Comments | cleolinda: Sigh.

cleolinda

Sigh.

Nov 11, 2009 08:13

So someone else has run off and reposted my work (this time, it's Twilight in Fifteen Minutes. NO DOGPILING, Y'ALL). I don't go looking for this stuff, because honestly, if I started trying to police the internet--which I did try for a little while, back when I was first writing these things--I would never, ever get anything else done. But I feel ( Read more... )

let me tell you internets, plagiarism, let me apologize in advance, oh dramatize, oh hell no, tribulations, m15m

Comments 195

nicolars November 11 2009, 15:24:35 UTC

"So they might be able to "impress" their immediate circle of friends, but someone's going to call them out before it gets passed around too widely"

Yeah, try to keep that in mind. The only people she might be impressing is her room temperature IQ clique. And even then, they seem too dumb to really get many of the jokes.

maramala November 12 2009, 01:12:20 UTC

The phrase "room temperature IQ clique" is too awesome to remain in this comment. Can I gank it off you?

nicolars November 12 2009, 04:37:44 UTC

Feel free! I know I have heard that term before I used it, so I have no particular claim on it.

bkwyrm November 11 2009, 15:28:32 UTC

It's been my experience that there's a certain subset of entitled asshats that get reeeeeeeeeeally defensive when confronted with their plagiarism. I wrote a funny little essay on "TwinkiePagans" about ten years ago that got lifted, changed, mis-attributed, and plagiarized all over the place. The justifications that people came up with for swiping it and claiming they wrote it were mind-boggling.

nicolars November 11 2009, 15:42:40 UTC

I think it's part of the download mentality -- "If I have the ability to download or copy something, then I should be able to do it without any legal/moral/ethical ramifications! The person being stolen from should feel flattered!"

I mean, I have a friend who is a musician and his fans are often angry or bewildered when he tells them that he's not cool with people downloading copies of his music for free from torrent sites.

bkwyrm November 11 2009, 15:54:56 UTC

I think you've hit it on the head - download mentality. I was told multiple times by people who'd PUBLISHED the essay (without permission or attribution) that I should be glad my work was being read. I was even told I was being "selfish" by asking that my name be attached. In several cases, the essay was substantially altered to reflect various viewpoints I didn't share, and my objections were just....waved away. It truly didn't matter to these people that I'd written the original essay, that I hadn't given my permission for them to change it, and I certainly hadn't given them permission to publish it for their own gain ( ... )

dachelle November 11 2009, 15:38:16 UTC

It's not stupid to get upset. Heck, her stupidity and assiness upset me, and I'm not even the author!

cleolinda November 11 2009, 15:42:01 UTC

Yeah, I think it's the assiness that has raised it to an entirely new level of unable-to-ignorability.

mellymell November 11 2009, 15:45:56 UTC

That sounds a little bit like an "AW ROSALIE HALE NO!" to me. ;)

Despite the taxation on your emotions and energy level (which is totally understandable), I'd say you're handling this rather well.

It really sucks that ass haberdashery such as this ruins the internets for the rest of us. It seems no matter what you put out, if it's the least bit clever, someone, somewhere, is going to swipe it and call it their own. Fuckwits, I tell you!

icecreamprincss November 11 2009, 15:55:10 UTC

I have someone with A Twin Lightsaber of Cease and Desist who's willing to handle it

Can I just applaud this person? Well done, and thanks for having Cleo's back! I'm really hoping it gets taken down. Snarky, link-less credit isn't the same as respecting your stated wish that people not repost your work in its entirety.