Case Against Spikes_kogagirl (please excuse the issues with HTML)
On the 6th of October, 2010 darkhavens reported a case within the Spike/Xander community. The case involved a story posted on 5th of October,2010 by spikes_kogagirl and it was pointed out that it had a number of similarities to a well known story with the same pairing originally posted by Shadow shadowsalcove.ravenshadow.net/satwilight.htm
A number of things were taken into consideration when looking at this case, the biggest issue from the accused was that of ‘fanon’. Where plots and ideas have been taken by the fandom and made in to fanfic canon, this does mean that there can be similarities in many stories.
We have had a number of cases with this issue and it is not always an easy or obvious case to investigate.
However, in reviewing both stories I found there were a number of similarities in the stories that cannot be put down to simply random chance nor shared themes; there are whole paragraphs and conversations which do seem slightly reworked and/or reworded, as well as specific phrases and sentences from the original story appearing in the new story. This far surpasses the idea of shared themes and therefore cannot be classed simply as 'unintentional plagiarism'.
spikes_kogagirl has firmly stated that she never intended to plagiarise the story and has offered to rewrite it but this case is only in regards to the unedited story 'Mending Souls'in which she posted as her own original story.
In the original case report community.livejournal.com/stop_plagiarism/125702.html many similarities are stated. The main points from the original post are as follows
:
Twilight Time (Chapter 1)
"Might have cracked one there, Pet," he said. He sat back, gazing into Xander's eyes. "What'd your bleeding folks use on you, a fucking baseball bat?"
"They didn't - " Xander flushed darkly. "I fell and hit the pool table."
"Yeah, well, that must be one bleeding feisty table to do all that," Spike said with a chuckle. "I figure it must be possessed or something. Suppose we just go tell Giles about that demonic table, ey? Might need exorcising, that, before it eats someone."
"No!" Xander flushed even darker. "I mean - "
Spike raised an eyebrow.
Mending Souls
Spike hooked his thumbs in his belt as he took a few more steps forward, time to strike the nerve and put the boy off balance. “Wot your pop beat you for this time, then?” Xander looked up at him with a shocked expression and Spikes eyebrows rose in a ‘well?’ expression.
“I fell down the stairs,” Xander replied smoothly. Not the first time then, Spike decided, if the boy had an excuse thought up like that and could give it out so smoothly. He had practice at this, and Spike was curious just how much practice.
“Must’a been a mean set of stairs to do all that, then. They jump up an bite you, mate? Must be possessed,” Spike declared as he eyed the stairs leading up to the main house, “wot say we go take a stroll over to the watchers an tell him ‘bout those demonic stairs before they eat someone else yeah?”
“NO!” Again Spike’s eyebrows shot up again, waiting for Xander to elaborate. “I mean no need to do that. I’ll be fine, just a few cuts.”
~~~
In response to Xander's 'I wish' when Spike tells him he came close to death:
Twilight Time (Chapter 1)
"Undead's not bad, but dead's no fun at all."
Mending Souls
Undead is alright, but dead is no fun at all.
~~~
Twilight Time (Chapter 1)
"Right," Spike said. He grimaced. "Well, make yourself comfortable. I'm 'round to the chemist's for a few things."
"Chemist?" Xander echoed worriedly, frowning.
Mending Souls (cap 1x4)
“right, I’m round to the chemists. Some of that is gona need more care than we can give em an I know you don’t want to go to the clinic.”
Xander looked up at Spike slightly dazed, questions bombarding his mind with few or no answers. Why did Spike care? Why was he doing this? What was ‘the chemists’?
~~~
Twilight Time (Chapter 1)
Now, before you get too muzzy, toddle over to the loo and take a piss, all right?"
"Huh?" Xander wasn't too fuzzy to gape at Spike's words.
"Want to make sure there's no blood in your urine, Pet," Spike said patiently. "All that bruising over your kidneys, might be a problem. Go on now."
It took Xander a few minutes to relax enough to urinate, and when he did he let out a hollow groan. There was indeed a trace of blood in his urine, but Spike, who over a century or so had become pretty damned familiar with human physiology, could tell it wasn't serious.
"Well, I'm sure it don't feel any too good, but you'll heal up on your own," Spike said with satisfaction. "Here, you can put these on now." He helped Xander step into a pair of black silk boxers and carefully pulled them up.
Mending Souls (cap 1x6)
Spike moved away from Xander, “first, though, piss.”
Xander stared at Spike a moment and blinked, why did the idea of Spike striping his ass make him shiver? But wait, what did Spike say again, “What-huh?”
“I said piss, all that bruising around your kidneys might be a problem.” Spike ordered as he stood by.
“Joy, just what I need, the evil undead watching me piss. I can cross that off my “never want to do again” list.” Xander, however, complied and stood over the toilet. He let out a hollow groan as the stream started and there was, in fact, a trace of blood in his urine.
“Right, you should be fine. Not much there, it should heal up on its own. Now, toddle off to bed.”
(The word 'toddle' is used 4 times in TT, once in this scene. It seems an odd sort of coincidence for it to turn up in the same scene in MS.)
~~~
Twilight Time (Chapter 10)
“Ummm, yeah. Can I speak to Angel, please.”
Cordelia sounded bored, which meant, Spike supposed, that she hadn’t recognized his voice.
“Who should I say?”
“Tell him William Barstow, please.”
“Hold on.”
A moment later Cordelia came back on.
“I’m switching you to his phone,” she said. “If I can figure this thing out. If you get cut off, call back, okay?”
“Right.” Spike braced himself. A moment and several clicks later, one quiet word.
“Will.”
That tone said it all. Flat, emotionless, not angry. He didn’t even merit anger. Right. State your business and bugger off.
“Won’t keep you,” he said, just as quietly. “I want my stuff, the stuff you had stored - if you haven’t done something with it, I mean. And access to my accounts.”
A long pause.
“You’ve got a hell of a nerve, Will,” Angel said in that same measured tone. “Giles tells me you’re living in my building.”
“Yeah, well - “ Spike grimaced. “If I had the money, I’d buy it off you. Look, Angel, I don’t care what you think of me - “
“Yes, you do.”
That flat, matter-of-fact tone again. Spike swallowed, closing his eyes briefly.
“All right, I do,” he admitted. “But this isn’t about me. It’s for Xander.”
“Xander?” This time Angel’s tone changed, sharpened. “Xander Harris? What about him? Is he all right?”
(...)
Another long silence. When Angel spoke, his voice had softened slightly. Not much, but enough to let Spike know that forgiveness, while still only a remote possibility, wasn’t completely out of the question.
“Your belongings are at Millenium Self Storage in Sunnydale,” he said. “I’ll FedEx everything you need for your accounts, plus the key card to the storage unit. You’ll have them tomorrow before sunset.”
Spike swallowed.
“Thanks,” he said quietly. “Angel, I - “
“Shut up, Spike,” Angel said, his voice hard again. “I don’t want to hear it. And I heard about the chip. Don’t show up on my doorstep expecting my help with that.”
Spike grinned. The very fact that Angel was giving him this lecture - well, it was good enough for him.
“Thanks,” Spike said again.
“Fuck you, Will,” Angel said coldly.
“Could happen,” Spike said cheerfully, hanging up on Angel.
Mending Souls (caps 1x7, 1x8, 1x9)
“Yeah, luv, put Angel on the phone.” Spike replied.
Either Cordelia didn’t recognize his voice or didn’t much care because she made no indication of recognition, “Who should I say is calling?”
“Tell ‘im it’s William, pet.”
“You got a sexy accent going on there; you can call back any time.” Cordelia said as she sat up to figure out how to transfer Spike over to Angel’s line.
Spike couldn’t help but preen at the compliment, even if Cordelia didn’t realize who he really was, “Ta luv, I’ll keep that in mind.”
Spike heard a click as he was being transferred and figured Angel might just cut him off after Cordelia told him who was calling. However, he didn’t have long to wait before Angel answered, “William…”
Right, monotone, one word response, Spike didn’t warrant any emotion obviously. Obviously Angel was in no mood to deal with Spike’s usual shit, so for any hope Angel would actually fill his requests he’d be brief.
“Right, Peaches, I’ll be brief. I want my stuff.” Spike knew such a bold request would probably be flat out denied. But he had to get Angel to see reason if he had any hope in caring for Xander.
“You’ve got a lot of nerve calling here and asking for anything, Will. After what you did I have a mind to stake you myself. I heard about your situation and I am not sympathetic, so don’t come asking for help with-”
“It’s not for me, it’s for Xander.” Spike cut Angel off in mid rant.
That gave Angel need for pause; just what interest did Spike have in Xander? Finally, after some deliberation, Angel spoke again, “what about Xander, what’s happened?”
(...)
“Is Xander alright?”
(...)
Spike could almost hear Angel brooding over the phone. But he didn’t have long to wait until Angel finally made his decision. “I’ll have everything put together and sent by messenger by this afternoon. Can I assume you’re staying in the basement at the moment?”
(...)
“Alright, but don’t start asking for help with the chip, Spike. That’s your problem, not mine, and if I find out your doing something bad to Xander I will personally come down there and kick your ass to the moon.” Angel threatened as he began the process of getting Spike access to his accounts and stuff.
“Ta, peaches. I appreciate it.” Spike smiled, even the threat was meant to show that Angel still cared and that forgiveness was a possibility if not yet then someday.
“Fuck you, Spike. Don’t call me again.” Angel then hung up on Spike and again, Spike couldn’t help but smile. The “don’t call me again” screamed “call again when you really need it” and Spike was planning to do just that.
“Just might happen peaches…”
~~~
(In both excerpts, expositional dialogue has been redacted (...) for the sake of brevity.) *** original post by darkhavens ***
The main issues:
• The phrase “Undead's not bad, but dead's no fun at all” is from Twilight Time and when I searched this specific phrase it returned only 1 match, the story 'Twilight Time'. While the serach for the phrase “Undead is alright, but dead is no fun at all” brings back a match of 0. This is not a common phrase at all and points directly to very slight rewording of the original story.
• The telephone conversation between Angel and Spike, both in language and how it is written. When both stories are viewed along side of one another the format is almost identical with only minor changes to language and description. This type of writing style does not appear again in 'mending souls' however it is common in 'Twilight Time"
• A specific mention within both stories Xander’s telling Spike of "you got to first base without even taking me out on a date". Again a search for this specific phrase only brings back one match, to Twilight Time. This is another phrase that is not common and does point to a copying of the original story.
In viewing these two stories side by side, there are unmistakable similarities and obvious rewording of certain scenes. The defense that this is not plagiarism because it was unintentional is not a valid excuse.
I have been able to communicate with all involved and while the new story was removed immediately after spikes_kogagirl was made aware of the issue and did offer to rewrite the story, spikes_kogagirl did not believe 'mending souls' was a case of plagiarism as she never intended to plagiarise Twilight Time and the stories simply shared themes.
However, due to the copying and rewording as I have outlined above spikes_kogagirl will be added to the list of known plagiarists.
ETA - I have had further communication fromspikes_kogagirl in which she has now stated that she does no longer deny the accusations.
**Thank you to spikes_kogagirl for linking the original screen caps here.
**It has also been pointed out that this case was not solved in due time, for the wait I will apologise. Unfortunately real life does interfere at times and some cases are simply not able to be solved immediately. It can occasionally take time to get a response from everyone involved in a case and in the interests of transparency, I would not finalise a post if I am still waiting on information.**