More on Plagiarism From Adam-Troy Castro
Just last month, I began discussing issues of copyright and plagiarism. For those of you who are interested in revisiting those discussions, I've created a new tag: copyright. You may recall that in one of the posts I complained about Lehman High School's unlicensed production of Chicago. A student at the school replied anonymously, and one of the questions he asked was why I should care about what happens at their school.
I gave an answer to his question, but in case he's still reading, someone else has come up with an even better answer.
Friend and writer Adam-Troy Castro recently had to deal with a plagiarist who violated his copyright by posting an excerpt from his powerful story "The Juggler" on a vampire role-playing board, and represented it as his own work. When confronted, the malefactor removed the excerpt and apologized. But a few other people in the RPG complained that this wasn't so big a deal.
So by invitation from one of the other RPG board participants, Adam wrote a response, laying out exactly why this was, in fact, a big deal. He's posted his response on his own newsgroup under the title Plagiarism Note, and I encourage any and all of you to go read it. The gist of it can be summed up in one sentence from the letter: "The fact is that plagiarism is a serious crime with serious consequences." And Adam explains exactly what those consequences can be, and how they not only hurt the victim, but damage the public good as well.
Copyright © Michael Burstein
I gave an answer to his question, but in case he's still reading, someone else has come up with an even better answer.
Friend and writer Adam-Troy Castro recently had to deal with a plagiarist who violated his copyright by posting an excerpt from his powerful story "The Juggler" on a vampire role-playing board, and represented it as his own work. When confronted, the malefactor removed the excerpt and apologized. But a few other people in the RPG complained that this wasn't so big a deal.
So by invitation from one of the other RPG board participants, Adam wrote a response, laying out exactly why this was, in fact, a big deal. He's posted his response on his own newsgroup under the title Plagiarism Note, and I encourage any and all of you to go read it. The gist of it can be summed up in one sentence from the letter: "The fact is that plagiarism is a serious crime with serious consequences." And Adam explains exactly what those consequences can be, and how they not only hurt the victim, but damage the public good as well.
Copyright © Michael Burstein
In all its senses.
It's all about "look, I have a legal hammer and things could have gotten far nastier" and not about intellectual property and what's *wrong* (rather than merely illegal) about plagiarism.
Now, maybe this makes sense in the context of the discussion on the role-playing board. But it doesn't seem to me to add much to the larger discussion. I really thought your response to Anonymous was far better.
I also like his specific examples, such as what happened to Marion Zimmer Bradley and her fans.
Indeed. That's what I meant about legal hammer and nastier.
But all the examples essentially said "look, people you plagiarize have legal recourse against you and they can and will use it", as opposed to talking about what's *wrong* with doing it. Which I find far more interesting than "do it and you'll get a spanking". *shrug*
I guess YMMV.
You just wrote a Harry Potter ficlet on your LJ. Either that's legal or it isn't. Did you just take money from JKR's pocket? I don't think so.
As for my ficlet, I believe that what I did fell under parody, which is why I was willing to do it. But I certainly did not post a chapter that Rowling actually wrote and claim it for myself.
It's not true that she was prevented from publishing any more Darkover novels. She elected to not publish the novel under question, which is too bad.
But you miss the entire point. Like you and your ficlet, the other author didn't take stuff that MZB had written and claimed it for herself. Rather, MZB had taken an idea this fan came up with and used it in her novel.
For the actual story and other wise comments, see: http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/007464.html (see especially the Mercedes Lackey post).
But it isn't about plagiarism.
BUT...
I suspect his argument and carefully crafted points will be lost on this particular audience. They won't see any personal cost to the creator. Their reaction will be (and I'm almost willing to bet money on this one) more along the lines of "Yeah, but posting those stories was NO BIG DEAL. AOL was only hurt because Harlan OVERREACTED. The only way our boards, and by extension, us, will be hurt is if Adam-Troy is an ass and OVERREACTS."
I absolutely disagree with those sentiments, but such self-centered worldviews are all too common online and off. It's easy to blame such attitudes as "kids these days" but the easy access and anomymity the internet provides leads folks of all generations to embrace this sense of no-strings entitlement. I've seen it personally more times than I care to count. And if anyone steps in to interrupt this magical flow of manna from heaven, well, THAT person becomes the bad guy. Happens every time.