Thursday, June 01, 2006

Plagiarists, Tramps, And Thieves

Sorry, Cher. If I liked your music at all, I'd feel a moment of remorse for that title but at the moment I'm too damn mad.

I hate plagiarists. That's one of the major reasons I now belong to a private online writing group as opposed to a public one (well that and my damnable temper) but today (which already sucked--auction day) I discovered that my long-latent fuse can still be lit.

On this blog site, someone is posting other people's stories as their own. WHY? Can you answer me that? What kind of colossal moron do you have to be in the age of Google to post someone else's work as YOUR OWN and not even change the freaking title? Jesus H. Christ. Don't believe me? Check it out.

http://14blog.blogspot.com/2006/05/blues.html#comments

Any of it my work? No. Does it matter? No, it doesn't. Someone unscrupulous and stupid enough to steal a writer's work and try to pass it off as their own is lower than low, sort of like the buttheads who bilk little old ladies out of their life savings. Writing is art, creative, and extremely personal. Those of us who write do so because of a love of the art, a true need to create something lasting and sometimes beautiful, sometimes funny, always important for the writer's need to share the workings of their minds. We don't write so that someone else can claim our work! We don't write so some hee-haw hick stuck in nowhereland can pretend to be the creator of our worlds, our characters, our conflicts!

This person is an idiot. Beyond an idiot. Criminally stupid as a matter of fact. They STOLE those stories from an online ezine with the intention of passing them off as their own.

Got a problem with my opinions? I'm here.....waiting......and I haven't sharpened my fangs on a lying thief in a long time. Hopefully, the perpetrator will get a life someday, but then again I doubt it. I'll be watching. So will at least a couple of writing sites that I know of. If I find out exactly who this is, there will be a LOT of other writing organizations that will know who they are too.

Be warned. Plagiarism is not tolerated. Period.