving her a chance to change her fic? I'm risking creating a wank storm anyway because her fic is a fairly popular Rose/Scorpius one-shot, and it getting yanked will probably piss someone off.
Has anyone out there been plagiarized, and if so, what did you do about it? I'm not going to make a move until after I get off work, so you have plenty of time to respond.
The reason this isn't f-locked? When you're on the receiving end of plagiarism, it's not something you should hide and it's something everyone else in whatever fandom should be aware of. It's all about accountability, and when you've done something wrong, you need to own up to it and face the consequences. Or at least be publicly shamed for it.
And, no, this is not a plea for people to go out and harass this author. Not like I think any of my f-list would do that sort of thing.