Questions about plagiarism

Status
Not open for further replies.

Serostasis

Registered
Joined
Aug 27, 2017
Messages
8
Reaction score
1
Location
New Hampshire
New member here, with some questions and concerns about plagiarism.

Has anyone ever had their work plagiarized after posting on this site? And if so, how frequently does this occur?

What recourse do I have if I discover someone has plagiarized my work? I eventually would like to share my work but obviously have these concerns, as I'm sure many do.

Are there any steps I can take to reduce the likelihood of this happening?
 

mccardey

Self-Ban
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 10, 2010
Messages
19,211
Reaction score
15,811
Location
Australia.
Read the stickies and you'll find that sharing your work happens in a password-protected part of the board. You should be quite safe - everyone else has been. Also, you'd only be posting a smallish except, not the whole work, and also also everyone else here has their own brilliant novels and stories and poems to write ;)

Hope that settles your fears.
 
Last edited:

Clairels

Born at sea
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 9, 2013
Messages
423
Reaction score
126
Location
The 18th parallel
Website
www.princessofpirates.wordpress.com
New member here, with some questions and concerns about plagiarism.

Has anyone ever had their work plagiarized after posting on this site? And if so, how frequently does this occur?

What recourse do I have if I discover someone has plagiarized my work? I eventually would like to share my work but obviously have these concerns, as I'm sure many do.

Are there any steps I can take to reduce the likelihood of this happening?

Are you worried about someone taking your unpublished work and publishing it as their own?

Remember that the Share Your Work forums on AW are password-protected, which means only registered site users can access them. They don't show up on Google, so that cuts down greatly on the exposure.

Overall, though, people generally don't steal unpublished work. It's too risky with too little chance of reward. And in the unlikely event it ever does happen, you need only produce time-stamped copy of your work, which you likely already have on your hard drive or stored in the cloud, to prove that you created it.

I hope this helps a bit.
 

AW Admin

Administrator
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 19, 2008
Messages
18,772
Reaction score
6,285
First, plagiarism is not illegal; it's unethical but it's not illegal.

Violating copyright, which is what most people really mean, is illegal. There's an FAQ about copyright you should read.

You own the copyright of anything you create from the second you start creating. A work doesn't even have to be published or performed or shown to be covered by copyright.

Ideas can't be protected by copyright, but the unique expression (particular words in a particular order, for instance can.

Right now, you can't even post an excerpt to Share Your Work; you need 50 posts first.

Share Your Work requires a password; Google etc. can't see or index it.

But there's no requirement for you to post your work for crit. Don't do it if you don't want to.
And writers can delete their excerpts after crit.
 

Serostasis

Registered
Joined
Aug 27, 2017
Messages
8
Reaction score
1
Location
New Hampshire
Thanks for the confidence boosts guys/gals. I was aware of most of what was mentioned already but thought I'd just test the waters and see what the general response was here. I've browsed a few other writing forums and found a few people complaining into the void about how their work had been stolen.

My rational brain knows it's not a real concern, but it's wise to think twice, especially where the internet is concerned.

Thanks again!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.