My copyright has been infringed!

Antilles

Hi,

sorry for not posting in so long, I've been ridiculosly busy for the past few weeks and haven't had a chance to read anything posted here, let alone write anything of my own.

I was just reviewing something I wrote a while back for VOAT, and googled a particular quote I used to see if I'd got the spelling correct.

What I found was this:

http://geraldineocblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/long-story-1.html

This person has taken my story, and another poem I recognise from this board, and published it unattributed on their blog. Any suggestions what I should do about this?

To be honest, assuming this wasn't just some spambot taking the stories, I'm a bit flattered but I would have preferred my name (or at least username ) was attached to the piece

Galway K9

get proof you wrote it eg. Copywright, get lawyer and sue their ass!

pickarooney

Well, presumably she's still knocking about the forum looking for stuff to steal (every post on her blog has been lifted from here) so maybe she'd like to take the opportunity to explain why she thinks plagiarism is all cool and stuff.

Otherwise, blogspot has a link where you can report copyright infringement (or plain acting the bollocks if this is not applicable).

Oryx

Is she claiming its hers or just not attributing it to anyone?

Gonzales

Galway K9 wrote: »

get proof you wrote it eg. Copywright, get lawyer and sue their ass!

That's a bit rash, I think contacting the person in question & requesting them to make amends to your satisfaction would be a more measured first step.

Bob Z

The person doesnt even have a full name on the blog. Wouldnt she be hard to sue?

Oryx

We know she lifted one story from here. Could she have written the others, ie, be the original boardsie author? (Havent searched to find the originals)

pickarooney

No, the others are by two other, distinct boardsies, both ostensibly male.

Antilles

Lol I've no intention of sueing. I have no idea why this person chose to unofficially republish my story, but like I said above I'm flattered that they did. I just would have liked attribution as the author. I'll post a comment on her blog asking her to amend it!

iguana

I wouldn't ask, I'd insist.

Afaik once you have written something down (or typed it) it is yours and your copyright exists. By having published it here that means you can trace it back to you as the author. The date she published it will clearly be after yours so that will clearly show that she has reproduced your work which means she has broken the law. The fact that this isn't the first time she has done this would make your case cast iron.

So contact her and tell her she has breached your copyright but if she credits you immediately you are happy to take it no further.

dawvee

iguana wrote: »

Afaik once you have written something down (or typed it) it is yours and your copyright exists.

I should write a program that would create every possible 50,000 word sequence in the English language and automatically post them to the web, along with a copyright notice of the date it produced them. Sure, there'd be some false positives for works already written, but damn, I'd own the copyright to every work ever written from this point on in history.

Edit: Of course, the fact that even a two-word sequence results in 380 billion possible combinations in English could prove troublesome...

pickarooney

dawvee wrote: »

I should write a program that would create every possible 50,000 word sequence in the English language and automatically post them to the web, along with a copyright notice of the date it produced them. Sure, there'd be some false positives for works already written, but damn, I'd own the copyright to every work ever written from this point on in history.

Just don't ask for feedback.

dawvee

pickarooney wrote: »

Just don't ask for feedback.

Aw, but I really wanted to know what you all think of compositions 34120040330530300403399406839943 through 39974400151245645589900046684302. Those are the best ones!

Antilles

dawvee wrote: »

Aw, but I really wanted to know what you all think of compositions 34120040330530300403399406839943 through 39974400151245645589900046684302. Those are the best ones!

Not really, dawvee. It started getting really derivative after 37854364552558294050205008776452.

Bob Z

dawvee wrote: »

Aw, but I really wanted to know what you all think of compositions 34120040330530300403399406839943 through 39974400151245645589900046684302. Those are the best ones!

I found a lot of it to be a bit random to be honest

Oryx

dawvee, honestly. A monkey on a typewriter could do better than most of that. D-