I’m reposting here information from an article from Tracy Ames’ blog about a case of plagiarism (ha ha — obviously with her permission!). I highly recommend you follow the link and read the article in its entirety there, and follow her links as well. But in a nutshell, one DamonX posted a bunch of erotic stories online at literotica.com. For those who don’t know the site, it’s a vast repository of user-contributed erotica, available to readers for free. Some of it is kind of meh, some of it is excellent. I haven’t read any of DamonX’s stories (yet!), so I can’t tell you where he falls — but someone liked them well enough to not only read them, but to download them and then — hold on to your hats, good people — upload them in their entirety to Amazon under another name. That’s right, DamonX’s stories, word for word, got ‘republished’ by the name Elizabeth Summers. The same name took stories from other writers as well.
Unless you too are some sort of petty (or major) criminal, you should find that shocking. I don’t need to tell you why it’s wrong. But I think a good question is, What can you do about it? You personally, I mean. You don’t know Elizabeth Summers (who doubtless doesn’t even exist). Nor do you know DamonX. You don’t work at Amazon. (Please disregard this last point if you do work at Amazon.)
The obvious thing is a thing not to do, which is “buy a book by this Elizabeth Summers,” or any of the other names (possibly the same person?) listed in Tracy’s article.
But I think another good thing to do is to complain to Amazon. Now, I get why Amazon can’t check the content of every e-book being uploaded to make sure it’s not made up of stolen content. However, if a case of plagiarism is brought to their attention, then I think they need to investigate it. If the plagiarism can be proved, then they need to pull the book. I’m guessing that if one person complains, they might not pay attention. Tracy’s article explains why they are not holding themselves accountable. But what if a lot of people complained? Would they at least look into it? Well… we’ll never know till we try.
Finally, I’m all for giving DamonX his due. He’s apparently not after any money, because he’s already been posting his stories for free. I assume, therefore, that what he wants is to entertain people with his stories. So if any of his titles grab you, then read him! If you enjoy his stories, leave him a nice comment and let him know. Writing is hard work, and good writers deserve a return on their investment of time and energy, whether in the form of money or the satisfaction of knowing their stories reached the right audience.
Plagiarizers, though, they deserve a swift kick in the ass. And possibly a lawsuit.
Go here! Read all about it!
http://www.interracialerotica.net/erotica/articles/334/1/Plagiarism-is-the-New-Black/Page1.html
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