why you should cover your tracks if you steal things

[verbyna]

Last year, I wrote a story called Love Lockdown for my best friend jedusaur's birthday. It was Ellen Page/Ryan Ross and basically the most honest thing I wrote about what it's like when your male best friend is so rooted in your life that you don't know how to be mad at him. So: birthday fic for my best friend with a lot of really personal stuff in it.

Comments

[creepylicious]

at least she recognizes the awesomeness that is your writing?
I read your 'choice words'. just, you wrote about Ryan and he's the only person in bandom I feel protective about, which makes me want to slap someone for stealing your Ryan (and all his known issues) and screw it up.
also this post makes me want to hunt down every reference picture I ever used for my art...and I wouldn't even know where to start.

[verbyna]

I'm super protective of this Ryan and this fic in particular because it contains a lot of things related to me and my best guy friend (including the Brel song). There was a reason I wanted to tell it in my own words, and there's I reason it was a gift for J and not for someone else. The fact that she stole the story and used characters I currently love to do it just adds insult to injury. :(

[jedusaur]

I left a comment linking to the original conversation leading to the fic, to the fic on AO3 and LJ, and to this post, and also complaining that the plagiarist turned my birthday present into One Direction fic, did they have to pick that fandom... but it got marked as spam, presumably because of all the links. Oh, well. I'm sure it would have been deleted soon, anyway.

[verbyna]

Could you leave the links here, just in case? Also, I love you even though you don't share my glee at One Direction's sheer existence. And I'm sorry that out of all 35 of my fics, it was your birthday present that got dragged into this. ♥

[jedusaur]

The comment I left, in its entirety:

Some helpful links for anyone reading this who isn't aware that it's plagiarized:

- The LJ post in which I prompted verbyna to write wacky-metaphor-filled hipsters-in-love fic about Ryan Ross and Ellen Page, dated June 17th, 2011
-The resulting fic V wrote for me as a birthday present on AO3, dated August 16th, 2011 (with appropriately dated comments, which cannot be backdated)
- The same fic on LJ, dated August 17th, 2011 (also with appropriately dated comments)
- The post that verbyna wrote about this plagiarism

In conclusion: One Direction? Really? You had to steal my birthday present and turn it into One Direction fic? You're pouring Drano in my wounds with this, dude.

[verbyna]

Thanks for the links, bb! Also, hey, look how ridiculous were were exactly one year ago. And that was before I started writing fic about a mostly teenage boyband. (At least I never fully realized my brony potential. Remember how I was on the fence there for a while? And remember how you wrote rpf about me to mock my brony closet? ♥)

[meroure]

I've always wondered how people who blatantly plagiarize decide whose names to copy&paste, especially when the characterizations (and plot!) are so intrinsic to who the original intended character(s) were.

jfc. ♥

[verbyna]

It was re-cast so bizarrely! If she was familiar with bandom fanon (and 1D, honestly) she would've had:
Ellen > Zayn
Ryan > Harry
Spencer > Liam
Brendon > Louis
Keltie > probably an unnamed OC or Caroline Flack
random crew guy who hooks up with Ellen > Niall
...she got none of them right. And it would've still taken a serious rewrite to pull the character backgrounds together in a way that advances the plot. No wonder her reviewers were confused. Even I was confused, and I came up with the plot.

Hi hi hi. Thank you for the support. ♥

Plagiarism! FUN.

[livejournal]

User jedusaur referenced to your post from Plagiarism! FUN. saying: [...] on LJ, dated August 17th, 2011 (also with appropriately dated comments) -The post [...]

[verbyna]

Ugh, I know, the gift!fic part gets to me the most. :( Thank you for the support! ♥ (also, the way I grinned at that gif was maybe a little unhealthy)