# Reporting a plagiarist.



## Lazy-Fatboy (Apr 22, 2016)

A user has taken a non-furry weight gain story, one that has been around for years, and (for commission) inserted two user's fursonas in place of the previously human characters
and is taking credit for the story.

I have confronted the plagiarist, and tried to alert the two commissioners.

The plagiarist denied what we both knew to be true, hid my comments and then blocked me.

One of the commissioners chose to block me as well, and the other appears to be offline as he has neither seen my notes or removed the shout I left.

I have proof, which I can give out upon request.


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## Lazy-Fatboy (Apr 22, 2016)

I submitted a complaint via FA's "Report a Problem" button, telling them everything and linking to the original story and the rip off.

Hopefully they do something about this.


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## Lazy-Fatboy (Apr 22, 2016)

The story in question has been removed, whether by the Author or by an Admin is uncertain.


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## reptile logic (Apr 22, 2016)

That was fast! As a writer, not of the work in question, I thank you for your efforts.


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## Lazy-Fatboy (Apr 23, 2016)

reptile logic said:


> That was fast! As a writer, not of the work in question, I thank you for your efforts.



I made some enemies today, that's for certain, 
but I'm glad my efforts are appreciated by somebody.

I'd feel bad for the commissioner who got conned, but when I tried to alert him to the matter 
he blocked me as though I were a troll- so I won't shed any tears for him.

I cussed the both of them out in a journal- 
kvetching about frustrating experiences online is therapeutic for me.

So I'm prepared to move on from this incident.


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## Simo (Apr 23, 2016)

That's great that you resolved things...as a writer as well, it's not the easiest way to make money, that's for certain.


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## Fopfox (Apr 23, 2016)

People really plagiarize free works and publish them as free works? Really stupid and egotistical, since all you'd be getting is a potential ego-stoke at a positive comment.

Good on you for spotting it.


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## Lazy-Fatboy (Apr 23, 2016)

Fopfox said:


> People really plagiarize free works and publish them as free works? Really stupid and egotistical, since all you'd be getting is a potential ego-stoke at a positive comment.
> 
> Good on you for spotting it.



Some of them seem to be for attention and ego strokes, yes, but others involve him getting paid.

He's taking stories from closed down gainer sites like FatNats and Gainerweb (and who knows where else) and then adding a few paragraphs, taking out the human characters and replacing them with the Fursonas of respectable members of the community.

He counted on nobody being able to prove it because the stories were lost. What he didn't count on was that there are a large number of appreciators who work to salvage those stories.

He removed the one, but with help from my community yet another plagiarized story has been identified.

With permission, assuming I will not earn ire or punishment, I would like to point out the culprit, provide indisputable evidence, and have him be publicly shamed for his remorseless thievery and conning, 
and then have him be removed from FA as nothing more than the content thief that he's always been.

Is this doable?


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## Toby_Morpheus (Apr 23, 2016)

Lazy-Fatboy said:


> He counted on nobody being able to prove it because the stories were lost. What he didn't count on were rewrites and the wayback machine being used against him.


Bless the Wayback Machine.

I absolutely love that tool and the website it's a part of.

What a great use of it. I give you props.


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## Lazy-Fatboy (Apr 23, 2016)

Prometheus_Fox said:


> Bless the Wayback Machine.
> 
> I absolutely love that tool and the website it's a part of.
> 
> What a great use of it. I give you props.



Oops. I edited my post since you quoted it. However, yes, bless it. Bless it indeed.

Is this the appropriate place to call out the thief? 

I can provide links to the stolen story and the original, and I have a copy of the story the admin (or the "author") removed saved in my downloads folder as evidence, 
should he try to deny the story ever existed as I anticipate he will.


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## Toby_Morpheus (Apr 23, 2016)

Lazy-Fatboy said:


> Oops. I edited my post since you quoted it. However, yes, bless it. Bless it indeed.
> 
> Is this the appropriate place to call out the thief?
> 
> ...


Honestly, I don't know how that would work here, considering I'm pretty fresh myself...

With my experience as a forum admin (from long ago) I'd say to avoid publicity and just hand everything over to the webadmin (or one of their moderators) and have them take care of it.
Not sure if the whole 'street justice' thing is how people handle this sort of thing here...

But definitely bring it up to someone who moderates or is an admin.


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## Lazy-Fatboy (Apr 23, 2016)

Prometheus_Fox said:


> Honestly, I don't know how that would work here, considering I'm pretty fresh myself...
> 
> With my experience as a forum admin (from long ago) I'd say to avoid publicity and just hand everything over to the webadmin (or one of their moderators) and have them take care of it.
> Not sure if the whole 'street justice' thing is how people handle this sort of thing here...
> ...



Yes...although I've already been far, _far_ less than civil elsewhere,
I suppose here I should mind my Ps & Qs.

A public forum is much different than the comment section or my journals and notes.


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## Lazy-Fatboy (Apr 23, 2016)

Now, can anyone direct me to an active moderator? As mentioned prior, I submitted a ticket.

I have still yet to receive a response.


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## Toby_Morpheus (Apr 23, 2016)

Lazy-Fatboy said:


> Now, can anyone direct me to an active moderator? As mentioned prior, I submitted a ticket.
> 
> I have still yet to receive a response.


Here's a link to the Staff List
Notable Members | Fur Affinity Forums

I know that at least SSJ3Mewtwo has been recently active, considering I just talked with them the other day.


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## Lazy-Fatboy (Apr 24, 2016)

I commented on his page. I believe he is gone for the night. I shall check back tomorrow.


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## Suki262 (Apr 24, 2016)

pitiful for the person steal others work for a publicity stunt :/


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## Lazy-Fatboy (Apr 24, 2016)

Suki262 said:


> pitiful for the person steal others work for a publicity stunt :/


Like I said, he was also commissioned. He also opened a Patreon for himself.


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## Lazy-Fatboy (Apr 24, 2016)

He's also suspected of running multiple ghost accounts.


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## Toby_Morpheus (Apr 24, 2016)

Lazy-Fatboy said:


> He's also suspected of running multiple ghost accounts.


Well, if they figure that out, they may just have to perform a MAC ban, if they are capable of such things.
Banning an IP address only goes so far (for reasons I won't explain here)


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## Toby_Morpheus (Apr 24, 2016)

Lazy-Fatboy said:


> He started a journal about me, calling me a SJW (Social Justice Warrior) LOL!
> 
> Here:
> Recent Events: My Stories -- white_wolfster's Journal -- Fur Affinity [dot] net


As someone mentioned in the comments, it's practically tracing, which I've noticed is heavily frowned upon, and for good reason, in my opinion.
Also, during my previous (and short time) on art boards like DA, even attempting to use another's works in the vein of 'derivative works' is met with swift community disapproval.


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## Lazy-Fatboy (Apr 24, 2016)

Prometheus_Fox said:


> As someone mentioned in the comments, it's practically tracing, which I've noticed is heavily frowned upon, and for good reason, in my opinion.
> Also, during my previous (and short time) on art boards like DA, even attempting to use another's works in the vein of 'derivative works' is met with swift community disapproval.



Well, mission partly accomplished. I got him to own up at least.

He's spinning the "I didn't know any better" angle.

When I noted him about the matter, he refused to confess to it even being derivative.

"I wrote all of my stories. You don't have any proof, so you're just some random troll who decided to harass me of all people for some mysterious reason,  so I'm gonna block you know." 
was the jist of his response.

Like I said- he wasn't counting on there being any proof.


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## Toby_Morpheus (Apr 24, 2016)

Lazy-Fatboy said:


> Well, mission partly accomplished. I got him to own up at least.
> 
> He's spinning the "I didn't know any better" angle.
> 
> ...


To be honest, I can understand the 'not knowing better' part at the beginning.
Sure, someone could do something wrong and then get caught doing it.
But how someone acts AFTER is what makes eyebrows raise.
After proving that what they did is wrong and they don't apologize (or at minimum quietly take it down), it tends to indicate guilt.

I am a firm believer of 'innocent until proven guilty' and I do commend you on bringing proof to the cause.

Now we just have to wait until the doomsday clock ticks down, so to speak.


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## Suki262 (Apr 24, 2016)

Lazy-Fatboy said:


> Like I said, he was also commissioned. He also opened a Patreon for himself.



Even worse xD


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## Lazy-Fatboy (Apr 24, 2016)

Prometheus_Fox said:


> To be honest, I can understand the 'not knowing better' part at the beginning.
> Sure, someone could do something wrong and then get caught doing it.
> But how someone acts AFTER is what makes eyebrows raise.
> After proving that what they did is wrong and they don't apologize (or at minimum quietly take it down), it tends to indicate guilt.
> ...



Right? If that was his initial response, I might believe it.

As is, he's just trying to save a little face.

He has zero integrity.

I removed my older journals targeting him. His own journal- and the screenshots I took of it, in case he decides to remove it- is damning enough.


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## Lazy-Fatboy (Apr 24, 2016)

Suki262 said:


> Even worse xD



It really is. Like I said, I tried to give one of them notice that they had been conned- and he blocked me. So...

Meh.


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## Suki262 (Apr 24, 2016)

Lazy-Fatboy said:


> It really is. Like I said, I tried to give one of them notice that they had been conned- and he blocked me. So...
> 
> Meh.



What could you do :/


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## Lazy-Fatboy (Jun 30, 2017)

I posted an update about this, linking to the plagiarist's account.

I got my first warning. I think it's kinda uncool how selective FA is about enforcing it's rules, but whatever.

Anywho, they basically said they wouldn't take action because I wasn't the original IP owner, and closed the ticket.

I was working WITH the original IP owners. I could've given them their contact info. 

Even if I didn't, I proved it was plagiarism, and plagiarism is plagiarism.

So FA is clearly pro-plagiarism, but anti-calling out plagiarists.


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## ilexdusk (Jul 5, 2017)

Some people are just so scummy. Why steal someone's hard work? :|


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## Lazy-Fatboy (Aug 10, 2017)

ilexdusk said:


> Some people are just so scummy. Why steal someone's hard work? :|



- and more to the point, why is FA refusing to take action against him, actually defending him?

I logged into FA today, on the art side of things, and noticed I had gotten a first warning there as well, for "harassment".

An old journal from way back when this was going down got flagged, and now I'm basically getting called a bully.

Like, shoot- this guy's getting paid for stolen material, and I can't say jack squat about it without having action taken against my account?

As I said before, FA is oddly selective about which rules they enforce.


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## Lazy-Fatboy (Aug 14, 2017)

I actually contacted Dragoneer, the site directer, about this. It turns out Dragoneer actually follows this scumbag on Twitter.

Wonder if this is because of bias among the site's admins? 

I know for a fact this person has not only plagiarized stories, but tried to take credit for other people's commissions.


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## nitroglycerinewaffles (Sep 26, 2017)

Lazy-Fatboy said:


> A user has taken a non-furry weight gain story, one that has been around for years, and (for commission) inserted two user's fursonas in place of the previously human characters
> and is taking credit for the story.
> 
> I have confronted the plagiarist, and tried to alert the two commissioners.
> ...



How do you know the plagiarist and the original author aren't the same person? He's not publishing his REAL NAME, right? It's just a username, like nitroglycerinewaffles, that's actually not my real name, if you can believe it, nor is that the only screen name I have ever used, and in FACT the most amazing thing, when I tried to register for disqus with the name nitroglycerinewaffles, I found it had already been taken! Yes, someone else thought of that name. There are too many damn people on Earth I tell you. So you really have no idea who people are from their usernames, he could be the same person and he might be adapting this story he wrote years earlier to fill a different role. This could be why the original author blocked you too, because you were a pest and got his story taken down. If it's like you said, it's all anonymous and it doesn't involve getting money, what would his motivation be?


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## Lazy-Fatboy (Nov 3, 2017)

nitroglycerinewaffles said:


> How do you know the plagiarist and the original author aren't the same person? He's not publishing his REAL NAME, right? It's just a username, like nitroglycerinewaffles, that's actually not my real name, if you can believe it, nor is that the only screen name I have ever used, and in FACT the most amazing thing, when I tried to register for disqus with the name nitroglycerinewaffles, I found it had already been taken! Yes, someone else thought of that name. There are too many damn people on Earth I tell you. So you really have no idea who people are from their usernames, he could be the same person and he might be adapting this story he wrote years earlier to fill a different role. This could be why the original author blocked you too, because you were a pest and got his story taken down. If it's like you said, it's all anonymous and it doesn't involve getting money, what would his motivation be?



Is this guy for real? 

*ahem* on the off chance you're not joking, I'd like to establish a few points.

A: several authors were stolen from. Not just one.

B: He got paid for the work he stole, and you can get famous (at least within your own niche) for writing fiction.

C: the original authors and I are in the same community, and we worked together to find all his stolen works.

D: I can't actually remove anyone's works. I'm not an admin or a moderator. The works that were removed were either the result of DMCAs being lodged, or him realizing he was caught and removing the evidence. In other words, if there weren't any legitimacy to my claims nothing would've come of it. 

The fact that several stories were removed is proof alone that he's guilty as sin.


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## Lazy-Fatboy (Nov 23, 2017)

So yeah. Still disputing the action taken against my account. Funny how they can take literally months to respond to tickets, but if I don't respond within a few days they close it and I have to open it again.

Look, I was done with this. I really was. The fact that they refused to take action against him was morally outraging, and I had still let it go.

But for them to penalize me a year or more later for calling him out on his crimes in a journal on my page? To accuse me of harassing? BULLYING?! Whoever makes the policies and defines "calling out content theft" as harassment/bullying- I have personal beef with you.

This has been going on since April 2016 now. April 2016 people. It is now nearly 2018. 

It may seem like I'm beating a dead horse here, but I just refuse to sit silently while FurAffinity's Admins try to reprimand me for doing what was right. 

Take your ridiculous criminal defending policies and stick them where the sun don't shine.


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## quoting_mungo (Nov 23, 2017)

At this point, this thread seems to be more about bringing mainsite issues to the forum than anything else, so it really has no business staying open.


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