P l a . g ia. r i s m .

Dictionary Definition: — noun 1. The unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one’s own original work. 2. Something used and represented in this manner. Origin: 1615-1625; PLAGIAR(Y) + -ISM. —Related Forms .rist, noun, and .tic, adjective.

As Summer 2009 goes on, I can’t help but notice authors left and right falling to what should be known as the Plague of Plagiarists. This Plague is kind of like the Plague of Locusts, it has swooped down upon Fictionpress and has consumed nearly everything, leaving nothing sacred. Beloved authors such as Myrika, KNE, Endless Dark, Hate to Hope also known as Bleeding Air, Em Wolf, Simonexsays, Jmarit17, BreeJalil, Dillusional, Loly Darko, Templeton21, Kendal, SamanthaNicole, angels and effects, and JD Allen, just to name a few, have all had the unfortunate misfortune to fall to this disease. As a result many of these authors have removed their stories and those who haven’t now reluctantly use Fictionpress.

Fictionpress is supposed to a community for people to post their stories and poems, to share their work and get feedback , where the “words flow”, at least that’s what is supposed to be, but with the Plague let loose this is impossible. People slave, toil, cry, and nearly bleed out of their own eye sockets to create their stories—maybe not quite in that order, but close enough. When people post their stories on the internet, while I’m sure they know there’s a risk, they hope that people’s moral fibers will shine through and prevent them from plagiarizing.

As it is, people are seriously lacking in that category.

This moral hazard has created a distrust between authors and the writing community. Authors that have been plagiarized have pulled their stories and authors who have stories that are worth reading, but have not been plagiarized as far as they know, have taken their stories down, taking preventive action against this disease. There is also now the potential case that people won’t post their work on Fictionpress because they are now afraid of what will happen if they do.

What a disappointment.

I mourn for the loss of these great works and the works that never will be, at least not on Fictionpress.

I started my run Fictionpress by reading the epic story of Queen of Glass by S.J. Maas, which was taken down a while back for publishing purposes, while it was being written. I did not officially become a member until last year and even then, I haven’t had a great up-keep of my little corner. I’m not a reviewer, which I know is a shame, but I’m an appreciator. I read everything from Romance to Supernatural to Sci-Fi to Fantasy. I have spent hours on the search engine looking for a specific author or specific story because since my initially sign on as a member, I haven’t put up my favorites, but I do know them by heart now.

I can honestly say that out of the above mentioned authors, I am basically familiar with all but two of them and out of the ones that I do know, I’ve also read every last one of their stories—what can I say, laptops are useful while sitting in class. I remember stumbling upon each author and each story, reading each chapter with special attention, reveling the sight of seeing a new chapter posted. Like many others in the community, I’ve stayed up all hours of the next morning to finish reading a story, or least to get to the latest chapters. When finished, I never left a review probably because I always thought that stories and authors would be around and I would eventually work my cojones up to a point that I could leave a thought provoking review.

Unfortunately, that never quite happened—my shyness eclipsed my thoughts and the stories are disappearing or just becoming skeletons of themselves.

With what’s going on I wished I had, just so I could have told every author, for each story how much I not only appreciated their stories, but also applauded their hard work. I can testify first hand that writing a story is never easy. Having the drive and the balls, both existent and non-existent, to finish it is absolutely amazing to me and worthy of an award, or at least a cookie—or possibly a whole cheesecake.

A few days ago, I remember opening up Myrika’s Fictionpress page and reading the news about her plagiarized stories and the subsequent removal of her stories in shock. However, despite my surprise I nonetheless understood her reasons and whole heartedly supported her decision—who in their right minds wouldn’t? It has been in the following days that this epidemic has worsened. Each day has brought about more news of plagiarism, more removals due to plagiarism, and discontinued stories to prevent plagiarism. Just because the internet is a free domain and there is no official copyright on every story on Fictionpress does not mean that people should not follow the same etiquette required and respected in the 3D printed world of stories.

I can only wonder how a copy and paste with a few edits here and there can make anyone feel the very same accomplishment as the person who originally authored the story. Let me just say, in case anyone is wondering, it absolutely should not. There’s no effort in plagiarizing, it is not flattering to the author whose work has been stolen, in fact it’s pitiable and disgusting. I’m sure I could go on and on describing how plagiarist should suffer—something akin to all nine levels described in Dante’s Inferno on a daily basis comes to mind—but that would probably take days just to get the right description right.

In closing, I’m sure we all know that plagiarism is wrong. At least most of do. And for those of us who understand this they also know how much this hurts the hard working and determined authors. This disease that has hit Fictionpress hard, has caused everyone to lose out on great stories, the very same stories that are synonymous with Fictionpress. So in the words of MTA signs I see in the New York City subways, “if you see something, say something”, report plagiarism to the Fictionpress Watchers: An Anti-Plagiarism Coalition at community . livejournal .com / fpwatchers—without all the spaces… a big darn you to fp for that—and try and keep your moral fiber on the high end side.

— Antoinette James

P.S. And just to be thorough, I got the definition of plagiarism from dictionary . com. Yeah, I know it’s a dictionary and is considered public domain, but after what I’ve been witnessing for the pass few days I've come to realize one can never be too careful nowadays.

P. P.S. Please excuse any grammatical or spelling mistakes, I tried to edit as much as possibly at 3:14 am, but after about 1:00 am my mind sort of starts to resemble a combination of Swiss and Limburger cheese.