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Douchebag Alert

By Robert Swartwood on September 30, 2009

This has crossed a bunch of blogs over the past 24 hours, not to mention Twitter, but I thought I’d mention it here in case a few people haven’t been made aware yet.

This blog post from Angel Zapata explains how a writer is ripping off other writers (Aaron Polson is one of the “other writers” and also talks about the experience here).

Basically, some shithead is plagiarizing other works online — taking paragraphs and lines from other stories — and making it his own.

Apparently, this asshole even went so far as to try to rip off Stephen King’s “The Boogeyman.” Supposedly “King’s people” have been notified about this, but I’m sure this is far from a top priority for them — and no doubt not the first time this has happened.

Mostly this case seems to be sequestered to the online horror small press sector, but it’s worth keeping in mind that this shit happens all the time in any genre community, and the only way to police it is for everyone to stay vigilant.

And how does one go about stopping this?

Well, there’s the rub. Being online makes everyone anonymous. This dirtbag could be living next door to me for all I know (though according to one bio he lives in the UK and is — get this — a law student). Suffice it to say, the name he’s been using — a pseudonym — will very quickly be on the radar of every editor in the horror small press and beyond and he will be, as they say, blacklisted.

Until, of course, he picks a new pseudonym and starts the cycle all over again.

Now, on a brighter note, the online writing and reading community Fictionaut has gone live to the public. If you like social interaction, and you like writers and readers, then you probably want to check it out. Keep in mind that while it’s open to the public to see, you must be a member to interact. Luckily, I currently have 3 invites for anybody who would be interested. If so, say something to that effect in the comments section and I’ll contact you.

Posted in | 17 Responses

  • http://templelibraryreviews.blogspot.com/ Harry Markov

    Okay, I would be honoured to get an invitation. Sounds quite classy and invite only from the invitation numbers and such.

    As far as the dirt bag goes, I hope I am low profile enough to avoid his attention. *shudders*

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  • http://aaronpolson.blogspot.com Aaron Polson

    Crazy stuff, really. I guess I’m honored.

    (If you still have invites available, Mr. Swartwood, I’d happily take one)

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  • http://www.jessyferguson.blogspot.com Jess

    Robert, Fictionaut looks wonderful. I’ve been hanging out there the past hour, reading and exploring. I’d love to be a member of this group. Of course, I don’t really comment much so if someone else comes along who fits the profile of “likes social interaction” you should choose them for the invitation. Thanks for the opportunity!

    Now question: speaking of dirtbags, what will keep these so-called dirtbags from exploring Fictionaut the way I have and just taking what they want? This seems awfully risky/bold–opening it to the public. Fictionaut is a reading and writing community, but when a work is published online–it’s considered published, right?Does that rule apply here with Fictionaut?

    I’m still a little skittish about online publishing–even though I blog. :( You may have discussed this is past posts, so just point me in the right direction and I’ll read. Thanks~j

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  • Robert Swartwood

    Jess, there’s no easy answer to that. But so far the Fictionaut community seems like a very close-knit community, and if that were to ever happen, well, I wouldn’t want to be the dirtbag in question. And, now that the site is open to the public, a number of private forums have opened up for people to post works in progress. Almost all of the other stories have already been published elsewhere; the writers are just posting them at Fictionaut to reach more readers and possibly get some feedback.

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  • http://nikperring.blogspot.com Nik Perring

    First time commenter here. Hello.

    Just wanted to say well done for outing the dirtbag and to draw you attention to this (http://howpublishingreallyworks.blogspot.com/search/label/plagiarism) which you might find of interest (mainly the Anti-plagiarism Day HPRW organised not all that long ago).

    Great blog. Keep up the great work.

    Nik

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  • Robert Swartwood

    Thanks, Nik, but I really didn’t do anything. Angel deserves all the kudos. Thanks for stopping by!

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  • Jonny Kelly

    Let’s not get carried away here, this guy isn’t a paedofile or murderer, he’s an idiot. Only a fool would expect to get away with ripping off published work.
    And it isn’t the crime of the century, I’ve plagiarized, accidentally, in the past, but I was told the ins and outs of copyright, and haven’t done it ever since.

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  • http://nikperring.blogspot.com Nik Perring

    Then kudos to Angel. But don’t you shirk it, mister, you’ve posted it here which is important – that’s the only thing we can do to try to stop these thieves.

    Johnny, (just to add my two penneth, sorry!) doing it accidentally is one thing and something loads of writers do, and that’s fine and probably nothing more than embarrassing for them – doing it intentionally is something totally different – it’s calculated and it’s utterly, utterly wrong. There’s no excuse for it. As writers and artists et al the point is, or a big part of it is, to tell something new, unique and as we see it – it’s a personal thing – no-one else has the write to pass that off as their own if it isn’t. It’s theft. And, on occasions that I’ve seen, it’s depriving writers of money and giving kudos to someone undeserving, which there are no excuses for.

    Sorry, it’s something I feel particularly strongly about. And I know it isn’t as bad as the crimes you’ve mentioned, but can you think of a bigger, or worse, crime that a writer can commit or have committed against him/her?

    Again, sorry (and I’m not saying you’re wrong). And yes, he’s an idiot. And a whole lot more.

    Nik
    PS Robert – I often stop by, and am glad I do, just not commented before. Sorry to be so excitable on my first day!

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  • http://nikperring.blogspot.com Nik Perring

    Oops. No-one else has the ‘right’ – *shakes head!* You know what I meant!

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  • Robert Swartwood

    Yeah, Jonny, I don’t see what copyright has to do with any of this. Basically, as soon as you create something — i.e., a story — it belongs to you. Having it published online or in print, none of those editors actually go through the U.S. Copyright department (or a similar place overseas); instead they simply put a copyright symbol before the story, or just note that the story is the copyright of an author.

    And like Nik said, this wasn’t an accident. It’s obvious from the many, many examples seen from Angel’s blog and Aaron’s and God knows how many others by now that this was quite deliberate. This bozo obviously thought he could take other people’s work and try to pass it off as his own. That’s just fucking despicable.

    Sure, he may not be a pedophile or murderer, but nobody said he was. In terms of the literary world, though, he’s a shithead and certainly deserves what’s coming to him.

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  • Jonny Kelly

    Nik, Robert — I’m not saying it is nothing to be ashamed of, because it is. I’m simply saying there are worse things that can happen to people, as I’m sure you know.
    I’m not having a go at anyone for making fun of this guy, but don’t let it make you too angry, It’s not worth it and he’s not worth it.
    Personally, I would have been a bit flattered if he’d have taken from my work.

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  • Jonny Kelly

    Nik, Robert — I’m not saying it is nothing to be ashamed of, because it is. I’m simply saying there are worse things that can happen to people, as I’m sure you know.
    I’m not having a go at anyone for making fun of this guy, but don’t let it make you too angry, It’s not worth it and he’s not worth it.
    Personally, I would have been a bit flattered if he’d taken from my work.

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  • Jonny Kelly

    Sorry about the dp guys.

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  • http://titaniawrites.blogspot.com/ Tania Hershman

    Hi,
    as someone whose published work has been plagiarised, and who knows that this writer, not the same one as written about here, preys on people in online writing workshops, taking their unpublished work too and passing it off as his own, this is not flattering. I was not flattered when someone read my story, which is published in my book and had the feeling she’d read something similar – because she was in a writing group with the plagiariser. How is she to know who wrote what first? This is appalling behaviour, it goes against all the norms of the creative community, and outing such people is vital. The plagiariser I am talking about is called Douglas Bruton. There are many of us who are keeping a very, very close eye on him. He hasn’t adopted a pseudonym, he doesn’t think he’s done anything wrong. But he has.

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  • http://titaniawrites.blogspot.com/ Tania Hershman

    PS I forgot to mention that this is the same case Nik was talking about above, I am one of those writers mentioned in the blog post on How Publishing Really Works. So: 2 known douchebags so far…

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  • Robert Swartwood

    Wow, Tania, that’s incredible that someone accused YOU of plagiarizing a story that someone else plagiarized from you. I can hardly wrap my head around that. Sorry it happened, but I’m glad the asshole was found out … even though he doesn’t think he did anything wrong. Insane.

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  • http://titaniawrites.blogspot.com/ Tania Hershman

    Robert,
    no, she didn’t accuse me, luckily she assumed that something odd was going on and brought it to the attention of a writer friend of mine who immediately unearthed the truth and found his rip-off of my story published online, as the winner of a competition! The competition organiser never responded to my emails, the plagiariser was persuaded to ask them to remove the story. It was shocking, and just the beginning of a flood of writers whose work he has ripped off, including Paul Auster. The worst is that he stole from unpublished work. Appalling.

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