What Plagiarism Isn't

[spiralleds]

Greetings all. I'm spiralleds, one of the mods for this community. Things have been quiet lately, which I would like to think means a lull in plagiarism, but unfortunately is probably more so just a lull in being aware of it. We mods thought we'd take advantage of that calm, whatever its source and try something a different. A bit of proactive example of

Comments

[annearchy]

Thanks for the interesting discussion. I write only in the Harry Potter fandom, which has a huge number of writers and an even huger number of stories (over 237,000 stories at Fanfiction.net alone, not including the HP-specific archives, which could bring the total up to half a million). Even within my own OTP, I've seen a number of stories that have similar plots, and even occasionally a few similar details. But generally speaking I haven't considered any of those to be plagiarized UNLESS I noticed sentences or paragraphs (or more) that I was sure I'd read somewhere else. I'm sure this happens a lot in the HP fandom and probably other fandoms as well. But it's interesting, in a hive-mind sort of way, to think that so many people have similar ideas about the kinds of situations the characters would get into, including some of the details of those situations.

[spiralleds]

Wow. And I thought the Buffyverse had a lot of stories on FFN. I think certain amount of similarity is not only reasonable, but in fact to be expected. I'm familiar with the HP books, but I've never read any fic from it. But I'd imagine there are certain what-ifs ideas that are logical questions and from those questions, logical directions of thought. I'm glad to hear that generally folks are able to see similarities and not jump to the conclusion that the idea has been lifted.

Part 1

[liz_marcs]

I most excellent point. And I can point to an example on my own FList.

Myself and nocturnalista both signed up for Xander-African Fanfiction Challenge held by ludditerobot.

The challenge included the following elements: Xander in Africa, Xander did not have to be a main character but he had to at least appear, and something about the local color.

Now, our stories do have some elements in common: a female Watcher who's hiding a secret, Roger Wyndham-Pryce being a disruptive influence on the new Watcher's Council, Xander is being targeted specifically by Roger, and Roger happens to have a connection with the female Watcher that's crossed Xander's path.

Now, taking those elements into consideration, they sound similar, don't they?

The reality is this: the two stories are nothing alike.

It's pretty much canon that Roger was a bastard and a Watcher of the stick-up-his-butt variety. We know this from multiple references from Wes and from the robot the copy of the man that showed up on Angel. Making him a "heavy" or disruptive influene post-'Chosen' is

Part 2

[liz_marcs]

A greyer area, however, is this situation I've recently encountered

Re: Part 2

[spiralleds]

It's pretty much canon that Roger was a bastard and a Watcher of the stick-up-his-butt variety. We know this from multiple references from Wes and from the robot the copy of the man that showed up on Angel. Making him a "heavy" or disruptive influene post-'Chosen' is practically a gimme.

Agreed. *g*

The funny thing is, I had read nocturnalista's story and didn't even notice the similarities because the stories are so utterly different from one another. However, nocturnalista did notice, and actually asked what she should do about it, because she was so worried about accidental plagiarism. I spotted her entry, and immediately put her mind at rest by saying that no one in their right mind could even consider her a plagiarist, even without her worrying about it in her LJ.I'm so behind on reading my flist's stories it is embarrassing, so I can't speak to the particulars, but this strikes me as one of the ironies of life that the innocent (nocturnalista) tend to be more self-aware and concerned about even the perception of wrong doing while those who are doing

Re: Part 2

[spiralleds]

Huh. It wouldn't create my mock stop_occness

Re: Plot similarities

[spiralleds]

Glad to hear folks are of a similar mind.

A couple of times I've seen situations of reasonable chance with fics turn to kerfuffles that turned to flaming that turned into all out wank, which makes me doubly pleased to hear folks speak up in the reasonable chance camp.

[souloftherose]

Thank you for taking time to write about this & spur some intelligent discussion. I'm sure there are many people out there unsure of what the grey areas are. Given the sheer amount of stories in the fandom we are all bound to overlap at one time or another.

Another problem I've run into is that I read so much fic, every once in awhile it gets regurgitated into my writing. It feels like a completely original line/description/idea at the time - but in the editing process I'll look it over & realize it's just a little *too* familiar. (Darn those genius fic writers!) I always correct it but I'm sure I'm not the only writer this has happened to. You know what they say: fic in, fic out. :)

[spiralleds]

You're welcome!

Another problem I've run into is that I read so much fic, every once in awhile it gets regurgitated into my writing.

Ah, yes. Fandom can be complicated. I've known folks to be so worried about being inadvertantly influenced by reading other's fics that they won't read a particular pairing while writing it themselves.

I'd also say it is because of situations such as you are describing that, when we receive a complaint, we don't jump to conclusions and insead make every effort to contact the accused party and provide an opportunity for response before coming to a conclusion.

[angelic_amy]

You made some great points there, thanks for sharing.

[spiralleds]

You're welcome. Thank you for commenting.