Plagiarism knows no bounds

[cussedness]

David Boyer has stolen from over fourteen authors. He had a story that was racking up recs for a Stoker until it was revealed that it had been written by someone else.

Then there's this news from Scalzi

Boyer is my current headache since his victims include one of my authors, Jane Timm Baxter.

[John M. Whalen]

Well, you know, all kidding aside, this is what worries me about writing for the Internet. There are laws to penalize plagiarists, and its to the credit of the human race, that most people (yes, even editors) will not just steal somebody else's stuff. But then there are the bottom feeders who will. And access to stuff on the Internet is easy to lift. Just a few mouse clicks. Scalzi and everyone else can point to the legal implications, and advise writers to sue the bastards, but most writers don't have the money to hire a lawyer. And columnists and bloggers can cry shame! and point fingers at the offenders. They can ostracise them and make sure people avoid them. But it's really too late to do anything else about it, unless you have legal counsel and can afford to pay for it. The Internet just basically makes you a sitting duck. I am just kind of amazed that it doesn't happen a lot more often. In fact, though, it does seem to be happening more often as time goes on. You gotta wonder just how much copyright laws on electronically published material will be worth in the future.

[Richard H. Fay]

Saw on Facebook the news about the editor that claims stuff posted on the net is public domain, and immediately shared the link.

It is a pretty dumb thing for a supposedly professional editor to say, but really dumb things do seem to get said all the time in the publication realm. Still, this person should have known better.

Now that I have had plenty of poems, articles, pieces of art, and at least one story published on the internet, I am very concerned about this issue. It is a worry.

[cussedness]

It's a big worry these days. And John is right about the fact that most authors cannot afford to sue. Most small presses cannot afford to sue. And most attorneys will not take a case like this on contingency which is the only way that authors can afford to do it. Shaming is the only way and you have to be vigilant about it. I can only hope that when a big enough voice shouts at the plagiarists it will discourage others from doing it.