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< The Enchanted Quill ~ Plagiarism - what's hot and what's not... |
| azazello |
 Posted: Tue Dec 28, 2004 2:37 pm |
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Joined: 29 Nov 2004
Posts: 183
Location: Northern UK
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By now everyone knows that there was a blatant incident of fic plagiarism on the Ashwinder archive. It was noticed by a number of our readers who quickly brought it to the attention of the admins. It was dealt with and the stories removed, along with the account of the plagiarist.
Many thanks to all who brought this to our attention. Plagiarism is hurtful, it's offensive to writers and readers alike.
It's insulting to writers in two ways - to those who have their hard work and imagination ripped off, and to those who work hard on their own stuff (even if it is not exactly brilliant, but honest work) only to see the work of a copyist get better reviews and more attention.
Essentially, the plagiarist is conning readers into believing that they are a better writer than they are.
But not all cases of plagiarism are as clear cut and as blatant as this was (essentially a case of change the names, cut and paste). Here's a short field guide in this murky area we all occupy to plagiarism and fanfic.
Essentially, I'll point out here that this is a personal definition, and not an official admin statement.
First off, in a sense, we are all plagiarising. That's to some extent what fanfiction is about. After all, we are using the characters and settings of another writer who originally perceived these, and who is published and successful, ie J K Rowling. Some cult writers will not tolerate fanfiction based on their work (Ann Rice is the most famous example of this) and will bring legal pressure to bear on those who ignore their wishes. Most writers with a fandom tend to be tolerant. The one we are concerned with, Ms Rowling, is pretty tolerant. She'd rather not have youngsters able to access blatantly sexual depictions of her characters and that's one of the reasons most "adult" fanfic content tends these days to be password protected. There were cases in the early days of this fandom of slash archives, in particular, receiving "Cease and Desist" legal warnings. Usually the creation of passwords (as we now have on SH) is sufficient to keep the lawyers happy; that and the "disclaimer". A disclaimer is what you put on fanfic to acknowledge that you do not own any of the characters, settings or concepts you have borrowed.
That's the first aspect of plagiarism, though I personally prefer the term "hommage" which is really what we are doing. The other important thing to remember is that you cannot make money out of your HP fanfic, however good - because your concepts and canon characters are not your own. Permission is not given by the original writer for you to do so.
It is possible to make money and get writing work that references a fic universe created by others. I refer to published spin -offs such as the Star Trek and Star Wars publishing. They employ writers to produce stories, and pay them. There are also some very famous examples of what might be termed fanfic: Laurie R King writes Sherlock Holmes "fanfiction" and has a cult following of her own. Jean Rhys wrote a "fanfic" of Jane Eyre (called "Wide Sargasso Sea"; it is better than the original (in my opinion) - a story of the life of the mad wife), which is actually a model of just how superb a fanfic can be. However, the main thing you need to know is that the original writers are dead (and cannot sue) or have licensed others to work with their fictional creations. It's quite possible there might be Potter spin offs allowed when JKR is through, at the present, what we do is merely fanfic, and not for sale.
The other aspect of potential plagiarism about the Potterverse is if a writer approached a publishing house with a story about a boy wizard learning magic at a school called, say, Hignuts, and the boy being called Wally Blotter. If (and this is a pretty big if) the publishing house were deluded and deranged enough to publish this, or something even only similar, there would be some serious legal kickass going down.
Now to fanfic.
What's yours? What do you, the writer of the fanfic, own? Essentially, everything that is not JKR's. The characters you the ficcer made up, the plot, the settings. The dialogue. It's yours but you have no legal recourse if someone nicks your characters, plot, settings. That's because you are operating in the world of fanfic and therefore do not hold intellectual copyright on your stuff. Technically, J K Rowling does.
However there is a moral right, which fandom as a collective, and sites try to defend. Fiction Archives depend hugely on goodwill, and supporting plagiarists is not conducive to fandom wide goodwill. That's why plagiarists are kicked off.
If you (the fic writer) use a character invented by another writer - be that writer Rowling, or A N Otherficwriter, then you should acknowledge the provenance of the character. Ditto situations and plot. You should also, and I cannot stress this highly enough ASK FIRST. I cannot imagine a situation where the author/owner of a fanfic original character/universe would refuse if approached politely. If anything, they would be flattered. However, finding you have had a character stolen (even if it is inadvertent), after the fact, and knowing that you were not acknowledged is only flattering for a moment. I promise from experience, that fury sets in pretty quickly. And once that fury is there, it usually moves in permanently.
Quote: "But I honestly did not realise the character/setting/plot was A N Other's idea!"
Well, fine. But once you do know, acknowledge and act immediately. I write with the door shut. I avoid fanfic like the plague when writing. I revise with the door open, and I will revise months later. I expect readers to tell me if I appear to be over close to the ideas of another, and by gum I shall change things. If they cannot be changed, an acknowledgement will be made. And regardless of whether I keep the concept or edit it out, I'll contact the writer who anyone says I have borrowed from and ask their opinion. That's only showing the same respect I expect to receive myself.
My general tack is to avoid much reading (scanning fics for admin purposes is not likely to make me plagiarise 'em) while writing. If I later discover similar concepts in other fics, I'll make a value judgement as to how close they are. Generally, I've seen some things that are a teeny bit reminiscent, but not so much that I need to make acknowledgment.
Quote: But I'm writing a challenge response! Surely my plot is going to be like other writers' plots!
Indeed so. But in fact that's only true to a limited extent. There will be a number of rules that were laid down by the challenger, and it is perfectly acceptable to have these in common - after all those ideas essentially belong to the challenger and she has made it clear that writers can use them, but other than that, the idea of one responder to the Marriage Law Challenge belongs to them. It's probably a good idea for challenge writers to print out the rules so that they know those are the only "in common" things allowed.
Etiquette, then:
Say you post a fic and someone points out politely that you have an OC who is not yours, that your scene where whatever event happens is a bit near the knuckle in its close similarity to another fic, then here's what you should do:
1. Check out the fic in question.
2. Approach the author with an apology and an explanation as to what has happened. Invite the author to take a look, and ask them what their opinion is.
3. If the original author suggests you have taken, ask that author what they want you to do. Most would settle for an acknowledgement. After all, you had the courtesy to approach, and that's what counts. If the author is insistent that you should not include whatever it is, rewrite.
4. Post a clear acknowledgement and a link to the fic from where your idea came, if the author is happy with you including her idea.
5. Rewrite if the author is not.
6. Advise the author what you have done, where it is, and ask if they are happy with that.
There. Good relations, adult behaviour and respect all round.
Win win.
Getting your account thrown off a site is clearly lose lose.
What's Not Plagiarism?
Challenge concepts - but not the content of an individual's response.
The canon characters.
Setting a story in a public part of the world - even if Ficwriter A has a story set in Birmingham, there's nothing to stop you writing your fic in Birmingham. However, if Ficwriter A blows up the Birmingham Gasworks, and then you do the same - you have plagiarised.
Particular ideas. This is difficult, but I'll give some examples.
For instance, in the first fic I really liked, the Darkness and Light Trilogy, by R J Anderson, here are two ideas I thought were brilliant:
1. The female heroine, Maud Moody is blind, and gets around aided by the sight of a "seeing eye" owl, Athena. If you wrote a blind character using that method of seeing, you'd have to acknowledge R J Anderson's provenance.
2. Maud's Patronus is a human avatar which looks like Snape. Again, that was the first appearance of that idea, and must be acknowledged as R J Anderson's concept.
I had to have a Snape Patronus. It took bloody hours to figure out a suitable Snape Patronus that was not a snake (cliche). I eventually came up with a Goshawk. From that point, I'll thank anyone who uses a Goshawk as a Snape Patronus to tip me the nod in the author's notes.
And so on.
Other "Real" Writers' Ideas
Finally, you should acknowledge the work that you use or reference (be it poetic quote or concept) of other published writers too.
Happy writing. If in doubt, get a beta to look, and if still in doubt, ask someone else. No one wants to spoil fun. However it's hurtful to be copied, and not even acknowledged, and it is also gross rudeness on the part of the plagiarist. The purpose of fanfic is to entertain, and be fun for both writer and reader. There's lots of room for originality around fanfic without nicking the ideas and hard work of others. |
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| Severly_Snaped01 |
| Posted: Sat Apr 29, 2006 8:43 pm |
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Joined: 09 Apr 2006
Posts: 5
Location: Cape Town, South Africa
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 Thank you for the information about plagiarism. I have only one question (I'm not sure if it belongs here, so feel free to move): can you use song lyrics in your fic, or a song title as a fic title?
I was just thinking of posting a fic on Ashwinder called ''Every Breath You Take" - like the song by Sting - but I wasn't sure if that's allowed. I also once asked someone else about the song lyrics (to include them at the top of the chapter), and I'm sure they said it's okay as long as it's only a part of the song. Is this okay?
Please help! |
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Snape is innocent. There are more Snape fans than any other, doesn't that say something? |
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| azazello |
| Posted: Sun Apr 30, 2006 10:56 am |
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Joined: 29 Nov 2004
Posts: 183
Location: Northern UK
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Yes, that's quite allowable. Though you should acknowledge the provenance of the song. Songfics are well known genre in fanfic.
My personal advice would be to have more of your own writing than quoted song, though. |
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Listen, strange women lyin' in ponds distributin' swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony ~ Monty Python and the Holy Grail |
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