Re: entrenous88's post

[quinara]

I would be very grateful for people's thoughts on what we should do in response to the case raised in entrenous88's post. As usual, it is not a case that can easily be defined by our rules.

There seems to me that there are two main issues:

1. spikess, it would appear, did not ask permission for the use of ideas (although she said that she did).
2. However, she did disclaim the basis of the story and credit, with links, to the originals. We will have to come to some conclusion over how adequate this was, since, if we refuse the validity of disclaiming, we make ourselves hypocrites.

In my own view (which, I'll admit, is sometimes not as condemnatory as it should be), this is less of a case of plagiarism, and more of a case of courtesy. I see it as a case similar to someone copying a fic, from another source, and pasting it in an archive of favourite fics on their own website, but without asking permission to do so. Of course, it is slightly worse than that, since the stories were changed and quite a large proportion of the credit was taken away.

I'd really appreciate all of your opinions, so that we can decide what to do next.

Quinara.

(ETA) On re-reading this post, I've realised that it doesn't completely say what I mean. (I'm adding this rather than deleting to save confusion, hopefully.) I would like to emphasise the point that spikess, it would appear, did not ask permission. I do find this a great problem.

The course of action I would take, if on my own (ie. without a large number of people who have the opinions by which I intend this community to be run), would be to try and retrieve permission from Empress Galaxia and Bill K. If permission were not granted, this would be followed by the removal of the fics by spikess along with a public apology everywhere that she posted and her addition to the watch-list (If she refused to remove her fics, she would become a plagiarist, in my view). If permission were granted, I would then like, as similar to chicken_cem's suggestion, a change to the disclaimer (at least) making it explicit that the basis of plot, humour and quite a number of detailed events belong to the original author. (Of course, the extent of this would be in the original author's hands, but this is what I would view as acceptable if I were the author.) I would also add her to the watch-list as a matter of cause.

I know this probably comes across as a complete change of tone, and for that I apologise. I intend to think more in the future before posting. Sorry.