(no subject)

[bubosquared]

You know, you'd think that with the whole nature of fanfic and all, people would have somewhat of an idea of what plagiarism is. Apparently not. As we learned from the C*ss** Cl**r* "incident," a frighteningly large number of people think it's okay to "quote" large chunks of text, in addition to countless lines of dialogue and just add a vague one-line disclaimer.

We now learn that some people have a mind-bogglingly broad definition of plagiarism, or at least of "heavy borrowing." Look, how do I put this in simple terms? You cannot "own" a vague idea.

If someone copies large chunks of your exact wording and claims it as their own (or at least doesn't attibute the quotes), that's plagiarism.

If someone takes the plot of your story and rewrites it in their own words, that's what you'd call "heavy borrowing". Depending on how much of the plot they take, the heaviness of the borrowing may vary, but. Basically, that's the principle. Needless to say though, this only goes if the author has actually read the story they're borrowing from; otherwise it's just a freaky coincidence.

Now. Say you write a story in a fandom, set at a point in the timeline no one has written about before. Say, a month or two later, you come across another story in that fandom, set at (what you assume to be) that point in the timeline. Other than the "timing," and the pairing, the two stories don't really bear any resemblance whatsoever. Is that plagiarism? Is that "heavy borrowing"? Er, no. Light borrowing, maybe. Inspiration is more likely. Congratulations! You've started a trend. Do not go about leavind messages in people's guestbooks about this supposed "heavy borrowing."

Kee-rist. I suppose that means any and all Sex Pistols stories set pre-band are "heavily borrowed" from Playtime. Or actually, I guess all SP slash is heavily borrowed from me. And all the U2 slash, too. And hey, at least part of Biker Mice from Mars slash is borrowed from me. Hmpf. I get no acknowledgement.

Fuckers.

Comments

[ex-dragones.livejournal.com]

I agree.

Plagiarism is if you use someone else's exact words without BOTH proper citation AND quotations. It's not enough to just use quotations, you have to tell the reader where it came from. Simply telling them you borrowed it from another text isn't enough.

Oh, and a citation could be as simple as doing this at the bottom of your story:

Works Cited:
Author. "Title." <url of where you got it>.

[natlet]

I was first in U2, yo. ;)

*giggle*

Seriously, I do see your point.

Re:

[bubosquared.livejournal.com]

No, you weren't. At leastn not accdoring to the RS-X archive ... o_O

[natlet]

Hrm. Thought I was first.

Oh well. Doesn't matter :)

[sorchar.livejournal.com]

Well, heavy borrowing, when the borrower has, in fact, read and gushed over the story borrowed from, counts as plagiarism in my book. Perhaps unintentional, but plagiarism nonetheless.

Don't mind me, I'm just a little bitter over a story I'll never finish because of just such a borrowing incident.

Re:

[bubosquared.livejournal.com]

I guess it depends on how heavy the borrowing is and also on wether or not it's acknowledged.

Re:

[sorchar.livejournal.com]

Very, and no.

[ex-dragones.livejournal.com]

I forgot to add that paraphrasing someone else's work should be cited as well (either with paranthetical documentation of footnotes (such as an asterisk after said paraphrase)).

[ex-dragones.livejournal.com]

Ahem. OR footnotes. Damn typos.