2008 Year in Review for Stop Plagiarism
Number of resolved cases resulting in being added to the List of Known Plagiarists: 38
Number of cases added to the Watch List: 6
Number of open cases form 2008: 6. Mods are working to wrap these up.
Cases currently listed as unresolvable: 2. In both there is definitely something that doesn't feel kosher, but no one is responding, including who appears to be the original author.
Cases by Fandom
Ai no Kusabi: 1, Alias: 2, Alice in Wonderland: 1. Angel: 1, Avenged Sevenfold: 1, Batman: 1, Beauty and the Beast: 1, Bible: 1, Bleach: 1, Buffy the Vampire Slayer: 1, Charmed: 1, CW RPS: 1, Death Note: 1, Detective Conan: 1, Detective Conan/ Case Closed: 1, Doctor Who: 5, Dresden Files: 1, Final Fantasy VII: 1, Final Fantsy VIII: 1, Full Metal Alchemist: 1, Gilmore Girls: 1, Greek Mythology: 1, Hannah Montana: 1, Harry Potter: 8, Heroes: 3, I (heart) Huckabees: 1, Inuyasha: 2, Jane Eyre: 1, Life on Mars: 1, Linkin Park RPS: 1, Lord of the Rings: 1, Mulan: 1, Naruto: 8, One Tree Hill: 1, Ouran High School Host Club: 1, Pirates of the Caribbean: 1, Sailor Moon: 1, Sarah Connor Chronicles: 1, Scrubs: 1, Shaman King: 1, Silent Hill: 1, Smallville: 1, Star Trek: 1, Star Trek: Voyager: 1, Star Wars: 1, Stargate: SG1: 2, Stargate: SGA: 1, Strawberry Panic!: 1, Supernatural: 2, Supernatural RPS: 1, The Beatles: 1, The Fast and the Furious: 1, The GazettE: 1, The Killers: 1, Tinman: 1, Tokio Hotel: 1, Torchwood: 1, Transformers/Beast Wars: 1, Twilight: 2, X-Files: 2, X-Men: 1, Yu Yu Hakusho: 2, Yu-Gi-Oh: 1
Most fandoms had only one or two cases during the year. There were a few exceptions - Harry Potter, Naruto, and Doctor Who. That is not to suggest there are more plagiarists in those fandoms, it is equally possible that it is just a sign of how popular those fandoms are or the seriousness with which the fandom takes plagiarism.
Many of the cases were the same fandom with cut and pasting of word for word content. There also continues to be many cases where a person lifts a story from one fandom and converts the names and other details to convert it to a different fandom.
Non cases: There were approximately 16.
There was one case that was accepted and then found to not be plagiarism or ones that even fit being listed on the Watch List. The case against claireandelle1 and furqueen96. Never before (and hopefully never again) we had a person report a case that at least at first blush appeared legit, only to hi-jack the post once approved to fake a post claiming the accused person was found guilty by our community. As promptly as possible that post was pulled and a new, more accurate information posted.
To reiterate: the only persons who will post a decision post are active mods. Active mods are listed on our info page.
As for the other 15, they were cases that were submitted to the communnity and/or cases/inquiries that came directly to a mod's email, but were rejected as not being plagiarism or the person was encouraged to submit it properly. The ones rejected were often cases without documentation; the accused person had already pulled the stories and no screen caps were made to act as documentation. Another type of report is people reposting stories and crediting the author, but the original author doesn't want their story reposted/translated, etc. A third, smaller category is when there are similar themes/images, but they do not rise to the level of plagiarism to the best of our ability to discern. A fourth category is people who likely have a case, but don't supply the needed links; when those cases are rejected, they are encouraged to resubmit with the proper documentation. Some do, some don't. A fifth category is that since the ending of working on video cases, we've had a couple of submissions and referred them to dontstealvideo.
Occasionally the question comes up as to why almost all of the cases we receive end up with the accused being found to have plagiarized or worthy of the watch list. It is not because they are assumed guilty, it is because, as the above paragraph describes, we weed out a lot of cases that are not plagiarism so that they never are posted. This is done to minimize the number of authors or artists whose names are connected with a plagiarism report but they are not plagiarizing.
This year also marked the start of a sister community, dontstealvideo.
Case where I'd still love to ID original authors: The Repeat Case Against Chen06 aka Li Ping aka Ping aka Usagi Chiba aka Marcella. If you are familiar with any of the following fandoms: Detective Conan, Jane Eyre, Mulan, Sailor Moon, or X-Files, please consider taking a look at the post.
While I'd love to think there will be fewer cases in 2009, given the patterns of the previous years I'm sure there will be even more. And in part, we have you all to thank. Like ripples on a pond, you've spreading the word within your fandoms that we are a place to turn when plagiarism occurs. We will continue to do all we can to live up to your confidence in us.
Number of cases added to the Watch List: 6
Number of open cases form 2008: 6. Mods are working to wrap these up.
Cases currently listed as unresolvable: 2. In both there is definitely something that doesn't feel kosher, but no one is responding, including who appears to be the original author.
Cases by Fandom
Ai no Kusabi: 1, Alias: 2, Alice in Wonderland: 1. Angel: 1, Avenged Sevenfold: 1, Batman: 1, Beauty and the Beast: 1, Bible: 1, Bleach: 1, Buffy the Vampire Slayer: 1, Charmed: 1, CW RPS: 1, Death Note: 1, Detective Conan: 1, Detective Conan/ Case Closed: 1, Doctor Who: 5, Dresden Files: 1, Final Fantasy VII: 1, Final Fantsy VIII: 1, Full Metal Alchemist: 1, Gilmore Girls: 1, Greek Mythology: 1, Hannah Montana: 1, Harry Potter: 8, Heroes: 3, I (heart) Huckabees: 1, Inuyasha: 2, Jane Eyre: 1, Life on Mars: 1, Linkin Park RPS: 1, Lord of the Rings: 1, Mulan: 1, Naruto: 8, One Tree Hill: 1, Ouran High School Host Club: 1, Pirates of the Caribbean: 1, Sailor Moon: 1, Sarah Connor Chronicles: 1, Scrubs: 1, Shaman King: 1, Silent Hill: 1, Smallville: 1, Star Trek: 1, Star Trek: Voyager: 1, Star Wars: 1, Stargate: SG1: 2, Stargate: SGA: 1, Strawberry Panic!: 1, Supernatural: 2, Supernatural RPS: 1, The Beatles: 1, The Fast and the Furious: 1, The GazettE: 1, The Killers: 1, Tinman: 1, Tokio Hotel: 1, Torchwood: 1, Transformers/Beast Wars: 1, Twilight: 2, X-Files: 2, X-Men: 1, Yu Yu Hakusho: 2, Yu-Gi-Oh: 1
Most fandoms had only one or two cases during the year. There were a few exceptions - Harry Potter, Naruto, and Doctor Who. That is not to suggest there are more plagiarists in those fandoms, it is equally possible that it is just a sign of how popular those fandoms are or the seriousness with which the fandom takes plagiarism.
Many of the cases were the same fandom with cut and pasting of word for word content. There also continues to be many cases where a person lifts a story from one fandom and converts the names and other details to convert it to a different fandom.
Non cases: There were approximately 16.
There was one case that was accepted and then found to not be plagiarism or ones that even fit being listed on the Watch List. The case against claireandelle1 and furqueen96. Never before (and hopefully never again) we had a person report a case that at least at first blush appeared legit, only to hi-jack the post once approved to fake a post claiming the accused person was found guilty by our community. As promptly as possible that post was pulled and a new, more accurate information posted.
To reiterate: the only persons who will post a decision post are active mods. Active mods are listed on our info page.
As for the other 15, they were cases that were submitted to the communnity and/or cases/inquiries that came directly to a mod's email, but were rejected as not being plagiarism or the person was encouraged to submit it properly. The ones rejected were often cases without documentation; the accused person had already pulled the stories and no screen caps were made to act as documentation. Another type of report is people reposting stories and crediting the author, but the original author doesn't want their story reposted/translated, etc. A third, smaller category is when there are similar themes/images, but they do not rise to the level of plagiarism to the best of our ability to discern. A fourth category is people who likely have a case, but don't supply the needed links; when those cases are rejected, they are encouraged to resubmit with the proper documentation. Some do, some don't. A fifth category is that since the ending of working on video cases, we've had a couple of submissions and referred them to dontstealvideo.
Occasionally the question comes up as to why almost all of the cases we receive end up with the accused being found to have plagiarized or worthy of the watch list. It is not because they are assumed guilty, it is because, as the above paragraph describes, we weed out a lot of cases that are not plagiarism so that they never are posted. This is done to minimize the number of authors or artists whose names are connected with a plagiarism report but they are not plagiarizing.
This year also marked the start of a sister community, dontstealvideo.
Case where I'd still love to ID original authors: The Repeat Case Against Chen06 aka Li Ping aka Ping aka Usagi Chiba aka Marcella. If you are familiar with any of the following fandoms: Detective Conan, Jane Eyre, Mulan, Sailor Moon, or X-Files, please consider taking a look at the post.
While I'd love to think there will be fewer cases in 2009, given the patterns of the previous years I'm sure there will be even more. And in part, we have you all to thank. Like ripples on a pond, you've spreading the word within your fandoms that we are a place to turn when plagiarism occurs. We will continue to do all we can to live up to your confidence in us.