Summary of the case reported by sunshine_girl32
Sincere apologies, this report is long, long overdue.
This case was reported to us by sunshine_girl32 on the 25th August and after investigating I found no plagiarism that was actionable by us but I thought I would write a report about it anyway (eventually) as it was interesting.
sunshine_girl32 reported to us two fics from the Princess and the frog fandom that were remarkably similar.
Baby Mine by PrincessSomething
And:
The cutest little thing by Scatterbrain 911 (now deleted but here is a screencap)
Both fics center round the same premise using a block of dialog taken from a scene from episode 3.16 of the Gilmore Girls. Under the cut is the transcript of the scene in question, a full transcript for the episode can be found here
CUT TO INDEPENDENCE INN
[Sookie, surrounded by her kitchen staff, has several plates of food on the counter in front of her]
SOOKIE: This is outrageous. I am beyond offended. Did you tell them I’m beyond offended? Sending my food back? That’s it, get their names, they’re never eating here again.
WAITER: Okay.
SOOKIE: Wait, what wine was he drinking?
WAITER: 1952 Chateau Petrus Bordeaux.
SOOKIE: Hm. Okay, never mind.
[Lorelai walks in]
LORELAI: Hey, is everything okay?
SOOKIE: No, we have got to have a better screening system for customers here.
LORELAI: Yes, we do, since we currently have no screening system for customers here.
SOOKIE: They sent it back. My food. My four star, ‘you haven’t lived ‘til you’ve eaten there, says Ruth Reichl,’ food.
LORELAI: What did they say was wrong?
SOOKIE: You name it. Too salty, too hot, too sewer-y.
LORELAI: Honey, calm down. Some people are just stupid.
SOOKIE: Yes, they are stupid, and stupid people have stupid friends, and they all have to come here and be stupid together.
LORELAI: Okay, now, don’t be mad at me, but I have to ask this - are you sure there’s nothing wrong with the food?
SOOKIE: Of course there’s nothing wrong with the food. You don’t think that I would know if something was wrong with my food? You don’t think that I tasted every last dish that was sent back. I tasted it, Manuel tasted it, Rico tasted it, Louella tasted it. We all tasted it and it tastes fine.
LORELAI: Okay. Do you mind?
SOOKIE: You don’t believe me?
LORELAI: I believe you completely, but it’s easier for me to take on those who doubt you if I actually tasted it myself.
SOOKIE: Fine, go ahead.
[Lorelai tries the food]
LORELAI: Okay, now I get the sewer-y reference.
SOOKIE: What are you talking about?
LORELAI: Come here. [to waiter] Just, uh, send them out some free desserts.
SOOKIE: Free desserts? You’re giving the stupid people free desserts.
LORELAI: Sookie, I love you.
SOOKIE: I love you, too.
LORELAI: Okay, and I love your food, you know that.
SOOKIE: Yeah.
LORELAI: But I have to tell you that that bite I just had over there is one of the worst things I’ve ever tasted, and I’ve tasted some very bad things.
SOOKIE: What?
LORELAI: Are you sure you didn’t just accidentally drop something in the food tonight, like, I don’t know, uh, strychnine or manure?
SOOKIE: No, I tested each dish every step of the way. I mean, the base, the stock, the sauce, the seasonings.
LORELAI: Are you sick? ‘Cause sometimes the flu or a cold or even allergies can throw your tastebuds off.
SOOKIE: No, I’m not sick. I mean, I had a little bug last week, but nothing today.
LORELAI: Well, I think you should think about getting a checkup. Maybe it was more than a little bug.
SOOKIE: The food was really bad?
LORELAI: Oh, honey, it was just. . .well, yeah, it was really that bad.
SOOKIE: I don’t understand it.
LORELAI: Ah, I’m sure it was nothing. Just have Manuel help you with the tasting for the rest of the night, okay?
[Rory walks into the kitchen]
RORY: Paris is going to drive me completely insane. Ooh, that looks good.
ENTIRE KITCHEN STAFF: No!
RORY: Geez.
LORELAI: Be happy you’re loved, hon. I got a Kit Kat in my purse.
[Lorelai and Rory walk into the lobby]
RORY: What’s up?
LORELAI: I don’t know. It’s weird, Sookie must be sick or something.
RORY: Sookie never gets sick.
LORELAI: She’ll be fine. So, tell me, what did Paris do now?
RORY: It’s nothing, it’s just Paris. There’s this speech contest for the bicentennial, and I wasn’t even going to enter it, but I don’t know - with the whole ‘it’s my last chance to crush you before graduation’ comment, I want to enter, I want to win, and I wanna dance around her saying ‘I win, I win, I win!’
LORELAI: Wow, you’re getting more and more like me everyday.
RORY: But I know, it was petty and stupid and I should probably just ignore her.
LORELAI: Yes, that is what you should do.
RORY: Okay, that is what I will do.
LORELAI: How come you weren’t gonna enter the contest?
RORY: I don’t know.
LORELAI: You love doing school things.
RORY: I don’t love doing school things when it involves the entire school staring at me while I’m doing ‘em.
LORELAI: You had to give your vice presidential acceptance speech in front of the entire school.
RORY: Yeah, but I had to do that.
LORELAI: Oh, so you’re just gonna go through life only doing what you have to do.
RORY: Well, no.
LORELAI: Because a person who wants to be a foreign correspondent for a living should probably embrace the opportunity to practice her speechin’ skills in front of a crowd.
RORY: You had the motherly edge going there until you threw in the speechin’ skills comment.
LORELAI: Yeah, well, you know what I mean.
RORY: I know what you mean. Okay, I’ll go out for the speech.
LORELAI: Good.
RORY: And if I get to do the ‘I win, I win, I win’ dance, then so much the better.
LORELAI: For everyone involved.
RORY: Mmhmm.
LORELAI: Oh my God. Oh my God.
[Lorelai walks across the lobby. Sookie is walking toward her]
LORELAI: You’re pregnant!
SOOKIE: I’m pregnant!
[they scream and jump up and down]
SOOKIE: Oh my God, I’m pregnant!
RORY: You’re pregnant?
SOOKIE: I’m pregnant!
LORELAI: That’s why!
SOOKIE: I’m pregnant!
RORY: That’s great!
[they all scream and hug]
PrincessSomething credits her fic as being a parody of one of her favorite shows while Scatterbrain 911 doesn't. While both writers do take this dialog, they write their own fic around it. It's strange to see this kind of thing, writing a scene from a show like this isn't exactly new but this is the first time I have seen a scene from a show taken and written as another fandom. Yes, there is plagiarism in the fact that they copied words from the show, but it's not something that I would consider to be actionable, it's just a little strange. The main accusation was that Scatterbrain 911's story was a copy of PrincessSomething's, I found that not to be the case. Scatterbrain 911's story was longer, more detailed and contained mistakes that PrincessSomething's did not. I did contact Scatterbrain 911 and suggested to then that they might want to credit the source of their dialog, but it seems they chose to delete the story instead.
This case was reported to us by sunshine_girl32 on the 25th August and after investigating I found no plagiarism that was actionable by us but I thought I would write a report about it anyway (eventually) as it was interesting.
sunshine_girl32 reported to us two fics from the Princess and the frog fandom that were remarkably similar.
Baby Mine by PrincessSomething
And:
The cutest little thing by Scatterbrain 911 (now deleted but here is a screencap)
Both fics center round the same premise using a block of dialog taken from a scene from episode 3.16 of the Gilmore Girls. Under the cut is the transcript of the scene in question, a full transcript for the episode can be found here
CUT TO INDEPENDENCE INN
[Sookie, surrounded by her kitchen staff, has several plates of food on the counter in front of her]
SOOKIE: This is outrageous. I am beyond offended. Did you tell them I’m beyond offended? Sending my food back? That’s it, get their names, they’re never eating here again.
WAITER: Okay.
SOOKIE: Wait, what wine was he drinking?
WAITER: 1952 Chateau Petrus Bordeaux.
SOOKIE: Hm. Okay, never mind.
[Lorelai walks in]
LORELAI: Hey, is everything okay?
SOOKIE: No, we have got to have a better screening system for customers here.
LORELAI: Yes, we do, since we currently have no screening system for customers here.
SOOKIE: They sent it back. My food. My four star, ‘you haven’t lived ‘til you’ve eaten there, says Ruth Reichl,’ food.
LORELAI: What did they say was wrong?
SOOKIE: You name it. Too salty, too hot, too sewer-y.
LORELAI: Honey, calm down. Some people are just stupid.
SOOKIE: Yes, they are stupid, and stupid people have stupid friends, and they all have to come here and be stupid together.
LORELAI: Okay, now, don’t be mad at me, but I have to ask this - are you sure there’s nothing wrong with the food?
SOOKIE: Of course there’s nothing wrong with the food. You don’t think that I would know if something was wrong with my food? You don’t think that I tasted every last dish that was sent back. I tasted it, Manuel tasted it, Rico tasted it, Louella tasted it. We all tasted it and it tastes fine.
LORELAI: Okay. Do you mind?
SOOKIE: You don’t believe me?
LORELAI: I believe you completely, but it’s easier for me to take on those who doubt you if I actually tasted it myself.
SOOKIE: Fine, go ahead.
[Lorelai tries the food]
LORELAI: Okay, now I get the sewer-y reference.
SOOKIE: What are you talking about?
LORELAI: Come here. [to waiter] Just, uh, send them out some free desserts.
SOOKIE: Free desserts? You’re giving the stupid people free desserts.
LORELAI: Sookie, I love you.
SOOKIE: I love you, too.
LORELAI: Okay, and I love your food, you know that.
SOOKIE: Yeah.
LORELAI: But I have to tell you that that bite I just had over there is one of the worst things I’ve ever tasted, and I’ve tasted some very bad things.
SOOKIE: What?
LORELAI: Are you sure you didn’t just accidentally drop something in the food tonight, like, I don’t know, uh, strychnine or manure?
SOOKIE: No, I tested each dish every step of the way. I mean, the base, the stock, the sauce, the seasonings.
LORELAI: Are you sick? ‘Cause sometimes the flu or a cold or even allergies can throw your tastebuds off.
SOOKIE: No, I’m not sick. I mean, I had a little bug last week, but nothing today.
LORELAI: Well, I think you should think about getting a checkup. Maybe it was more than a little bug.
SOOKIE: The food was really bad?
LORELAI: Oh, honey, it was just. . .well, yeah, it was really that bad.
SOOKIE: I don’t understand it.
LORELAI: Ah, I’m sure it was nothing. Just have Manuel help you with the tasting for the rest of the night, okay?
[Rory walks into the kitchen]
RORY: Paris is going to drive me completely insane. Ooh, that looks good.
ENTIRE KITCHEN STAFF: No!
RORY: Geez.
LORELAI: Be happy you’re loved, hon. I got a Kit Kat in my purse.
[Lorelai and Rory walk into the lobby]
RORY: What’s up?
LORELAI: I don’t know. It’s weird, Sookie must be sick or something.
RORY: Sookie never gets sick.
LORELAI: She’ll be fine. So, tell me, what did Paris do now?
RORY: It’s nothing, it’s just Paris. There’s this speech contest for the bicentennial, and I wasn’t even going to enter it, but I don’t know - with the whole ‘it’s my last chance to crush you before graduation’ comment, I want to enter, I want to win, and I wanna dance around her saying ‘I win, I win, I win!’
LORELAI: Wow, you’re getting more and more like me everyday.
RORY: But I know, it was petty and stupid and I should probably just ignore her.
LORELAI: Yes, that is what you should do.
RORY: Okay, that is what I will do.
LORELAI: How come you weren’t gonna enter the contest?
RORY: I don’t know.
LORELAI: You love doing school things.
RORY: I don’t love doing school things when it involves the entire school staring at me while I’m doing ‘em.
LORELAI: You had to give your vice presidential acceptance speech in front of the entire school.
RORY: Yeah, but I had to do that.
LORELAI: Oh, so you’re just gonna go through life only doing what you have to do.
RORY: Well, no.
LORELAI: Because a person who wants to be a foreign correspondent for a living should probably embrace the opportunity to practice her speechin’ skills in front of a crowd.
RORY: You had the motherly edge going there until you threw in the speechin’ skills comment.
LORELAI: Yeah, well, you know what I mean.
RORY: I know what you mean. Okay, I’ll go out for the speech.
LORELAI: Good.
RORY: And if I get to do the ‘I win, I win, I win’ dance, then so much the better.
LORELAI: For everyone involved.
RORY: Mmhmm.
LORELAI: Oh my God. Oh my God.
[Lorelai walks across the lobby. Sookie is walking toward her]
LORELAI: You’re pregnant!
SOOKIE: I’m pregnant!
[they scream and jump up and down]
SOOKIE: Oh my God, I’m pregnant!
RORY: You’re pregnant?
SOOKIE: I’m pregnant!
LORELAI: That’s why!
SOOKIE: I’m pregnant!
RORY: That’s great!
[they all scream and hug]
PrincessSomething credits her fic as being a parody of one of her favorite shows while Scatterbrain 911 doesn't. While both writers do take this dialog, they write their own fic around it. It's strange to see this kind of thing, writing a scene from a show like this isn't exactly new but this is the first time I have seen a scene from a show taken and written as another fandom. Yes, there is plagiarism in the fact that they copied words from the show, but it's not something that I would consider to be actionable, it's just a little strange. The main accusation was that Scatterbrain 911's story was a copy of PrincessSomething's, I found that not to be the case. Scatterbrain 911's story was longer, more detailed and contained mistakes that PrincessSomething's did not. I did contact Scatterbrain 911 and suggested to then that they might want to credit the source of their dialog, but it seems they chose to delete the story instead.