Tonight, I stumbled upon an author who has taken bits and pieces (in some cases whole paragraphs) of one of my stories and has started his/her own fic!  The very first paragraph is all mine.

Have I arrived, then?  I think not.  The dolt took it all from my very first and not so great attempt at fan fiction.  And the changes he's made make the story even worse than my version!  LOL! 

So far, I can only find it posted on ff.net.  He/she has one other story posted/started and there is a review for it asking why it is so similar to another author's Harry Potter story.

So, all you veteran authors, what the heck do you/would you do in this situation?

ff.net is a hotbed for trolls, isn't.  Is it possible that the person is just a troll looking to cause trouble?  I'm not saying my story was the worst thing ever put up on ff.net, but I truly don't think it was worthy of plagiarism.

First try to get screencaps. Then report them to http://community.livejournal.com/stop_plagiarism/profile. You'll need to give them a link to your story as well so they can compare.

Sorry this has happened to you! *hugs*

Thanks for the quick reply and the link.  I have no idea how to make screencaps of webpages. 

I'll look into it and then report it to the lj community.  

I might've actually felt a little flattered if the person had picked one of my better tries at fan fiction to copy : )

You hit the print screen button on your keyboard. PrtSc It should be just to the right of the F12 button. Then open Photoshop hit 'new' (it should automatically make it the correct size) then paste.

Yeah, to feel a little flattered was my first reaction when I was plagiarised--after finding out they had taken something like 16 of my fics and some banners that had been made for me that quickly turned to annoyance.  

Dawn! Why didn't you tell me?  And, yes, you need toreport it immediately.  Mention it in your LJ, too, just in case others have seen more of his stuff.  If you don't have photoshop, you can usually copy a page and paste it into a document.  Just include the url and explain to the plagiarism site that you couldn't make a screencap. 

And, yeah, I guess it means you have arrived!

Thanks Always_jbj.  I do have photoshop, so I'll get working on it now.

Slaymesoftly,  sorry about that.  That was the first thing I thought to do, was write to you, but it was 1:30 in the morning.  I didn't think you'd be up.  : )

Good call. LOL

I am fairly new to all the fandom, but my schedule allows me to read alot.  i have definitly read some stories that sould very much the same, so i am wondering how do i go about that.  I don't want to upset writters if i am confusing stories i already read, but i could swear they were different people.  what do i do?

I am fairly new to all the fandom, but my schedule allows me to read alot.  i have definitly read some stories that sould very much the same, so i am wondering how do i go about that.  I don't want to upset writters if i am confusing stories i already read, but i could swear they were different people.  what do i do?

I am fairly new to all the fandom, but my schedule allows me to read alot.  i have definitly read some stories that sould very much the same, so i am wondering how do i go about that.  I don't want to upset writters if i am confusing stories i already read, but i could swear they were different people.  what do i do?

like i said new didn't mean to pst this 3x. 

Taken from the stop_plagiarism user page:

1. Investigate. If you suspect a piece of work to be plagarised, please:
    
2. Check the new piece with a copy of the original work.

• Contact the original author about your suspicions; a primary reason being to ensure that they aren't the same person using different pseudonyms.

Speaking as a writer who has NOT arrived *G* (Yes, I admit that while I would HATE my stories to be stolen I am a wee bit jealous no one has ever wanted to....I'm an idiot).... I would want someon to clue me in to investigate.  I usually only read the places where I post and avoid the FFnet pit of voles when possible so someone could be doing my stories all over the place and I'd not know unless someone told me.  I'd want to check it out and deal with it properly.  If I ever notice someone's work with someone elses name I will let them know too.  We don't own the characters and don't charge but it is the product of our mind and lots of work go into the stories...to have them stolen is wrong on many levels.

Kathleen

I'm with you, Kathleen. Do you suppose we should take this personally?  LOL  On the other hand, like you, I never go to FF to read anything unless I"m linked to it from a judging site or something like that, so I wouldn't know if someone had taken my entire fic list and given them all different titles. :) 

LOL.  I know I haven't arrived.  I cringed when I saw that he plagiarized that particular story. 

I don't read fan fiction on ff.net either.  I don't like the format, and you have to wade through a lot of "junk" before you can find any of the good stuff.  : )

He took the story down.  : )  I guess he also plagiarized his other story as well and that is gone. 

Pretty crazy.

Thanks for the advice, everyone.  And a big thanks to my beta, slaymesoftly for being the kind of person she is.  I think she's pretty cool!  *hugs* 

And Alwaysjbj gets a big hug, too, for showing me a new trick to do with photoshop.  LOL  *hug*

I'm glad that's done. A quick response is a good sign that he knew exactly what he'd done. :)

Hey pfeifferpack and slaymesoftly, don't be hurt - if I were evil incarnate, I'd plagarise your fics!

At the risk of sounding really dumb, what is meant by saying you've "arrived"? Like, arrived as an author, or being acknowledged as good enough to copy, or arrived and at the point of your work being taken advantage of, or something else?

LOL!  I was just making fun of myself.  Yes, I meant it in the way of arriving as an author and being good enough that someone would want to copy my work.  : )  I absolutely know that's not the case.

I don't think I'll ever feel as if I've "arrived" as an author, even if I one day get some of my original work published.  : )

Dawn is too modest.  Anyone who has watched her for a while could easily see the amazing way she has steadily improved with each fic posted.  And, as one of her current betas, I can attest to how hard she works for that improvement. She never rests, is always searching for the better way to say this, a more interesting way to say that - this is someone who has a goal and is willing to put in the work required to reach it.  When she does "arrive", we can all say that we knew her when. LOL