Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related Possible plagiarism on fanfiction.net?

I saw this story today in fanfiction.net's "Superman movie" section:
Superman: I am Human too

I remember reading this story here a while back (summary: Clark comes to Lois for comfort after his father dies of a heart attack, and Lois figures out he's Clark as he leaves since Clark had rushed to Smallville to be with Jonathan who had taken ill.) However, the impression I get is that the author on fanfiction.net is not the same person who posted it here. I looked for the story here to check but couldn't find it. I hope I'm wrong.

Does anyone else remember this story, and have a link to it?

Edit: fixed link

Definite plagiarism. I searched for the first line on the archive, and found Go Softly Into the Night by Yvonne Connell.

I reported it to fanfiction.net, so we'll see what they say.

Well, I tried the link and it no longer exists, so perhaps ff.net has done something about it. Let's hope so. Thanks for the heads up, Debbie.

LabRat

Psst.. the link is wrong. Remove the first http:// from the address.

Labby - the link is still active, only there seems to be a typo in Debbie's post somehow. Here's one that works:

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4157844/1/Superman_I_am_Human_too


~Lara
(who is totally not supposed to be here right now. *lol*)

The link has two "http", but the story is still there and definitely is the same story . The plagiarist just changed the title; the rest is the same, commas and all. It's a shame that somebody could be so despicable to copy a whole story and flat out lie saying to be the author. It's abominable.

Aha. Well, I registered with ff.net, and added a review of the story pointing out its true origins. At least those who've been posting glowing reviews will be made aware that it's not her work.

LabRat

I just went and looked -- no question. So I reviewed it:

For whatever that's worth. It said it could take up to an hour for the review to post. Labby, I haven't seen yours yet.

PJ

And I forgot to say... Thank you, Debbie, for noticing something off and following up on it. That's pretty much the only way to catch plagiarism, and we have to look out for each other. You done good.

PJ

I liked yours better, Pam, anyway. I wasn't sure how to include direct links to Yvonne's story, so glad you were able to include that.

Also the link to Y's other work was a nice touch.

LabRat

I looked at both versions and was amazed. This was more than simply stealing an idea or some dialog, this was a complete copy with only a name change.

I know some of the authors that post here also post their works to fanfiction.net. Is part of the reason to try to cut down on this sort of thing?

Are there any general rules or guidelines for posting stories to multiple sites? What are the benefits and the downsides?

Bob

Having written a few things (none of which are as good as Yvonne's story referenced here), I'd be really ticked off if someone stole my work and claimed as his/her own. For what it's worth to Yvonne, the reviewers who commented on the story were moved quite deeply, just like those of us here who read it when Yvonne was still the author. /end snarky crack

I don't know what fanfiction.net's policy on plagiarism is, but I hope they enforce it swiftly and efficiently. If it were me, I'd put a tag on that author's home page that revealed that the story was stolen and that anything from this author is therefore suspect in regard to its origin.

Yeah, I'm kinda hard-headed that way.

Yeah, I've seen plagiarism before but this was by far the most blatant.

As far as I know there's no reason not to post a story you wrote as many places as you like. The archive hasn't got exclusive rights or anything. I've posted some of mine to ff.net. It's just that mostly I barely have time to get a story posted one place, let alone multiples!

PJ
who really ought to get back in touch with her General Editor...

Labby, both our comments have posted now, but the links I put in didn't come through. I should have spaced out the address or something. I might just try again. Although I am at work, and they expect to actually get some productivity out of me in return for a paycheck...

PJ
eta: okay, tried again, but if this one doesn't work I think I'll give up...

I read it and reviewed - I KNEW i'd read it before but figured it was a repost.

I hate plagiar-cows.

Well, this is a blast from the past! Part of me is amused at the pitiful lengths some people will go to in pursuit of a bit of attention, and part of me is just plain annoyed.

I've posted on the site, and hopefully fanfiction.net will eventually take the story down.

Many thanks for all the flattering comments about my story.

Yvonne

FF.net does not allow links in their reviews for security and anti-spam purposes. (more's the pity.)

Oh, that's just disgusting

There's a community on LiveJournal called Stop Plagiarism: http://community.livejournal.com/stop_plagiarism. They investigate reports of plagiarism, follow up with the alleged plagiarist, help the real author communicate with the website hosting the plagiarised story, and maintain a list of known plagiarists. Of course, chances are that the person concerned will just change their nick, but it's still helpful.

I know, from dropping into the community from time to time, that ff.net will delete stories and ban users once an abuse report has been made and they have evidence - but it takes times.

If you want to report this to Stop Plagiarism, you'll need screenshots of this story including the posted date (in case it gets taken down), and links to the original story. Copies of any attempts to contact the plagiarist are also helpful. My guess is the other works there could well also be plagiarised...

ETA: a five-second Google search found a second plagiarised story: Homecoming is actually Missing by Elizabeth Wilde.

I think I'll go to Stop Plagiarism myself!


Wendy

I did drop the alleged author a note to let her know the jig was up. Originally I thought it was a cross-posting from the L&C section, which is bad form over there and can get you banned. Then I saw this thread and realized where the story came originally - the L&C archives.

Now I have to keep an eye out in the event this person tries to post it to the Movieverse Archive.

Has anyone tried to get in touch with Yvonne to let her know?

Yvonne does know - she's posted a review of the plagiarised story and also posted above in this thread.

I have now posted a report to the Stop Plagiarism community, citing two plagiarised stories. My post is in a moderation queue at the moment; I'll let you know when it's up in case anyone wants to follow the discussion. Oh, and my screencaps are fairly poor as all I have at my disposal is Print Screen and Paint. If anyone has better capping resources let me know in case the investigators want them.


Wendy