I was over at FF.nutz earlier last week and started reading Harry Potter And The Correcting Of Past Mistakes by thejadefalcon. What can I say? It was long and seemed to be a nice twist on the usual timetravel!Harry concept. I got a few chapters in and something made me want to check the reviews to see if anyone else had noticed an emabrrassing typo or something. To my surprise the comments had erupted into a flame war over plagarism allegations.

I did some checking and sure enough the charges were absolutely without a doubt true--the plagarists even admitted to doing so--and yet the &$%# story is still up! I mean, sure the guy removed the offending chapter, but c'mon couldn't he think of a better excuse than this:

If you head over to Fate's Debt, the yahoogroup has copies of the "original" chapter thejadefalcon put up along with the one he stole from. I can't possibly believe there's any case that can be made for a "misunderstanding" here. So what happens? A poll goes up and it is decided that the author of the story will be reported and requested to be removed.

This should be rather open and shut, don't you think?



We all know how eager the FF.nazis are to delete anything they can, we have the icon besides this sentence for a reason after all...

[Two weeks go by]

I'm browsing around looking for something to read. I notice someone has a link to thejadefalcon in their favorite stories list. I go click on the thing expecting to see it's a dead link...



...unbelievable. It's still there. No wait, it's been UPDATED! I click the updates.

Chapter 32 has been replaced by a short note complaining about "all that plagerism bull"

Chapter 33 is a love fest of reviewer responses and miniture pity part about the author's "Aspurgus (spelling?) Syndrome" and why he "LEFT school" and "was not expelled as you seem to believe."

Chapter 34 seems to be another reviewer response trip and a request (nay an ORDER!) that his friends not "email PA. He complained that a few of you had done that and included a veiled threat."

So in other words not only is this fumb duck stealing ideas and entire chapters from others, he's no longer writing, hell he's actively BREAKING the rules of the site and the FF.nazi Admins won't do anything about it???

I hit the report abuse button and typed out this response:

I'd have posted some nice and colorful commentary in the review sections but apparently the fumb duck came down with an outbreak of delayed intelligence and has set all reviews to signed in accounts only.

Why am I typing this long ranty rant? Because it pisses the hell out of me that the little *&%$# is going to get away with this crap. What's to stop the next plagarist from claiming "Oh I got an email see..." when they decide to rip off a legitimate author and by way of doing so cause that writer to leave off with writing altogether? I've seen it happen before in the anime fanfiction world!

--bornagainpenguin (who hopes others will be willing to stand up and make as big of a stink about this as he is... despite the fact Fate's Debt is indeed a ginslut match.)

 

Well, I would actually be insulted if another author said, oh yes you can use a section of my fic. Its like they don't think my own writing is good enough.

As for the admins. Well, just wait for Patronus Charm. Hows that coming along anyway Raven?

 

Honestly, I don't see how could they delete his story, when he had already removed all the evidence. People should have just outright reported him, instead of discussed about it for days.

Meh, I don't care either way.

 

Even though I'm not some big supporter of the whole anti-plagiarism movement, I agree that presenting some other author's work for your own is fucked up.

No. what I don't care are these two stories. I don't like them, I don't read them = I don't care what happens to them.

 

So... its ok to plagerize unless it effects you directly? No offense, but you couldn't have thought that through...

 

Look it's like people dying of flood in China. I'm not happy about it and on some intellectual level, I feel sorry for them, but if I'm honest with myself, their deaths don't touch me much. Sure it's terrible and all, but hey, shit happens; So what's on the other channel?

Same thing about these two stories - it's fucked up situation for the author of "Fate's debt", but I have no inclination whatsoever to join the crusade against the plagiarizer. Thankfully, judging by the shit storm coming jadefalcon’s way, there are enough of those who care. I don’t.

 

Okay, so he removed the offending plagiarism filled chapter. Made up a ridiculous lie. (Seriously, like any given author is going to randomly email another author to inform them 'Hey, I've given up writing my story X, so you can go ahead and use any parts of my story X and no need to give me credit.' This was the best he could come up with? It's almost pathetic enough to make you wonder if there's some truth in it. I mean fricking 5 year olds could come up with a more believable lie than that.)

And since then has put up several chapters of author's notes, review responses, pleas for his case. Forget the plagiarism, those last three "chapters" are enough to get his story toasted. If he had any clue, he'd pull his story, thus ensuring his precious alerts and account would stick around. His handling of the situation just sort of illustrates the hopelessness of his case, his immaturity, and why I'm certainly not going to even begin to read the fic.

The other part I found humorous was even on the last actual chapter posted in there (with four numbered author's notes at the top and four more at the bottom) contained this little tidbit:

Can someone beat this guy with the irony stick?

 

Holy hell!

Did he really say that! Damn, why doesn't he just come out with the truth after that statement. And that beta must not have known her stuff very well if she let plagarised material slip past her.

 

You mean, the beta reader must not have read the plagiarised fic before? I don't see how thats not knowing her stuff, but oh well. I mean, chances are, some guy could make me beta the stolen versions of half of the most popular stuff on Fanfiction.net, and most of the works on Fanficauthors.net, and I wouldn't know.

Edit: Do the admins/moderators have a particularly active job over at FF.net? I mean, I know quite a few members are always complaining about them, but while I've seen some good fics get axed unfairly, I haven't seen it happen all that regularly.

 

Too late to do anything now.

Still, I'd be pissed if anyone came around and plagarized off my stories, unupdated as they are...

:::

Can't wait until Patronus Charm comes online.

A guaranteed source of good fanfiction.

*sighs happily*

 

Thank the (Dark) Lord (Potter)! Someone who finally gets it!

I typed in the whole saga of what's come before just to fill people in on the background of events, its really the fact that FF.nazi had no problems whatsoever deleting shezza88, Egyptian Flame, ect, ect for their authors notes and polls, and their stories disappeared overnight. Then this fumb duck comes along, admits to having stolen another person's fic and then just to make you all feel special adds to the injury with THREE CHAPTERS of non-story related crud------and is left alone????

Double-You Tee Eff!

Can you imagine them leaving jbern alone if he had left his authors notes in each chapter like he used to do?

Hell no! Of course not! In fact I'm surprised he doesn't get a ton of abuse reports because some little fangirl dislikes his treatment of Harry's Princess, Ginny.

[bornagainpenguin gargles for a bit having said this]

I don't understand the lack of outrage here. It shouldn't be about which fic this guy stole from, it should be about FF.nazi's response (or lack there of) to it. If this fumb duck gets away with this, consider how many people can expect to see their stories being ripped off and nothing being done about it.

--bornagainpenguin

 

I wonder if they do support tickets in the same way. I have one that's over a year old...

 

What is Patronus Charm? Not the spell.

 

Lord Ravenclaws fanfiction site. He is in the process of making it or something. I just hope he gets it done soon.

 

...What does Asperger's have to do with fanfiction - or leaving school for that matter? It's high functioning autism and mostly affects social interaction. It has nothing to do with ANYTHING. Hell, I have Asperger's Syndrome, but I don't go around using it as an excuse for everything.

Also, the worst thing about this isn't the plagiarism... it's the attempt to justify it. Bleh, it's silly.

 

Have to agree with ip82, 'shit happens'. There is alot of 'borrowing' that goes around without permission and when caught they make up excuses to make themselves appear in the right. It is sad that so many people lack creativity to come up with their own plot and characters, at least in this particular case the offender is recieving some form off punishment with all the outrage and flames. I am actually surprised that the readers picked up on this and flamed... that is impressive as I have only seen this done in the Gunslinger Girl category.
But I have to agree that the FFnazis don't know what they are doing, there are stories out there that rape the English language, plagerize, or lack any sense these stories can be complained about repeatable yet they remain. Some horrendous stories ex Tara's have been complained about repeatable and yet they remain, while the good ones vanish for the most retarded reasons.

 

You have to realize, many of you, that Fanfiction.net has no rules against 'bad' fanfiction. There is nowhere that says horrid fics have to be deleted, or that slash is to be condemned.

Many 'good' fics get slaughtered because they get most of the attention of the readers, and therefore the the Admins. An admin is going to make a bigger issue of a famous work that has an error than a minor, unknown work that does the same.

Just look at the recent Congressman scandel. If it was some random guy talking to boys, you wouldn't even click on the link to read more.

Hence, that's why more prominent fics get axed. Not because the Admins are deliberately looking for good fics, but only because they notice them more and prioritize.

He's not going to waste his time on some shitty fic looking for violations.

This story got axed because it was relatively famous and well read. I can find thousands of other plagarizing fics that do the same and are left alone.