Mod Post: Plagiarism policy
Plagiarism, as defined in the 1995 Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary, is the "use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work."
Plagiarism is not, and will not ever be, tolerated within this community.
Recently a member of the comm. contacted me to inform me that they had been accused of plagiarism and this understandably upset them. I've spent the last 24 hours or so investigating this particular case and wrestling with what defines plagiarism - especially given that we as fanfiction writers operate within a very definite gray area in law.
In the Buffyverse fandom, we have the tacit permission of Joss Whedon to use his characters and concepts in fandom - so long as we do not profit from that use, however he is not the sole owner of that material and the other owners could, at any point in time, pull the plug and sites such as this one could be served with 'C&D' orders. (Cease and Desist.)
However, as fic writers you should all be aware of that already so we'll put that aside for the moment.
As a web mistress I have the horrendous job of investigating plagiarism claims far more often than I would like. The most common instance is when one fic writer uses another fic writer's work and passes it off as their own - whether as a whole or by incorporating dialogue and/or significant portions of the text as written by the original author.
This is relatively simple to investigate and the decision usually rests on uncovering who actually is the original author (which is why I implore you to include a 'first posted on' date when adding your work to an archive - or to use an automated archive such as the many efiction ones which will do this for you).
However, there have been instances (and until now I have not been asked to investigate such an instance) where the fic writer incorporates dialogue and/or text from a commercially published work.
Does this constitute plagiarism? Well, yes, if the fic writer uses this as "the representation of them as one's own original work".
If such content is correctly credited to the original source, then it does not constitute plagiarism in the view of this archivist and web mistress.
An example:
Saying goodbye was too hard, too final, he wouldn’t do it.
Instead he grinned and tossed off a two fingered salute borrowed from Patrick McGoohan’s Prisoner, "Be seeing you."
Not plagiarism, because the source is clearly identified. On the other hand:
Saying goodbye was too hard, too final, he wouldn’t do it.
Instead he grinned and tossed off a two fingered salute, “Be seeing you.”
this doesn't reference the source and as such could well be counted as plagiarism. Of course the reader would have to be aware of a relatively obscure 1960s TV show…
(That example comes from one of my own early fics by the way - Darkest Day - the first example is how it appears in the story.)
There seems to have been the emergence of what, to me, seems to be a new sub-genre within fanfiction: taking an established plot and rewriting it with the fandom's characters. And I'm not talking about YAHFs (Yet Another Hallowe'en Fic) which are 'what if?' versions of an episode of the show. Instead I am talking about retelling myths, legends, books, films etc and replacing the lead characters with fandom variations.
I, as web mistress and community moderator here, do not consider these stories to be plagiarism when the source material is properly credited.
I hope this clarifies the position of the community.
If you have any questions or points you wish clarified, please either comment here or PM me and I'll do my best to address your concerns.
If you are concerned about plagiarism and want to know more about what's going on in fandom, I would urge you to check out stop_plagiarism where the mods and staff work tirelessly to investigate claims and bring known plagiarists to public attention.
Thanks for your time.
Shona (aka Mara)
Plagiarism is not, and will not ever be, tolerated within this community.
Recently a member of the comm. contacted me to inform me that they had been accused of plagiarism and this understandably upset them. I've spent the last 24 hours or so investigating this particular case and wrestling with what defines plagiarism - especially given that we as fanfiction writers operate within a very definite gray area in law.
In the Buffyverse fandom, we have the tacit permission of Joss Whedon to use his characters and concepts in fandom - so long as we do not profit from that use, however he is not the sole owner of that material and the other owners could, at any point in time, pull the plug and sites such as this one could be served with 'C&D' orders. (Cease and Desist.)
However, as fic writers you should all be aware of that already so we'll put that aside for the moment.
As a web mistress I have the horrendous job of investigating plagiarism claims far more often than I would like. The most common instance is when one fic writer uses another fic writer's work and passes it off as their own - whether as a whole or by incorporating dialogue and/or significant portions of the text as written by the original author.
This is relatively simple to investigate and the decision usually rests on uncovering who actually is the original author (which is why I implore you to include a 'first posted on' date when adding your work to an archive - or to use an automated archive such as the many efiction ones which will do this for you).
However, there have been instances (and until now I have not been asked to investigate such an instance) where the fic writer incorporates dialogue and/or text from a commercially published work.
Does this constitute plagiarism? Well, yes, if the fic writer uses this as "the representation of them as one's own original work".
If such content is correctly credited to the original source, then it does not constitute plagiarism in the view of this archivist and web mistress.
An example:
Saying goodbye was too hard, too final, he wouldn’t do it.
Instead he grinned and tossed off a two fingered salute borrowed from Patrick McGoohan’s Prisoner, "Be seeing you."
Not plagiarism, because the source is clearly identified. On the other hand:
Saying goodbye was too hard, too final, he wouldn’t do it.
Instead he grinned and tossed off a two fingered salute, “Be seeing you.”
this doesn't reference the source and as such could well be counted as plagiarism. Of course the reader would have to be aware of a relatively obscure 1960s TV show…
(That example comes from one of my own early fics by the way - Darkest Day - the first example is how it appears in the story.)
There seems to have been the emergence of what, to me, seems to be a new sub-genre within fanfiction: taking an established plot and rewriting it with the fandom's characters. And I'm not talking about YAHFs (Yet Another Hallowe'en Fic) which are 'what if?' versions of an episode of the show. Instead I am talking about retelling myths, legends, books, films etc and replacing the lead characters with fandom variations.
I, as web mistress and community moderator here, do not consider these stories to be plagiarism when the source material is properly credited.
I hope this clarifies the position of the community.
If you have any questions or points you wish clarified, please either comment here or PM me and I'll do my best to address your concerns.
If you are concerned about plagiarism and want to know more about what's going on in fandom, I would urge you to check out stop_plagiarism where the mods and staff work tirelessly to investigate claims and bring known plagiarists to public attention.
Thanks for your time.
Shona (aka Mara)