Well, there's something that I don't think has ever reared its ugly head here on this site, but I'm afraid now it has.
I've been somewhat behind in my editing and timelining, since there's been so much new stuff over the past couple of weeks. But this weekend I've churned through a fair bit and have finally got to the top of page 15. I had skimmed through some of these posts already, and had noticed all the capital letters in the first post on that page. In an msn chat with the author, he mentioned that he'd taken the concept of Death from Terry Pratchett, which in itself isn't a bad thing, provided it was just the way Death spoke, etc that he'd used.
However, now that I've come to actually edit it, as I was going through the post I kept thinking that some of those lines looked awfully familiar. Sure enough, a quick check revealed that some of the lines, at least, are a direct transposition from the text of 'Wyrd Sisters'.
Sorry, guys. I don't care how cool another author's words are, unless you are using them as a credited quote, you CANNOT use another author's work and try to pass it off as your own, ESPECIALLY in a public forum such as the internet.
Having such plagiarised material on this board risks not only the person who posted it, but the host of the site. The server on which LA By Night lives is at Dave's workplace. I don't think they'd look terribly kindly on him if they get a copyright suit slapped on their desks.
Sure, use other authors for inspiration. Hell, unless you've never read a book in your entire life, you can't help but be influenced by what you've read. But copying sections word for word is quite illegal.
Now, I'm fairly well-read, but I certainly haven't read everything that's out there and I may not notice other such material. So I'm relying on all of you to help out here. Firstly, to not use plagiarised material yourselves (and so far as I know, this is the first instance). Secondly, to say something if you notice stuff on the board that looks too familiar and you can trace it back to an original source.
As for the post that has already been made, there are two choices for the player involved. You can change the sections of the post that have copyrighted material in them, putting them into your own words (and this will necessitate more than just changing a word here or there... it will need to be substantially different). Otherwise, you can choose to have the entire post deleted. If no changes have been made after a week (that's Sunday 30th May) then it will be deleted regardless.
Sorry to be sounding so harsh, but this is a SERIOUS matter. It's not just a question of ethics, it's a question of legality. I'm just horrified that the post has already been up for a week before I got around to it and noticed. And I'm a little surprised that nobody else has spotted the plagiarism, since Pratchett is such a popular author. Please, in the future if anyone notices anything like this, act on it. Contact the person who did it, or make a post such as this, or if you don't want to get involved directly let me or Dave know about it and we'll act.
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Plagiarism and copyright.
ok quick Q on this
Lets say for spells; is it considered plagerising if you take the words from like a movie or whatever? If so, well I think ive been guilty in the past, and for that I apologize
Plagiarism and copyright.
Heh, well I'd be no good at spotting something from a Terry Pratchet novel since I've never read any.
Also, I'd add that you could also accredit a copied section - such as a quote etc to the original author (I actually did this for the poem that Kate read at Emma's funeral even though I'd adapted it slightly). Aside from that Copyright is a sticky business and it's always best to cover your ass just in case.
Plagiarism and copyright.
Yep, indeed you can. In fact, I said as much in my own post. :)
Using a poem, song lyrics, a quote, or even the phrasing of a spell (:wink: @ Shaun) is quite all right - so long as mention is made of the original author and it's made clear that the words are not those of the person who's posting. Using portions of dialogue and prose, however, inserted into the middle of a post and passed off as original work is just not on.
As Lou has pointed out, copyright is a bit of a minefield and if in doubt, cover your arse by putting a footnote or something when using anything such as verse, quotes, etc.