forums & plagiarism

In an earlier post I mentioned I like to use some forums to help me research spirituality to write books based on the supernatural; I use this as research only but I use my own imagination based on those things I’ve learned.  I have just discovered that one of my favorite forums has had another author do the same thing, however, they lack imagination of their own accord and have completely plagiarized a lot of individual story themes so much so, that I can actively point out who she has copied from, she has changed the names, but subtly, for example Melissa is Melony, Camilla is Camille, a little too noticeable don’t you think?

It is fine to pick up ideas from forums but give it a little more imagination and don’t blatantly outright copy an entire person or few from the same place, it’s too obvious.  My reason for putting this up, is because on that forum I have spoken a lot about spiritual things and even placed ideas for stories there in the past and I have found out this plagiarizer has focused on my posts as her main theme for stories.

I thought at first it was only one or two books she has did this on, but no, in the last two years she has been busy and published forty books all by herself, she is a self-published author.

Needless to say she had trouble being accepted in publication because a publisher would have done their research and would have found that it was massively plagiarized.

Also, the author of these books has not done her research in that her main character’s name was a well-known German comic from the 1970s of which I had took as my forums username, a character which helped German girls grow up as empowered and confident women.

If you’re going to go on forums for ideas, don’t be so bloody obvious, of course I am going to read those books and pin point the plagiarisms over the next couple of months, because I think this could lead to a court appearance.  Forums are also protected by copyright, so be very careful what you take from them.

Do your research before you’re confident or stupid enough to self-publish your work, in case you’ve either deliberately or inadvertently copied from someone.

I am really flabbergasted at how much she has used from one forum and from a few people, I have never seen such blatant outright copycat work before.

It’s obvious to me that she simply copied down a lot, and changed some things subtly; there was no indication whatsoever from what I’ve read so far, that she’s used her brain at all in these writings.  Each book is an average of 330 pages, and as I said, she’s written forty in two years; who can do that and be original work?

I’ll keep you posted, but it may be a few months before you get an update.

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