The Case Against January Barmeer
On March 24th, we received a report from stretch of a possible plagiarism of her story "I Keep Smoking Cigarettes", by January Barmeer on FF.net. The original post can be found HERE.
I contacted January Barmeer via her FF.net account to get her response. She initially states that the story was coincidentally similar, possibly because she'd read the summary of stretch's story, and that the only line that was the same was, "I don't like funerals."
However, after presenting her the evidence that this was indeed a reworded version of stretch's story, containing many sentences and phrases that were left unchanged, I received the following reply,
Well, thanks for telling me that I have writing ability, I guess. Honesty, it
was my first story (or maybe not 'my' first story) and it is my last. I don't
know the exact definition of 'plagiarism', and I certainly didn't mean for it
to be a stolen story. I appreciate your time, and I would just like to let you
know that I have no intention of writing any more fanfictions. If I do decide
to in the future, I will make it completely my own. I appreciate your
understanding, and I hope, as you said, that the "fandom" will forgive me. If
you choose to put my name on a list of "known plagiarists", then could you
send me the url? I have never seen one of these, and I would at least like to
check it out. Of course, this is unneccessary due to the fact that I only
wrote one story and I only planned on that one story. Thanks for your time,
and I appreciate your understanding.
J. Barmeer
She has removed the story from FF.net, and appears to understand what she has done, and what not to do in the future should she choose to write again.
Given the evidence and confession, January Barmeer will be placed on the list of known plagiarists.
I contacted January Barmeer via her FF.net account to get her response. She initially states that the story was coincidentally similar, possibly because she'd read the summary of stretch's story, and that the only line that was the same was, "I don't like funerals."
However, after presenting her the evidence that this was indeed a reworded version of stretch's story, containing many sentences and phrases that were left unchanged, I received the following reply,
Well, thanks for telling me that I have writing ability, I guess. Honesty, it
was my first story (or maybe not 'my' first story) and it is my last. I don't
know the exact definition of 'plagiarism', and I certainly didn't mean for it
to be a stolen story. I appreciate your time, and I would just like to let you
know that I have no intention of writing any more fanfictions. If I do decide
to in the future, I will make it completely my own. I appreciate your
understanding, and I hope, as you said, that the "fandom" will forgive me. If
you choose to put my name on a list of "known plagiarists", then could you
send me the url? I have never seen one of these, and I would at least like to
check it out. Of course, this is unneccessary due to the fact that I only
wrote one story and I only planned on that one story. Thanks for your time,
and I appreciate your understanding.
J. Barmeer
She has removed the story from FF.net, and appears to understand what she has done, and what not to do in the future should she choose to write again.
Given the evidence and confession, January Barmeer will be placed on the list of known plagiarists.