Monday, June 06, 2011

Plagiarism Abounds

A writer is a person for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.
Thomas Mann

It happened, it really happened. I was looking at someone’s blog this morning and they had a post titled, HOPE. A poem followed, all out of stanza form mind you, but there it was, my words.

There was no name, so if you were a reader of this persons blog, you’d assume that he or she wrote those beautiful words. But guess what? They we MY beautiful words, and I was not receiving credit for writing such words.

I keep proofs of all my poetry and writing. Rough drafts and what not, all my work is copyrighted and lawfully protected. But to see your work on someone’s blog, without credit has a tendency to raise the antenna and make one wonder.

I know that when we release our work publicly, there is always the chance of someone stealing it. But we as writer’s respect one another and have a code within our community that plagiarism is unacceptable in all ways, shape and form.

If I’m quoting someone, I always give credit to the author. Why? It is the morally right thing to do and it is showing great respect for the author. We live in a morally corrupt world, where people do what they want with no respect to any other human being. We have a diverse world where beliefs are not all the same, colors differ, religions are being trashed, and people are not being exposed in their best light.

But among writer’s, plagiarism is the most feared aspect among writers. Who feels like pouring their blood spilled pain onto the paper, working their fingers to the bone, exhausted by the aspect of tapping for hours on end, only to have that work stolen? I say stolen because anything that is taken and not rightfully the persons who did the taking, that in any place in the world is called STOLEN.

Plagiarism is stolen work any way you look at it. I post that all my work is mine and copyrighted, and that is unlawful to use without my permission. Following my blog DOES NOT give you permission to steal my work, or use my hard work, and post it as your own.

I’m honored that someone loves my writing so much that they would take it, but please, give me credit for doing all the work. Ask my permission before taking. And first and foremost, RESPECT the WRITER in ME!! And I’ll respect you.

12 comments:

benning said...

Amen, Sister! Right now I'm giving that blogger the benefit of the doubt - perhaps it was done in error. But if he doesn't edit that post to credit you, then he will no longer get that benefit.

Rage on, Poetess! :D

joni said...

I'm with you on that one. We'll just have to wait and see. :)

Von said...

I'm so sorry, Joni. That's disappointing. (Just because we want to write about everything, doesn't mean we want to experience everything! Sheesh.) I hope this all works out peacefully.

Nimal said...

I understand your anger Joni! But I didn't intend to steal the spotlight. I don't know the author name. If I have known I would have quoted it. For the writings such as 20 Secs readings also I have quoted Inspired by "Paulo Coelho". I hope you would understand my position with it.

Anonymous said...

Yes, the person should have credited you - most definitely!

And if they don't, you should ask them to remove it or have the website host remove it....

It's never a good thing to STEAL from others....

Hope this works out, Joni.

Alyssa Ast said...

I'm sorry this has happened to you. I've had it happen a couple of times to me and it's difficult to get that person to remove your post. I've found it's helpful to use Google Alerts and to add a disclaimer to my blogs that appears when my work is copied and pasted. Good luck!

Alyssa Ast
www.alyssaast.com

joni said...

Nimal,
My poem HOPE is on your blog. Where you got it from is either here, f2k, or the Poetry Corner group in f2k. Either way it has my name on it, in all places, so it would not be that hard to post MY NAME with your blog post.

Please put my name on MY POEM, or remove it from your blog.

Thanks.

joni said...

Thank you June. I'm sure Nimal will rectify the situation.

joni said...

Thanks Von,
I'm sure Nimal had no intention of stealing my poem. But my name is all over my work and everyone knows my work, and I am always given credit for my hard work. :)

joni said...

Thanks Alyssa,

For someone to post something and say, "I didn't know who the author was." Kinda has me thinking.

How can you post MY work and NOT know it is mine?


Thank you my writer friends for all of your support!!

Nimal said...

Do you want me to remove the post. I see with these comments that you are not trusting fact yet. Just let me know and I will get whatever has to be done.

joni said...

Nimal,
I commented here before the discussion on Facebook took place.
All I wanted was my name added to the post, which you have done. And I thank you for that.

Any of my poems, I share with all, as long as permission is asked and my name is clearly given.

Ask any of these writers and you'll know, my poetry is more important than anything I write. It is a part of my soul. :)

Thank you for remedying the situation. :) I truly appreciate it!