I got to say right now I am in love with plagiarism. I know it is a horrible crime but right now I love it. What I mean by this is when authors on this sight plagiarize and I end up liking the story this site is really good about letting everyone know that the work is a published work. Some of my favorite stories have been works that were plagiarized and when I found this out I sought out the real novels. The plagiarized fanfics ended up introducing me to so many great new books. Like the series I’m reading now. It’s by Julia Quinn and they are some of the best and most romantic books I have read in years. Though I in no way endorse plagiarism I just wanted to point out that it has had some fortunate side effects for me.

Objective and i suppose i can see your point, but as someone that's had my stuff stolen for art and written, its not so fun to deal with. :

Wow, this is going to be like opening a can of worms

While I'm glad you found the benefit to it, I would have to say that for most it's not quite going to be worth it.

It's really nice that you've found a positive side to the theft of another's creative materials; still, plagiarism is nothing more than stealing, pure and simple. It infuriates me when I catch one of these lazy, low-lifes, cuz they've gone after the best writers and stolen some really good, original fics. It is so hard to write a good story and to have some no-account slither out from under a rock and steal it, post it under their name to take credit for one's own hard work... well, it is insupportable! They are no better than a horse-thief and should be whipped!

I apologize if I have offended anyone with my rather strident opinion.

I am sorry, I don't mean to offend you but plagiarism is plan wrong;I agree with Rowdy it is stealing pretty much. I know I would be very upset if someone plagirised my work.

Plagiarism is simply wrong, and well yes like others have said it's stealing.

If you take a story from some other author or take artwork from another artists, change it slightly and then slap your name to its wrong. Because in someone's case you may be taking their lively hood. <---Not that I know if that would even happen just throwing it out there.

There is no upside to plagiarism, period. I've had more of my stuff stolen and had to fight to get it off sites (including one I'm STILL working on after a year to try to get one my original works off not to mention the poetry that one site doesn't seem to want to remove even though I'm not the one that posted it there )where I actually had to prove that my stuff is just that, my stuff, the thing that makes me the angriest over the whole thing (sorry, i shouldn't have to prove to ANYONE that MY STUFF IS MY STUFF just because some little idiot decided to post it there without my permission ) so I don't see that there is an upside to this.

Everyone loses when it comes to plagiarism. Authors who get their stuff ripped off lose. Fans lose when someone gets fed up with all of it and yanks their stuff off the web ( I have stories I've yanked that will never again be posted because they were among the most stolen of all my works). Fan fic authors lose when published authors have had enough of getting their stuff ripped off that they place a no-fanfic clause on their stuff. Sites lose when authors get fed up and leave because they've been ripped off so much. Sites lose time and effort they could be putting into far better things by having to hunt down, trace and track these little fart bubbles then have to keep an eye out for them if they have a proven track record for site hopping. And the list keeps going.

Not to mention the feeling it gives you when someone does this to something you put so much time, effort, blood, sweat and tears into (and in the case of the one work i had stolen, 3 YEARS of my life that had been put into it). It feels like someone stole part of your soul, a feeling that isn't something pleasant let me tell you.

Perhaps, next time, you should think of a better way to phrase what you say because, really, there is no upside to plagiarism, everyone loses when it comes to that.

I think everything that needs to be said on this subject has in fact been said.

Again, I believe it can be agreed upon by nearly everyone that from whatever marginally good things that can be had from plagiarism, it's hardly worth the cost. I don't think anyone is advocating thievery here, but just merely making an observation worded rather... poorly.

To those who are very incensed: Because someone has a viewpoint that isn't yours doesn't mean you can speak critically of them on the forum. I understand that this is a sensitive subject and you feel passionately about it, but you need word your responses very carefully. You should be trying to educate and persuade people toward your viewpoint and not blasting them.

How the hell did I end up in the middle? This is supposed to be at the bottom. Read me last!

Actually, I think I know the point the OPer is making, and am afraid that maybe they worded it a bit off.

I believe what they meant is when authors borrow plots/themes/ideas from pre-existing literature. I.E. The Bible, Classic Novels, etc etc etc. I have read enough fanfiction and enough CURRENT literature to know that authors tend to be inspired through other means. This does not mean they copy word-for-word another story (hence why this is worded wrong since that is what plagiarism is)\

I don't believe that was what the original poster meant. The reason I don't believe that is because the mods were able to name the specific author that this person took the work from. Yes, there are common themes that inspire us all, yes, people craft literature that reflect tales from The Bible, or emulate classic novels- people pull Shakespeare's work into theirs all the time, even if it's only a title or naming characters- and you're correct in that this is not the same as plagiarism. But most, if not all of the mods on Dokuga are writers themselves. As a writer, there is a very basic concept. It isn't ideas that get copyrights, it's the expression of those ideas that does.

If you can look at a work and say 'this reminds me of this' but it's coincidental at best, than that's not plagiarism. If you read a book and say 'this is exactly what happened in 'such and such' book, they just changed the locations and character names . . . then you undoubtedly have plagiarism on your hands. This is why some ideas are so basic to the particular genre they usually appear in- supernatural themes, you have vampires and werewolves being mortal enemies, this is not new, it's been a theme that goes a ways back. In sci-fi, it's creations turning on their masters, it started in Frankenstein, sure, but the theme of playing God and getting your butt handed to you for it in some form or another is not new.

Danyealle-sama actually hit the nail on the head, I even said this myself, once. When you steal someone's art, be it a story, a picture, a poem, you are taking a piece of their soul. Some people have even had the audacity to say 'well, it's only fanfiction'. It doesn't matter. When I first had to deal with plagiarism it was over the work a friend of mine had posted on ff.net. One writer had taken her work and only changed a few minor details and reposted it as her own, figuring- apparently- that because my friend had never continued the story it was fair game. And when my friend approached the writer about this, the person acted like she had no clue what my friend was talking about. So I took it upon myself to leave a review for this person, verbally ripping them a new one and informing them that if they didn't take down the work they would be reported. A second time after this someone stole another of this same friend's work. Not only did she take that, but all of the stories that she had posted were plagiarized works- and she had the gaul to write on her profile as though they were hers, asking readers which ones they wanted her to update. Never mind that I can't understand how anyone can feel pride for receiving praise over a work they didn't create, but maybe I'm just weird like that.

I was angry as hell that this kept happening. Shortly after that, I received an email informing me that one of my Sesskag fics had been stolen. Not only was it my work, though, it was shortly after one of the Awards sessions and this thief had taken a lot of the winning stories and posted them as her own. She was banned from that site, but not told why and then tried to post the stories again on a different site under a new name. It felt like getting slapped in the face, it really, really did. Same goes for when someone took one of my drawings and posted it without my knowledge on their dA page. I only found out after one of my friends spotted it and informed me. These were moments that I wished I could have reached into my computer screen and strangle someone on the other side. There's no way to really explain the hurt and anger that you feel when someone steals something you've put so much effort into

You have the right to your opinion that you think the original poster was simply misunderstood. I don't agree. There's being inspired by pre-existing literature and there's having a similiar idea/plot/theme to something pre-existing, but borrowing so much of a work that someone can read it and name the author you took the work from . . . that's plagiarism.

And as for the original poster, I'm glad you found an author you enjoy so much. That's a silver lining for you, but that doesn't make it a benefit. There are no benefits to plagiarism, period. To say that you think there is, is to support art-theft. The only reason you found the original works that you're now so in love with is because the mods on this site are diligent enough, and care enough about their fellow writers and members of their art community that they caught this person and explained in no uncertain terms what this thief had done. Don't mistake that- it's not the plagiarist you should be praising for the fact that you now know who the real author is.

Onliime, bringing up that point about plagiarism on a fan fiction site is like screaming "FOX!" in a henhouse! Either you stumbled into that one blind, or you love to stir things up!

But I do understand your point, because I am currently reading the supernatural romance novel "Cry Wolf" by Patricia Briggs. It is part of a series comprised of three books, and, while it is not great literature, it is creative, romantic and fun and I am enjoying it immensely. I would never have picked out these books on a trip to my favorite used bookstore, since I'm not big on pulp romance. I would have missed out on the series if someone had not based a fan fiction on the first book. Turns out, the fan fiction was the same as the book, almost word for word, and had to be taken down, but I did reap a great benefit, as you pointed out in your post...