Since January there's been coverage of plagiarism on Amazon, with folks self-publishing works in the public domain or copying works by other authors, slapping their own names on them, and selling them.
NPR and FastCompany covered the problem in January regarding plagiarised works – including in one case a word-for-word copy of Dracula – posted as “erotica” – which tends to sell rather briskly.
One issue is that even if Amazon responds and removes the content, the onus is on the author who was plagiarized to seek any damages. From this article at Appazoogle:
Just to give you one more recent example, Elise Bauer, food blogger at Simply Recipes, discovered that her recipes and photos had been stolen and repackaged as an ebook through Amazon’s Kindle store. After complaining, Amazon informed Bauer that they unlisted the book, but if she believed she was entitled to compensation by the guilty parties, it was up to her to take action.
Well, no wonder people are angry. For someone who never submitted her content to Amazon in the first place, why is the onus on her to play avenger?
And apparently, according to the Bauer article, it is pretty easy to bypass the system—you simply have to check a box verifying that you have the rights to use the content. If someone is stealing someone else’s work in the first place, obviously they’re not going to have any problem checking that box, no matter who owns the material.
Today romance author Liz Fielding found that one of her novellas, The Cinderella Valentine, was republished by Kay Manning, only Manning changed the names, location and a few minor details. The odd thing was, Manning listed the story for free.
Later, Manning allegedly stated that she took the short story down herself:
“Kay Manning Feb 24, 2012 06:17 AM
Smashwords responded to NOTHING. I took down the story because of my mistake. I know no one would believe it but it was an honest mistake. I put this story in the wrong folder on my computer and actually thought it was mine that I started a long time ago. If I really wanted to 'steal it' do you honestly think I would have put it up for free? What do I benefit off it?”
That's a new one! It was in the wrong folder on a computer! That's totally one for the ages.
As for Manning's question as to what she could benefit from publishing the story… well, funny you should ask that, Ms. Manning.
Enter Elizabeth Chadwick, whose GoogleFu is unlike any GoogleFu that has googlefued before. Chadwick found Manning's Goodreads listing and from there, the can of whoop-ass, it was mightily cracked.
Chadwick found that A Soldier's Valentine “by” Kay Manning is nearly identical in description to Catherine Mann's An Evening to Remember, only with names and a few details changed.
“Go! Go! Go!”
Captain Shawn “Iceman” Isaacs hurtled out of the military cargo plane, the crew chief's order to jump from the C-17 echoing in his ears along with the roaring of engines. The silent sky swallowed him. Arms and legs splayed, he soared down, down, down toward Fryar Drop Zone, the part of Fort Benning Military Reservation located in Alabama.
Somewhere in the soft fields below Tammy Lowe waited for him.
Of course, she didn't know he was one of the guys parachuting this afternoon. Although regularly a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter pilot, he needed the jump to stay current on his training. But she thought he was still deployed to the Middle East.
He'd enlisted her co-workers' aid to ensure Tammy would come for a Valentine's surprise—even if Valentine's Day was still a week away. Thank goodness for the help of her three pals, because no way would she have showed if she learned Shawn would be landing at her feet.
Catherine Mann's An Evening to Remember:
“Go! Go! Go!”
Captain Vince “Novocain” Novak hurtled out of the military cargo plane, the crew chief’s order to jump from the C-17 echoing in his ears along with the roaring of engines. Then the silent sky swallowed him. Arms and legs splayed, he soared down, down, down toward the landing zone at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida.
A speck of grass in Tampa where McKenzie Rowe waited for him.
Of course she didn’t know he was one of the guys parachuting this afternoon. Although regularly an MH-53 Pave Low helicopter pilot, he was also jump qualified and needed to stay current on his training. But she thought he was still deployed to the Middle East.
He’d enlisted her co-workers’ aid to ensure McKenzie would come for a Valentine’s surprise—even if Valentine’s Day was still a week away. Thank goodness for the help of her three pals, because no way would she have showed if she learned Vince would be landing at her feet.
Chadwick found Manning's “Casino Caper” matched Marie Ferrarella's “Countdown.”
Chadwick also identified “Manning's” “Bachelor Auction,” which is for sale at Scribd, as Gena Dalton's “Red Roses,” all of which is available free online at Harlequin's site.
Bachelor Auction:
“And the last bachelor up for bids is…”Luke tuned out the auctioneer’s voice and wondered for the millionth time how he’dgotten roped into this. A bachelor auction was definitely
not his style – even if it was for a good cause.Tugging at the collar of his starched dress shirt, he shifted uneasily as the auctioneer continued his sales pitch. Should he smile? Pose? Pinned in a corral with an angry bull intent onripping his insides out was just another day at the office. But he just didn’t feel comfortable upon stage with a blinding spotlight shining on him. He hoped he didn’t look as nervous as he felt.The auctioneer drove up the bids with his ongoing commentary – but all Luke could hear was the roar of the crowd as women yelled out numbers and cheered each other. Squinting intothe lights, he tried to make out who was bidding on him, but the dark shapes he could just make out gave little answers.
“Sold!”
Then, before he knew it, the gavel sounded.But to who..?
Melanie Lowell. He knew it, somewhere deep in his gut, even before he found her in the crowd. That had been his luck lately. Melanie told him before the auction she’d do whatever it took to get him and a woman like her was used to getting everything she wanted.
And today was no different. The brilliant green victory glance she shot his way confirmed his hunch and sent a thrill down his spine in spite of his best effort to resist it. He looked away and set his jaw. He had to tamp down his annoyance at her success or she’d havehim hog-tied before he knew what hit him.
Yet he felt the corners of his mouth lift in a grin as he followed the other bachelors acrossthe stage. Dressed in sharp black tuxedos, they tromped down the steps to the floor of the arenalike penguins on parade. He was looking forward to being with her again. Melanie was a lot of fun.
Red Roses:
“And the last bachelor up for bids is…”
Alex tuned out the auctioneer’s voice and wondered for the millionth time how he’d gotten roped into this. A bachelor auction was definitely not his style — even on Valentine’s Day. But, he reminded himself, this was for a good cause.
Tugging at the collar of his uniform, he shifted uneasily as the auctioneer continued his sales pitch. Should he smile? Pose? He just didn’t feel comfortable up on stage with a blinding spotlight shining on him. He hoped he didn’t look as nervous as he felt.
The auctioneer was driving up the bids — but all Alex could hear was the roar of the crowd as women yelled out numbers and cheered each other on. Squinting into the lights, he tried to make out who was bidding on him, but to no avail.
Then, before he knew it, the gavel sounded. He’d been sold! But to who…?
Taylor Fanning. He knew it, somewhere deep in his gut, before he even looked at her again. That was about his luck lately. Besides, Taylor had plainly told him that she was going to get him and she was famous all over Texas for always getting whatever she went after.
Sure enough, one glance at her confirmed his hunch. She shot him a blazing blue victory glance and a smile that sent a thrill down his spine in spite of his best effort to resist it. He looked away and set his jaw. He had to hold on to his aggravation or she’d have him roped and hog-tied before he knew what hit him.
Yet he felt the corners of his mouth lift in a grin as he followed the other bachelor rodeo cowboys, all dressed in the Valentine’s Day “uniform” — tuxedos — that the auction had required them to wear, across the portable stage toward the steps leading to the floor of the arena. He was looking forward to being with her again. Taylor was a lot of fun.
Kay S. Manning also writes under the name Payton Bradshaw (I'm guessing she likes quarterbacks?) and “published” “An Early Christmas Present” with MuseitUp Publishing. Joanna Bourne found that this story is nearly identical to Julia Kenner's story “Wrapped and Ready” in the Harlequin Anthology Red Hot Holiday. The excerpt on “Payton Bradshaw's” Goodreads page is nearly identical to the Kenner story.
Bourne, who with Chadwick are kicking ass and taking names in the Google department, also found that Kay Manning's real name is listed in this military newspaper article as Kristal Singletary. Singletary also blogs, and, as Bourne reported, plagiarizes, that, too:
By K.H. Singletary on her blog at:
http://khsingletary.blogspot.com/2009/03/part-3-developing-your-creative-process.html
“Your creative process is a series of steps that you repeat every time you need to create. Simple. The trick is to make the steps fluid and flexible enough to allow you the room you need to create well, while still being structured enough to help you through when you’re having a hard time. An effective process should allow for serendipity—happy accidents are responsible for lots of great writing”
Developing a Creative Process by George Shaw. This is at:http://www.howdesign.com/design-creativity/idea-generating-tips/developing-a-creative-process/
“Your creative process is a series of steps that you repeat every time you need to create. Simple. The trick is to make the steps fluid and flexible enough to allow you the room you need to create well, while still being structured enough to help you through when you’re having a hard time. An effective process should allow for serendipity—happy accidents are responsible for lots of great design “
Kristal Singletary is also listed as the treasurer of RWA's Kiss of Death chapter.
One would think folks would learn by now that if you plagiarize, you're going to get caught, especially with the powerful magic of Google cache and Google books for searching phrases. Alas, Manning seems to have been quite blithe about her “publishing career.”
The best part: Liz Fielding posted her original entry at about 1:20 pm.
Today I stand in awe at the power of friendship.
Within hours of blogging that my story had been plagiarised the guilty party has closed her blog to all but the invited, removed her twitter account and all the books she purported to have written have been removed from Smashwords.
Many thanks to everyone who left a comment here, or on twitter or facebook today.
I hope Bourne, Chadwick, Fielding and the others who GoogleFu'd the crap out of Kay Manning and Kristal Singletary are drinking a well-earned frosty beverage tonight. Well played.
ETA 25 February 2012:
Kay Manning left a comment on Dear Author:
Kay Manning
FEB 24, 2012 @ 22:31:43
I’ve gone back and forth on how to address this for several hours. A personal blog post would not be seen by enough people. Nor would a response to Ms. Fielding’s blog. When Dear Author posted this blog, I felt it was the answer I’d been looking for. I couldn’t find a more public place than this.
To all the authors, publishers, and editors I stole from, I am sorry. There is no excuse. All distributors have been notified and those I couldn’t take down/remove myself are being removed by the third party as soon as possible.
To all the authors, publishers, and editors I’ve met and known over the years, I am sorry. I know you will never forgive me and you shouldn’t.
To anyone associated with the Kiss of Death Chapter, you can be assured that all funds relating to the chapter are well managed and controlled by a dedicated President and Board. I have not had access to any accounts where wrongdoing could have occurred without their immediate and swift action.
Finally, so there is no misunderstanding. I am a thief, a plagiarist. I am not an author.
So she went from “I put the story in the wrong file and thought it was mine” to “I am sorry, I'm a thief, a plagiarist” after Dear Author, SBTB, Twitter and Jo Bourne, Elizabeth Chadwick and many others found a hot pile of examples that it wasn't just one story and it wasn't just something she was offering for free.
I have mixed feelings about that apology. On one hand, that was pretty much a full and complete admission of how badly she's fucked up. But had it come earlier instead of “What do I gain from posting that for free” and “oops wrong folder,” it would have been met with less skepticism and more acceptance. At this point, I have Rhianna stuck in my head (and it is TOO EARLY for that): “Don't tell me you're sorry, cause you're not. You know you're only sorry you got caught.”
This apology, in as big a forum as one could ask for, is like a politician getting caught mismanaging funds or having wild raunchy times with those not his wife. There's apologies for seeing what one did was wrong and stating so, and there's apologies that come after having been caught doing what was wrong, then caught for lying about it, and only then offering the full apology. She published one of “her” books as recently as December 2011.
This is something I think plagiarists are having a hard time understanding: online, with so much text to search and so many sources to compare, you'll get caught. Do the work yourself.
ETA: I received a reply from the Kiss of Death chapter, and it matches the email posted in the comments by Avery Flynn:
Kiss of Death is dedicated to promoting and supporting the mystery/suspense genre with romantic elements through the championship of good writing through our educational and awards programs. As such, I have accepted the resignation of our treasurer, per her request, and in the best interest of the organization.
AJ Brower, President
Kiss of Death
I so admire those who can write. As a devoted reader I have come to appreciate how much talent and discipline it takes to create a good book, let alone handle the business side of getting published. It feels wonderful to see our little community standing up for the hardworking authors we all love. Well done all!
A friend of mine writes (nonfiction instructionals) for a small press (no idea which one) but, due to having been burned in the past by plagiarism, they run all text submitted through a program that checks it against the entire web and i-have-no-idea-what-else. He found this out when they accused him of lifting part of a chapter…it was from his own blog. False positive, but that software IS out there, and does get used.
Which is not to mention the amazing power that is Google-fu! And here all those publishers hated the idea of Google Books…yet the fact that it exists and makes the text of books searchable by specific phrases actually protects the people who actually hold the rights to them….
Copyright infringement has both statutory and actual damages, you get 1 or the other
see http://www.copyright.gov/title…
The range for stautory damages is $750 to $30,000 per infringment. If the court finds that the infringment was willful, they can increase statutory damages up to $150,000.
Also the prevailing party may recover all costs, including attorney fees from the loser.
Copyright infringement can be costly.
I sort of touched on this on my blog post today. I think you could make a great argument that Amazon is liable because they negligently or even recklessly allowed the material onto their site and they profited from it. WHile your correct that Amazon can’t sue the plagiarist, I don’t think that protects them from being dragged into a suit by the person who owns the copyright (which may or may not be the actual author, sometimes the publisher owns it). I posted the link to the damages that someone can get from an infringment.
But the real question I think we should ask is what the effect of bringing a suit again Amazon would have on self publishing. Right now my thought is that if Amazon and the likes are held liable for not vetting submissions more carefully, it would essentially end self-publishing in any major market site.
COuld it be Turnitin?
@Elizabeth Bailey
If it IS a shame.
One of the biggest problems I face as a teacher is that some of the kids feel no shame about anything they do. Ever. Someone ballsy enough to plagiarize in this era where it’s so easy to detect probably doesn’t give a fat cow’s butt about whether she’s embarrassed herself or not. It’s so hard for me to understand because I flip out over how it looks if I do anything embarrassing—like having a typo in a post. 😉
Yes, I second Liz – whilst I am seriously shocked by the scale of this, we don’t need to be threatening the woman. I suspect she’s going to suffer enough for what she’s done.
I do think that something should be done about the problems of epublishing – could they not all be checked for plagiarism before being released? It might be a little more time consuming, but like HistoryLady I am also studying at University, and all my work is checked by a plagiarism program before I get my final grade.
Speechless as well. The old saying, ‘It’s easier to apologize after the fact than to ask permission before” applies here. The outrage the plagiarized authors must feel cannot be measured, I’m sure. My heart goes out to them, and I’m tossing out lots of good thoughts for a huge bump in sales due to the publicity this generated. To the folks who uncovered this, you have provided a service that cannot be measured. Bless you all. At the end of the day, you cannot control morality, but you can certainly uncover it. No amount of apology or mea culpas can unring this particular bell. This person should be banned from any blogs related to books and authors, and should certainly not be allowed to reside on any committees or boards.
Gobsmacked, I am as well.
Just curious but why isn’t anyone claiming that other sites like Sony should be suing? I don’t think it is up to Amazon. Do they even have the right to sue? It seems to me as if the suit should come from the author whose work was stolen.
Dreadful. I’ve had some straight copyright theft on pirate sites myself, but not yet experienced this level of theft – though any day now it could happen, judging by this story. But how did she think she could get away with it? That’s what worries me. I suspect someone who could do this and think no one would ever find out must, well, need a little help. If you know what I mean. I hope she’s okay.
Quite honestly, plagiarizers do what they do because, in the grand scheme of things, the chances they will be caught are rather low. Take, for example, how long Kate Manning has been plagiarizing the works of others to when she got caught or how long Cassie Edwards “wrote” before she was outed. Granted, it takes one person to read and recognize (or have suspicions) and follow those up with GoogleFu, but having this occur can take some time. So, in essence, the benefits outweigh the potential cost of being caught.
I see it time and again with my own students. I, too, teach at the college level, and even though my syllabi outline what plagiarism is and what the strict punishments for it are AND the fact that all of their essays will be run through Turnitin, I still get plagiarism at least once a semester. For some students, it is as minor as not knowing what “in your own words” means when paraphrasing (e.g. simply changing “soliders” to “troops” and leaving everything else the same without putting quotation marks around it does not qualify, regardless of whether or not one cites), and for others it is as serious as this case with wholesale copying. I am becoming increasingly jaded about this because it is appearing in places where people should and do know better. For example, in a recent job search at my college, we found that at least three of the applicants plagiarized their teaching statements. These statements are merely supposed to be what a person’s teaching philosophy is, but apparently, these candidates had no idea as well as no compunction about using someone else’s philosophy to get ahead. I also grade placement exams and found a student who plagiarized using the internet while taking the computerized test – I mean, seriously, all the writing sample is meant to do is to place you into a certain level of composition. You don’t get a grade, and it does not affect your GPA. So, honestly, what is the freakin’ point?!!! Quite simply, there isn’t one, other than the fact that plagiarism is an increasing threat that needs to be sternly addressed at all levels of educations, and those who are found to plagiarize can apologize all they want to, but in reality, no apology is sufficient to atone for the crime.
And yet another reason my fellow booksellers and I can’t stand hearing customers tell us, “oh, I’ll just buy it from Amazon.”
If I ever meet any of the people who took the time to google and find the plagiarism, and—so important—to write and complain and blog and just generally raise a fuss, I will buy those frosty beverages myself. Thank you!
Sharazade
It should—but what if she uses yet another name? How far does RWA go to verify members’ ID? Conceivably, she could create an entire new ID online and belong to RWA, as long as she never showed her face physically anywhere.
And I’m with those who are feeling very cynical regarding the likelihood of changed behaviour. She got away with it for a good long while, after all, and while the apology is, indeed, refreshingly blunt, it’s still a case of “would have continued doing it if not caught” isn’t it?
Joanna, I have also had to spend precious writing time this weekend sending take down notices to fifteen sites pirating my latest book. This whole business of having something for nothing (reputation, honour, cash and free reads) is invading society wholesale. I cannot understand why someone who would never dream of stealing a physical book from a store, cannot make the connection.
The public shame and scandal should be a warning to others and that is good. Amazon do need to set up controls for this. It is making me more determined now to be agented as they are the gatekeepers. And I agree with Liz. No hounding. Being found out and disgraced is where it stops. The internet can be very cruel.
I can see how someone can inadvertantly mimic a scene from another book. We read so many books that sometimes they all gel together. And as an author when you think a scene you wrote is eeringly similar to something else, you need to delete it, revise it, start over – whatever. But to copy the entire book and just changenames and places is so stupid. Did she really think she could get away with it?
How awful.
I don’t approve of hounding, on the internet or elsewhere, but surely there should be some punishment for plagiarism, and it shouldn’t come down to the real authors having to pursue and prosecute. Enough of their lives have been stolen already.
And while it’s true that no one has died, there are situations in which I can understand killing another person (we can all agree on self-defense at least, right?). I can even condone outright stealing (thank you Victor Hugo). There aren’t any situations that justify plagiarism, no mitigating circumstances, no nothing. It’s just wrong. It is possible for someone to make a mistake – they’ve assimilated a phrase and not realized it. Maybe. But this is not a mistake.
Did anyone check and see if the apology had been copied from somewhere else?
Hi Liz, I came across a free book on Kobo called “Wild Justice” that the cover says is written by you. It’s copyright notice is 1965. Aside from the cover, the voice of the book is not yours. It’s more American than British. I have been reading your books for years and the strangeness of this one struck me right away. In light of the plagiarism scandal, I wondered if you were aware of the book?
Malihaa, there I have re-pubbed an old trilogy I wrote in 1996/97 – Wild Justice, Wild Lady and Wild Fire – Wild Justice is a free download. It is, however, set in Britain, with British characters and although much longer isn’t that far from my Harlequin Romances in voice. Maybe you could let me have a link to the book you found so that I can be sure that it’s mine you found. 🙂 Thanks for being so thoughtful.
Pretty ballsy. This is why I’m hesitant to use critique partners I’ve found online through supposedly safe venues. You never know if your latest baby is going to come out under someone elses name. That really sucks because I’m totally cut off from other options.
When I think of plagiarism on this scale, I think of some clever, self-entitled thief who believes the world owes them a living and thinks all authors are so rich they won’t miss the stolen profits from a plagiarized book. I think of someone who doesn’t know any writers personally and doesn’t know what it means to create a story out of your own mind, and put all the countless hours into perfecting it that we go through. I imagine someone whose only aim is profit and who cares nothing for the joy of creating or whether or not anyone likes their product as long as someone buys it and puts some ill-gotten gains in their pocket.
This is why I find it so hard to reconcile the idea that someone who was a member of RWA and of Romance Divas would do this. This is a person who knows authors, who has to know the struggles and the blood, sweat and tears that go into creating a book, getting it published and struggling to forge a career in this brutal business. It’s easy to imagine someone removed from that world would have no conscience and no remorse, but it’s nearly impossible to believe someone who has celebrated the successes of other authors and commiserated with their setbacks and hardships would be able to look at herself in the mirror ever again after doing something like this. That’s the truly appalling part. Not that someone might believe they could get away with it – people commit crimes every day thinking they’re smarter than the average bear and won’t get caught, but that someone would pretend to live the life of an author and befriend those who work so hard only to betray them this way. It’s beyond the pale.
April, I imagine a sort of desperation sets in, a need to be part of the inner circle, to be looked up to, admired that cuts a person off from reality.
Only if one of the authors files for a formal Code of Ethics inquiry, under the bylaws. RWA will not act based on what is published on blogs.
Agree with comment from KKW about not hounding. I’m no bully. But what Ms Manning did was scandalous.
It’s good to see she’s repentant. Although the Rhianna analogy rang true (“Don’t tell me you’re sorry, cause you’re not. You know you’re only sorry you got caught”)
That applied to me six months ago when I discovered my husbands infidelity (for the 2nd time in six years) so I’m afraid I have little time for people who have no scruples and lack integrity!
However, like my ex, I feel sorry for Ms Manning. There is no excuse for plagiarism other than laziness, being talentless and so self-absorbed that they will do anything to advance themselves.
The wrong do-er will never find absolution. They are the one who has to look deep within themselves for the answers but will always struggle to find them. The good person always comes out on top.
And thank goodness, in this case, Liz Fielding is the one who comes out with talent shining bright, dignity and reputation in tact, and way up on top!
There’s a saying that ethics are how you behave when nobody’s looking. To apologize when you’ve been caught isn’t apologizing for what you did: If it were, they would have come out and apologized first instead of waiting to get busted. There is indeed a world of difference between being sorry they did something bad and being sorry they got caught doing something bad. From what I read, I have no doubt Kay Manning would have been perfectly happy continuing to plagarize from others if she wasn’t caught. Her apology rings hollow and I hope she gets the Internet-age equivalent of the Scarlet A for plagarism. (A Scarlet P?)
All my sympathy goes out to the writers she copied from—y’know, those people who put the time and effort into creating something of their own for others to enjoy, the authors who are respected, loved, and discussed here.
In the not-so-olden days, an author couldn’t cry foul without fear of her own career being tainted in some way. (Similar to the rule “never accuse your publisher of cheating you.”) Plagiarism has been going on for ages. I only hope some of the older frauds soon get what is coming to them as well.
My stars and garters that blows (and not in the good way)! I promise I am doing my best to put the fear of God in my students about plagiarism, and hopefully, you won’t have to deal with it from anyone who has taken one of my classes.
This was simpler, LL, because she just straight out stole the story and changed the names. Always tougher to prove when they steal parts of a book, phrases, expression, etc.
Amazon has an accounting of all royalties paid to Kay Manning, so if Amazon won’t willingly give out that information to the plagiarized authors, the authors should be able to demand it from Amazon by means of a letter from an attorney. It could be worthwhile for them. The accounting will be broken down by title, so it would be easy to learn what portion of the royalties paid out would go to each plagiarized author. Another thing the authors could do would be to threaten Manning with prosecution and potential imprisonment for copyright infringement unless she reveals to them all of her royalty statements and bank deposits and makes good on what she owes each, including something for damages since some readers could be confused if they chance upon both editions of a book and don’t really know which is the real one, and which was plagiarized.
There are two Kay Manning works still listed on bn.com ($0.99 each)—“Fireworks,” and “Heist.” Does anyone know if these have been ID’d as plagiarized works as well?
They are listed as being published by Smashwords and have been up since 6/17/11.
Just occurred to me that “Heist” might be “Casino Caper” with an altered title, but I don’t want to download it to find out.
“An Early Christmas Present” is also available on bn.com ($2.50) and I have submitted a note to bn.com asking them to remove it due to plagiarized content.
Update:
I downloaded a free sample of “Heist” to my nook, and compared it to “Countdown” (following the link provided)—it is definitely “Casino Caper” under another name. I submitted a report to bn.com asking them to remove this one as well.
Nita, I believe that Fireworks has been ID as the work of another author, over at Dear Author—will have to look. Yes, right on the body of the post here. It’s actually by Valerie Hansen
Thanks, azteclady, I finally did see that!
In this day and age of blink and it’s on the internet and around the world, for her to think she could just go blithely along w/o being found out is either massive hubris or massive stupidty or perhaps a bit of both. It is my fear as a writer, each time I even think about posting an excerpt. I have been plagiarized and it’s not fun (nor was it pretty when I called them on it.) I’ve been told I can be a bit of a biotch 🙂
In college three of my essays have been stolen where the class submits essays on forums, I will spend hours researching/writing before posting and then 10 minutes later another person will post my same essay (usually with just a few words changed) and each time I have contacted the instructor, they’ve agreed and confronted the student, and each time that person has been banished from the class and twice from the college.
It’s not just stealing someone’s work, changing the names/places etc, and publishing it as an original that’s rife.
Nicky Charles, a highly popular indie writer who publishes at Smashwords and Feedbooiks for FREE, has had her novels stolen and published on Amazon for sale. Her name appears on the covers, even the first pages where it says the books are published for FREE DOWNLOAD haven’t changed. Someone is earning money off Nicky’s hard work and it isn’t Nicky.
This is the third time her books have been stolen and sold for hard cash on Amazon since last summer. As of right now, her books are still on sale at Amazon despite DMCA letters being sent to them.
Thanks for the heads up on such an important issue. I guess putting passages from my novel on Google Alerts needs to go on my to-do list.
Passing off someone else’s work as yours should become a criminal offence (and e-stores be liable to prosecution by a state as ‘handling stolen goods’).
If Kristal Singletary had burgled houses and stolen property, she could be charged with a criminal offence and potentially go to prison and have assets seized in recompense.
As far as I am aware – perhaps others can advise differently, there is no redress for stealing others’ Intellectual Property, other than for the plaintiff(s) to take the plagiarist to court under civil law; a risky, time-consuming and likely unsatisfactory outcome and one unlikely to prevent a plagiariser repeating their offence in the future.
What bothers me is that people can keep doing this over and over and there are no real consequences. Sure, if we discover a plagiarized book on Amazon, we can ask them to take it down, but then there are no consequences to the guilty person. It’s the same as the websites I’ve seen where they charge a monthly fee to users and then let them download as many books as they want, and these are basically stolen books. The author gets nothing.
I’ve personally reported to my publisher about three of these sites where my books were being offered illegally. My publisher’s legal department has them taken down within hours, but there are no consequences to the people who stole my books, put them on their website, and sold them. Why can’t something be done so that this doesn’t keep happening? My hope is that RWA has the money and the clout to change things.