There are no words..... Oh no worries! Let's nick some!

[erastes]

I'm so glad, in the light of the most recent plagiarism evidence regarding heidi8, that I've left fandom. It doesn't stop me looking in from afar with my gob hanging open in shock, though.

Everything that these idiots, and I use the word when I want to use something much stronger, weakens the very nature of the fandom they thrive in. Hundreds and hundreds of writers in fandom, and all anyone will see are the liars and the cheaters and the thieves.

And by "anyone" I mean the professional, paid writers. Ok Burnett and co are dead, but as melllvar says in this post (http://www.journalfen.net/community/bad_penny/11176.html?thread=3019688#t3019688) which I will quote as I couldn't put it better myself: "Plagiarism opens all of us up to larger legal problems. Right now, the creators of original works for the most part turn a blind eye to fandom and fanfic, because really, who is it harming? (Other than Anne Rice, of course. ;-) ) What do you think'll happen if these same creators suddenly start believing we're plagiarizing their works damn near word-for-word without a care in the world? Hear hear.

And these writers aren't kids. They aren't educationally sub normal women who can't string a sentence together, they are late 20's early 30's professional women (as far as I can tell) who find their own writing so lacking to themselves, that they have to COPY entire chunks of text from other writer's books and use them in pathetic fan fic about Harry and Draco? I mean... I'm utterly gobsmacked. Why? What does it achieve? Other than bad publicity (which is of course, good publicity, and will result in more book sales for Cassie Claire, which might be their plan all along I suppose.)

She was the biggest defender of CC, and know we know why, eh? I feel particularly offended, because she's stolen huge chunks of text from The Little Princess and The Secret Garden, two of my favourites. When she stole part of The Fatherland, it seemed she'd got fed up with trying to hide the similarities, and copied just about everything, including the character's name. You know, that was a challenge I should have had on hp_literotica "Plagiarism is bad but not if you move the words around (and/or call it an homage)"


I've asked Fiction Alley what they intend to do about it, as, as senior mods, they should be thrown out, imho and hard. They won't, of course. I doubt that FA is as professional as that, they would have already done it if they were going to. However if you want to add your voice to my dissent, email away: help@fictionalley.org Anyway, that's it. I'm saying nothing more about it. Here's a handbasket, fandom, *waves cheerily*

In much more amusing news, check out this site It's a site of "helpful hints" for packing for France.

Obviously for Superwomen, I would imagine, as it includes packing a week early, packing the car 2 days early (obviously the SPARE car unless you want to drive around with the packing around your ears for 2 days, and running the risk of getting it all nicked) and BAKING ferchrissakes. Who the frell BAKES before going to France - land of the most fabulous patisseries in the world? and of course, as you've spent so long packing and baking and getting the perfect nuclear family ready, you have tons of time to CLEAN THE HOUSE!

*screams in horror*

Comments

[gehayi.livejournal.com]

It's all about the fame and the reputation. By plagiarizing, Heidi and Cassie get attention. And because what they are stealing is largely by good and/or famous writers, they get a thoroughly undeserved reputation for being talented writers themselves, and scads of praise for "writing" something that was basically a copy and paste job.

I refuse to believe that they didn't know better. Heidi's a lawyer. Plagiarism was discussed in every single class I had in law school for the first WEEK.

Besides, how hard is it to know that you're not supposed to be stealing stuff that someone else created or invented? I thought that "don't take things that don't belong to you" was drilled into kids around the ages of five or six.

I'm disgusted.

And I'm ashamed that I ever wrote fanfic for the HP fandom. Right now I feel tainted by association.

[rwday.livejournal.com]

That's almost exactly what I said above. On the Bad Penny post, I think I expressed it as being covered in second hand slime. A lawyer and a journalist, two people who should know, who DID know darn well that what they were doing was wrong, people who were held up as exemplars to the rest of the fandom, have dragged every fanficcer into the mud.

This has hit some pro writer blogs now. I can understand people like Robin Hobbs and other authors who don't want their work fanficced when this sort of thing happens.

Am disgusted too, and very glad I've quit fandom. I know there are a hundred, probably a thousand fanficcers with integrity for every Heidi or CC, but I still feel dirty.

[gehayi.livejournal.com]

I'm glad I've quit fandom too...but there's a part of the fallout I still have to deal with. I've thought about it and I really don't think I can leave my fanfic up at Fiction Alley anymore. Not after finding out this.

I'd heard accusations about Cassandra Claire before. Problem was, there was so MUCH wank about it that I couldn't tell what she had done and what she hadn't. The Bad Penny posts were the first ones that detailed everything that CC had done. I didn't know until yesterday that Heidi had plagiarized as well.

And I'm not just taking Bad Penny's word for it. I checked out one of Heidi's stories, and starting looking for uncredited material by other authors.

I found two pieces of uncredited material--material that Bad Penny HADN'T mentioned--in about ten minutes flat.

Not good.

The thing that keeps bothering me now is--they're senior mods on Fiction Alley. And their stories are archived there, as are mine.

I don't think I can keep my stories there, or keep posting there. Not now. Not after I know what happened. Staying--for me, anyway--would be like my telling them that plagiarism isn't serious, that their actions weren't wrong in any way. Doing nothing puts my tacit stamp of approval on this. I'd be putting ease and convenience ahead of what's right.

And this annoys me. I like Fiction Alley. I do. It's a good archive--accessible to many readers, and large. And I enjoy the meta discussion threads.

But.

I can't go along with Heidi's and Cassie's actions. I can't shrug it off as a mistake, or say that it's only fanfic and it doesn't matter.

I know that I'm a very minor writer at Fiction Alley. I'm lucky to get eighty or so hits per story. Cassie and Heidi get hundreds of thousands of readers for one chapter. My leaving won't have any impact on the archive, or the readers, at all.

Nevertheless, I think I have to leave Fiction Alley... and remove my stories as well. I don't want to be tarred with the same brush as those two.

Maybe I'm overreacting. But I think this is the only hoorable thing to do.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I completely agree. Voting with your feet is the only way to express disgust. It probably won't make much difference, but all I can hope is that anyone with integrity will do the same (and they are the better writers in the main, after all).

I agree with both rwday and you, I feel completely dirty.

[mysid.livejournal.com]

"And I'm ashamed that I ever wrote fanfic for the HP fandom. Right now I feel tainted by association."

I'm still—nominally—in the fandom, and I don't feel tainted. Their disgustingly bad behavior has absolutely nothing to do with me.

When I was in school, I'm sure I had classmates who tried to get away with a bit of plagiarism in papers they wrote. I didn't. Did their theft reflect badly on me? After all, we did do the same assignment. Of course not. Did What's-his-name Frey's fictionalized memoir reflect badly on all memoirs? Of course not. Did that Harvard chick's best-selling debut novel, which was later revealed to be almost completely plagiarized, reflect badly on all novels on the best-sellers' list? Of course not.

The HP fandom is HUGE. Writers within it run from nearly illiterate to mind-blowingly brilliant—with most of us in the mediocre middle. I've never felt tainted by being in the same fandom as the Mary Sue idiots, so why should I feel tainted by being in the same fandom as these idiots?

Now, their positions as Mods at Fiction Alley is another matter entirely. I can understand wanting to distance oneself from them by leaving FA.