Young Writers Society

I did number one and two over a year ago, but it's better late than never... right?

Lets say you are reading something; maybe it's a book or an article, but you notice that one of the paragraphs sounds very much like something you wrote. Looking back through your old stories you find out that, sure enough, it's an exact copy of a paragraph you wrote many years ago. However, the rest of the article (or whatever it is) seems to be original, but you can't be sure if the author didn't plagiarize from others as well.

What do you do? Nothing? Call or write the author? Sue the author?

kill them

Lol Torpid.

If it was an article in a newspaper or a magazine, I'd contact the newspaper/magazine and let them know. If it was in a book... Well, either I'd send my dragons after the author or I'd contact the publishing company. Or both.

Make sure you had proof, then call them; tell them never to use it again or let it be printed again (in a very nice way) and if they refuse to do so, sue the pants off them.

Get a job at a magazine or as a published author and plagiarize something they wrote.

...or kill them.

woo yeah, go Inertia!

First of all, it depends how long the paragraph is, if it is rather short then maybe, just maybe it might be a conicidence. But if it was longer then I would take action.

Make sure you had proof, then call them; tell them never to use it again or let it be printed again (in a very nice way) and if they refuse to do so, sue the pants off them.

I agree. Get your proof and go and sue them. If you don't win (which you most certainly should) then at least you would have dragged their reputation through the mud.

hmm...

lol. I've noticed how everyone seems to be rearing to sue them/ruin their reputation, etc. Maybe you could just talk it out with them and agree to have them never use it again, or if they're published, pay a sum.

Of course, if they're pig-headed and can't comprimise for anything, then drag them through the mud.

Before we jump in with guns blazing and dragons roaring, why don't you just speak to them? It could be a freak accident, like the infinite number of monkeys on the infinite number of typewriters producing the entire works of Shakespeare! The question is, do you know the author and could they have copied it from you? If so, then maybe you have a little more of a reason to get angry, but don't go overboard. If you don't know them, speak to them still. Make your decision on whether to set the dragons upon them once you know all the facts.

But then, this has just been bumped from a year of sleep. Has the issue been resolved yet? So many questions!

EDIT: Oh fudge. I appear to have been beaten to it by 3 minutes.

Charlie

Actually, if it was something I'd written a while ago, I'd begin with A), how in the freaking world did you find that and B), thanks for not giving me credit right there, that piece sucks, now you have the job of bearing the ridicule.



And then I might sue 'em. Or talk to 'em some more.

I'd call the author. Or write a letter. Letters are surprisingly effective. Normal mail letters, not e-mail. E-mail is too easy to delete, and so few people write worthwhile actual mail that it's likely to get more attention. In my inexperience, anyway. And then if the author was horribly snide about it, I'd contact someone higher up on the food chain. Though it would depend on what was "plagiarized" and how much I cared about it.

It would depend on how much it was. If it was a whole paragraph then I would have a very serious problem. It might be a freak accident, my first thought would be if I posted it somewhere on the web, If I did then I would contact the author's publisher with proof that my work predates theirs.

A have a zero tolerance policy on plagerism.

Pity them. Poor person... they plagiarized my sucky work. XD

One paragraph? I don't know, I'd probably do nothing at all...