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Dealing with plagiarism... How do you do it?


Orion
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Greetings everyone!

 

This is a topic that has recently come up frequently. Not only for my website, but other websites. Long story short without going into detail, two specific boards are stealing our content and mashing them together to make one big clusterfuck of plagiarized content. While some of the information is paraphrased, other parts are word for word. Despite contact the website's admins, who are the actual offenders, they are refusing to take any of the content from their website. Multiple admins from multiple websites have discussed this with them, but nothing has been done. Some of us were even banned or blocked on Discord. Needless to say, those involved are getting frustrated. We are avoiding naming and shaming them, but it's gotten to the point where it's becoming a larger issue. 

 

When it comes down to it... how do you guys deal with plagiarism?

 

From a legally and negotiable standpoint preferably. Some info on trademarking and copyright would be nice to dive into too, given filing is a bit pricey. 

owner of some website ❤️

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This is honestly your best bet and the most important thing is "Document! Document! Document" and don't just copy and paste. Screenshots with the time included (meaning your taskbar in windows) is an important thing to have. Additionally, this here is the most surefire way to get things done:

 

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Thank you so much. I've been documenting as much as I can! I'll look at that.

owner of some website ❤️

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I will second the documentation. I know JCINK specifically have a form to fill out in regards to stealing and I have threatened to use it in the past. The hitch IS capturing screen shots of your original content and the offending site's content. Dates are important. There is no such thing as 'too much' in this area. Paraphrasing is one thing but it matters little when you have MULTIPLE word for word similarities that go hand in hand with it. 

 

And now, this also involves documenting and screenshotting evidence of trying to correct the problem. Even better if you get a response from them. 

 

Jcink does have a DMCA form to fill and they request screenshots. I don't know what forum host or software you use but that's my experience.

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The downside with this topic is, if someone uses your information but properly cites where the information came from, that is not plagiarism. Now if they are just coping and pasting your information and citing your site, that is illegal. I create most of my RP specific documents (lore, world-building, etc) in Word. This gives me a timestamp of when I created it. It is the same as a manuscript, that creation timestamp is so important.

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7 hours ago, Braynard said:

The downside with this topic is, if someone uses your information but properly cites where the information came from, that is not plagiarism. 

 

This is only true to a limited extent within academic context, in which the author is writing an article which demands supporting evidence. To put that in layman's terms - it has to be a fact based article, and the sources have to be clearly noted and sourced. And to be clear, citation alone doesn't always put one in the legal clear even in an academic context. 

It does not apply to creative content, and this is incredibly poor advice to provide in this context. 

I'd also like to flag out for unaware readers that "document dates" via Word, Notepad, or (insert software) are not an end all be all of proof of ownership - they can be manipulated, and are affected by transfer between devices. I have documents on a laptop that were created over a decade ago - that doesn't mean the actual visible content of that document was created a decade ago. I could have edited it yesterday and completely swapped out the original content. Timestamps only show when a digital doc has been edited, not what was changed - and even the 'restore prev versions' functions has very limited value. 

 

ESPECIALLY the context of web sites, screen shots are far more effective. 

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Thank you for the advice. This is very informative and I look forward to saving it for later instances (hopefully none though).

owner of some website ❤️

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On 7/12/2021 at 11:13 PM, Dragon said:

I'd also like to flag out for unaware readers that "document dates" via Word, Notepad, or (insert software) are not an end all be all of proof of ownership - they can be manipulated, and are affected by transfer between devices. I have documents on a laptop that were created over a decade ago - that doesn't mean the actual visible content of that document was created a decade ago. I could have edited it yesterday and completely swapped out the original content. Timestamps only show when a digital doc has been edited, not what was changed - and even the 'restore prev versions' functions has very limited value.

 

Just as proof. This document was created in 2006-2007. Hell it says the modified date is earlier than the created date. The created date is from when I moved it to that Hard Drive.

 

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  • 1 month later...
On 7/6/2021 at 6:49 PM, Orion said:

We are avoiding naming and shaming them, but it's gotten to the point where it's becoming a larger issue. 

 

Name shaming never helps, so good for you! However, it's always a safe idea to have a neutral third party serve as witness through the entire process. I've had issues in the past with plagiarism in reference to character profiles and site information, and I regret not having a third party involved when reporting the issue to site admins. It's an added layer of protection for yourself. This third party shouldn't be there to give opinions. They are just there as a witness should you need one later.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'll definitely keep that in mind. Thank you both.

 

I've seen other sites involved that have decided to name and shame too, but frankly, I do not know if I want to open that can of worms. Too much to deal with.

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  • 6 months later...

So, I actually intentionally created a site using a Creative Commons licence partially for this reason. While this doesn't completely inoculate us from plagiarism, it means that none of the content in our guidebook or compendium is owned by any one person. We ask people to cite us, but if they don't, to be honest, I don't care.

 

I'm much more interested in dealing with plagiarism on a more individual level. Design theft in the animal RPG world is crazy common these days, and that's a whole can of worms.

 

Legally, I'd never expect to be able to do much, but as a staff member I do my best to support theft cases.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I'd report to the host if talking to the admins didn't help.

 

On the bright side there was one time another site totally stole huge chunks of my plot. They didn't make it very long. If they can't even be bothered to come up with their own site documentation they probably won't last. 

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I don't want to derail the thread, and I don't have an answer for your question unfortunately, but I do have a question related to this topic. Some RP creators end up making web comics based on their RP's. How do they credit members who have left the game? Is this plagiarizing?

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  • 1 month later...

This is excellent information to keep tucked away. If it's okay, I'd like to have this on hand to link to my own site should it happen? Obviously with the given credit for VirusZero's guide since that was so long ago.

Tlaloc, my love...

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