[ SECRET POST #2404 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2404 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.


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03.
[League of Legends]


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04.
[Fuck City crew]


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05.


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06.


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07.
[Jon Richardson, British comedian]


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08.


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[ ----- SPOILERY SECRETS AHEAD ----- ]









09. [SPOILERS for Sailor Moon]



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[ ----- TRIGGERY SECRETS AHEAD ----- ]










10. [SPOILERS for the Godfather]
[WARNING for gore, animal abuse]



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11. [SPOILERS for Hannibal]
[WARNING for abuse, gore]



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12. [WARNING for eating disorders]




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13. [WARNING for underage]
http://i.imgur.com/J2FVb1W.png
[linked for photomanip of snape/hermione]


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14. [WARNING for torture? probably?]














Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 00 pages, 000 secrets from Secret Submission Post #343.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 1 2 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

01. http://i39.tinypic.com/5bwc2d.jpg

[silverr]

It is entirely possible that your "den mother" is old enough to have read said trashy action novel years and years ago, and was pulling from it unintentionally.

(And without knowing details, I wonder if it could be a coincidental parallel? Pulp action novels aren't exactly known for their originality: cookie-cutter is sort of the point.)

[(Anonymous)]

What if she's secretly the author of the novel recycling her own writing?

[(Anonymous)]

I can't really imagine that the plot of the novel in question would be so unique that no-one else could write a similar one. Besides, people borrow ideas constantly, intentionally or subconsciously, so I don't see a problem if it wasn't a word-for-word copy.

[queerwolf]

You said the words were different, it was just the plot that was similar. That means nothing. People borrow plot ideas from different movies/songs/etc. all the damn time. There aren't that many original plots anymore.

I don't think she did anything wrong and to "out" her for borrowing a plot idea is ridiculous.

[(Anonymous)]

I was once looking for Chloe/Lex fanfiction back in the day when I watched Smallville and I came across one that sounded interesting. I clicked on it and I was very surprised to discover it was WORD FOR WORD a book that I loved. Sure, it was just a crazy romance novel about a girl who buys a castle and falls in love with the ghost, but it was WORD FOR WORD. And this was a book I'd read more than once (and used the name of the main character as my daughter's middle name) so I went to my bookshelf and confirmed. I felt bad for all the people raving that it was such a great and original fic, but I turned her ass in to the mods of the site, linking them to the Amazon page for the book, where you could read the first few pages online.

If you'd come across that, I'd think you should absolutely raise a huge fucking stink. Some plot similarities I'd go a bit more cautiously on.

[transcriptanon]

[Picture is black text over white blank background.]

For more than five years, I've beta read for my minuscule fandom's Big Name Fan/den-mother/cheerleader. I honestly believe that without her enthusiasm there would be no active fandom anymore. On a personal level, I consider her a friend.

Last week, I picked up a trashy action novel from the seventies at a thrift store. The first half of the book was beat for beat the same as a fic I had proofed for her two years ago. It wasn't a direct life - the words were different - but the plot was close enough that I thought I had previously read the book.

I don't know what to do with this knowledge. If I expose her to the fandom, I'm afraid the drama would kill the fandom fast. If I confront her with it, I'm afraid she'd withdraw and the fandom would die a slow death anyway. I can't just keep quiet and carry on like I don't know. Beta-ing for her after this would make me feel like an accomplice. Hell, I already feel like one. I'm afraid to look too closely at her own stories now.

Sorry for the wall of text. I'm just feeling hurt and betrayed right now.

[forgottenjester]

How close, exactly, is the plot and what is it? For example, if you were ripping off The Lord of the Rings and you had a plot of "A group of medieval fantasy dudes travel to destroy a ring of power in a volcano," I would side eye you. Probably. If you wrote, "A bunch of people go on adventure to destroy and evil relic," I wouldn't think much of it. There are tons of books like that all over.

This is of course me assuming when you say it wasn't the same words you're saying she wrote it all herself and didn't just word swap with a thesaurus here and there.

Here's there thing, a lot of people have written a lot of reasons for the similarities above me. Plagiarism is bad, yes, but you need to make sure first that that is what it is. I saw people accusing Guillermo del Toro for plagiarizing most of Pacific Rim because it had giant robots and there are previous works that exist in the world with giant robots. Seriously. I saw this. I nearly shit myself laughing.

Accusing someone of plagiarism is a serious thing. Maybe you should get someone else to read both stories and see what they think. Maybe multiple someones.

If you all agree it's totally plagiarism then don't condemn her in front of all of fandom and banish her. Simply ask her about it. Just ask. See where it heads from there. Because here's the big, big thing. She's not making money off of it. If it is plagiarism that is bad and I will never stand behind someone who does so knowingly but beyond letting her know she's done wrong and... I'm not sure what fandom repercussions are supposed to take place for this sort of thing but whatever those are, just let them happen. Don't go further than necessary, I guess.

Whatever happens, good luck.

Edit: If it is indeed plagiarism, isn't there a report plagiarism community on LJ still active?

[(Anonymous)]

q: is it an old anime fandom that used to be quite large?

[(Anonymous)]

Just how similar is it? It could either be that she had read this in the 70's and forgot where the idea came from, or she just happened to write a similar plot. Unless it's seriously word for word, I'd be careful about assuming this was intentional.

And even if it is... you're her friend. Talk to her about it, even make a joke and see what happens. And/or don't beta anymore. But I'm not sure what purpose exposing her would serve - I am sure, having seen fandom exposes before, that it really could make things very messy for everyone if a flame war ensues. People will take sides. I'm not being rhetorical here - ask yourself if you're really willing to risk that. If it matters that much to you, well... what you do is only your decision.

[(Anonymous)]

1. It's not your fault. You can't realize it's plagiarism if you're not familiar with the work.

2. I'm sorry that happened.

That said, perhaps you should talk about it? Send her a message asking if she knows the book? You don't have to say "I think you plagiarized this", that would probably be a bad idea, but just mentioning it might confirm/deny your feelings.

I hope things work out for you, OP.

[(Anonymous)]

As if reading every high school fic was not reminiscent of every other high school fic?

[(Anonymous)]

I would suggest just asking her about, is it a one off or did she do this a lot.

[(Anonymous)]

When I was a young teen, I had an idea for a fanfic story. Outer space disturbance, people get too close, they're transported to an alternate world with a medieval setting. Not an original plot (particularly for fanfic), but this was pre-Internet Star Wars, so it felt new to me. After shining up this plot idea for a while, I bought my monthly Star Wars comic, and bam! there's my story idea.

My sister is a prof, and she knows people who've found they were one of two people working on the same 'unique' idea, only to have someone else publish it first. It happens.

I personally have written fanfic that I later discovered had a very similar plot setup - actual execution and resulting stories were very different.

For all that we are each unique and special snowflakes, in a world filled with unique and special snowflakes, there is more overlap than you think.

The other thought is, as other people pointed out above, this may also be something they read before and were unconsciously mirroring. But I think a plot similarity is not plagiarism.

[blueonblue]

Maybe having a private, non-confrontational, talk with her would help? It might be outright plagiarism, or she could have been trying to imitate the published work without realizing how much she was copying.

[eaten_by_bears]

Why do you have to do anything? It's totally possible it's a coincidence, and even if it isn't, copying the plot from a book and reworking it in your own words isn't plagiarism. That's probably not the only trashy action book with the same plot.

[(Anonymous)]

I have been trying to sell a story about a teenage ghost named Kitty who lives in a dying shopping mall for YEARS. The other day I opened up a book to find a story about a teenage ghost named Kitty who lives in a dying shopping mall. There's no possible way the author could have ever read my story.

There's a reason why content creators don't read fanfic from their own world and why they will stop you dead in your tracks if you try to pitch them ideas.

That said, it's fanfic. If you really feel bad about it, I would just kindly say that you do not have any time anymore to beta-read her things. By no means expose her. It's a fanfic. But you can make it clear to her by your actions that you don't approve. If you want to bring it up, don't be confrontational. You could always go "OMG LOL LOOK WHAT I FOUND! ISN'T THAT CRAZY??!?!? HOW HILARIOUS!" And she'll know you know, but you can keep your friendship.

but remember: just a fanfic.

[jerico_cacaw]

Also, you say this is from two years ago. Not knowing how long your friend has been writing, it could be that they plagiarized this one story, but that this was not the case with their more recent fics. So definitely, talking with them would be ideal.

Have you thought about doing so anonymously?

[pts]

If you really want to know what's going on: Talk. To. Her. About. It.

Plots are not special snowflakes. If the prose isn't the same, it could be a coincidence. Even if it's not a coincidence, plot-borrowing is not the same as plagiarism.

[(Anonymous)]

How about checking out some of her other stories? If you can figure them out and find the same problem with any of them it's likely a problem, but if it's the only one that resembles another story I'd let it slide

[kamino_neko]

'The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.' - Ecclesiastes 1:9...it applies to fiction as much as to life. (More so, since fiction doesn't tend to cover all the various facets of life in the same story.)

(Also, it's a 'trashy adventure novel'...even aside from the...difficulty in creating a totally original plot - those things are formulaic as heck...the only thing to wonder about is why your friend was following the formula, if she really did hit the beats so closely.)

[teshara]

I'd been working on something for years when my ex called me up screaming 'OMG they made it into a movie?!?!?!'

Sadly, my work was still unfinished and someone else was faster. Doesn't make it any less mine.

[(Anonymous)]

Without seeing a side by side comparison, it's tough to tell if this is wrong or not, OP. A couple things to remember:

1) A trashy 70s action novel is not likely to have a unique plot anyway. Is it possible that both the author of the novel and the BNF might be drawing from similar inspirations?

2) A lot of people write different works based on similar plots. I'm not sure where you and the BNF are based, but this isn't a violation of copyright law in the U.S. Whether or not it's unethical is hard to tell without looking more closely at both works.

3) People unconsciously lift ideas and even phrases from stuff they've read before all the time. It's not fantastic when this happens, but it happens a lot.

You could let her know about the book in a "Huh, you'll never believe this weird thing I found..." kind of way, but frankly, that also sounds pretty pointed. I don't know. You risk a lot by confronting her with this especially if it's not certain she did it deliberately. I hope you'll come back and tell us what happened?

[omorka]

If by "beat-for-beat" you mean scene-for-scene, then that's not cool and you should talk to your BNF about it, and if it's really that close, try to get her to take it down. If she won't, it may be time for a slow fade on your part.

Having said that, it seems to me that a scene-for-scene rewrite of a "trashy action novel" really ought to have felt OOC for most characters in most fandoms, and since you were the beta, OP, I'm guessing that you didn't think it was at the time. That suggests to me that it might be more of an homage than a steal. It's still tacky as hell if she didn't acknowledge the homage when it was posted, but that's easily fixed, especially if (as some previous commenters have suggested) she read the book ages ago and reflected it unconsciously in her story. In that case, if I were in your shoes I'd just try to get her to mention the book (something like "inspired by [novel] by [author]") in her author's notes.

There's also the "nothing new under the sun" excuse. I still haven't figured out whether the Stargate franchise brutally ripped off Fringeworthy or whether it really was independent invention, but given that Tucholka doesn't seem to have sued over it, I'm guessing that at a minimum independent invention was plausible. Same may apply here, if it's only the major plot beats that are similar.

[(Anonymous)]

Suck it up and just ask her. Outing her without some pretty firm evidence is wrong.