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Plagarism in character applications


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Not so long ago, I had someone sign up on my forum, and I noticed something very peculiar about their character application. It was mainly due to the style they wrote it in the history section and I noticed that the character descriptions for personality and appearance seemed a little off, too, like the descriptions didn't quite fit the character. After some rudeness from them in which they refused to make changes I'd asked them to, I banned them from the site. Still feeling like something was suspicious about the app, I ran the description through a plagiarism analyzer and discovered that they'd not written the personality and appearance descriptions at all as it had been lifted from a fandom wiki.

 

The same person joined a site I am just a member of, and started making an application on there. I ran part of their app through the plagiarism analyzer again and found that most of it had been lifted from fandom wiki entries again. (If I was staff on the site, I'd bring it up in staff board, but I'm not, so I don't know if I should say anything to one of the admins because I don't want to look like I'm causing trouble.)

 

I know that sometimes there is a problem with plagiarism where people have stolen characters, especially OCs, fortunately, it's not a situation I've seen/experienced myself, but it's the first instance I've known of where people have stolen things from fandom wikis.

 

Is this a widespread problem?

 

Would you ban a member if you found that they had been stealing content from fandom wikis?

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Plagiarism comes up often in the community. It isn't so rampant a thing that we see huge swarms of people going about it at once, but it does happen enough to where if you've seen it? You know when to start looking.I think it will come up in every group at least 2-5 times. Just that feeling of "something is off here" and "I have seen these words before" are always a good reason to do some background checking just to make sure. Some people I've noticed this with are repetitive in formats. I've seen it done across:

 

- Wikis, as you demonstrated above, be it fandom or entire sections of academic based wikis (I have seen this a great deal over the years.)

- Lifted sections from books placed in to apps

- Literary characters passed off as original characters for play in settings where it isn't for a novelization to come t life,  but for an original character. Not, "Oh this character is based on," but more like reading lifted Spark Notes. Even then, the literary character should still be written with an original spin to the details versus verbatim lifting word for word from one source or another.

- People who lift other characters and apps from other people and other sites. -- Like you, I've pointed out an app that was 1) a capturing of someone's ideas used without permission and 2) as mentioned above, the taking of a verbatim novel character to the point of lifted book passages being the majority of the whole app. 

- Plagiarized resources: I have had to come through and mark/delete/rewrite whole areas of resources over the years in an old group I ran because entire sections were plagiarized from so many sources. 

I would make sure to pull a member aside and let them know what you have found, when you have found this. I would let them know that any plagiarized material won't be accepted. All things written need to be original or when based off of other sources? Still need to be written with the writer's original slant.  If it happens again? Yes, Ban them.  I would even say the ban could come on a one strike basis on a case per case basis as well.

Plagiarism is one of those beasts that can grow big, ugly, and rear a nasty head for biting if not nipped in the bud. At least? A pain in the ass annoyance. At worst? Someone knocking on your digital door with legalese. 

 

 

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I've had people copy/paste their own apps (that generally don't work) entirely. And one person tried to name their character after a Vampire Diaries character, another lifted Lestat's story.

 

I call them out on it. Publicly, usually because I won't allow it and, frankly, if it reads weird I google a section to see if I'm correct in my suspicions and am usually proven right. Most of the time they don't bother trying to fix it and just leave.

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Guest Archaic Cyborg
3 hours ago, Rune said:

I've had people copy/paste their own apps (that generally don't work) entirely. And one person tried to name their character after a Vampire Diaries character, another lifted Lestat's story.

 

I call them out on it. Publicly, usually because I won't allow it and, frankly, if it reads weird I google a section to see if I'm correct in my suspicions and am usually proven right. Most of the time they don't bother trying to fix it and just leave.

I can't like this post enough! Public shaming is the way to go for plagiarists.

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Holy crackers, let's put away the pitchforks!

 

There are a lot of roleplay sites where copy-pasting from the wiki is okay and fine. Yes, technically it is plagiarism but when some roleplays have this as the standard, it's different than outright stealing because roleplayers are being taught this is okay.

 

Since you feel bothered, just PM staff with the link to the wiki where they copy-pasted from. That's all you need to say, and let staff handle the rest.

 

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As an admin, I usually don't mind it when bits and pieces are taken from wikis. Especially in the case of canon characters - or using wiki-info as an aside to give more of an insight into somethings that might be mentioned in the character history. As far as my own sites go, I give the applicant one chance to re-write the profile using their own words/style as a courtesy and then that's it.

 

As far as somebody else's site goes, if I was in your situation, my motto would be "Not my circus, not my monkeys" and leave it be unless one of the staff asks publicly about the RPer being inconsistent between how they post IC, and how they're App reads. 

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I'd say there's a HUGE difference between bits and pieces from wikis and copying an entire character that isn't canon (ie: NotLestat Guy I mentioned earlier.)

 

At the same time, however, if they can't be assed to write the character, how are they going to write posts? RPing is all about writing, after all... Kind of defeats the point.

 

Though, I apparently didn't read... If you aren't staff, not your job to police apps. I'd let it slide or let staff know you noticed it. Depending on how strict they like to be or how involved you are. Up to you.

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Here's the deal with plagiarism. It's theft of the intellectual property of the original author. I can understand universe (read: Marvel, DC Comics, Supernatural) canon characters and the need for similarity. But if you didn't write the work and intend to pass it off as your own, you are knowingly stealing it. Allowing blatantly plagiarized work on to your boards is being complacent to theft. Don't plagiarize. Don't steal what doesn't belong to you. It's pretty simple. You don't see authors trying to publish another's work under their name. Why? Because it's stealing. Let me reiterate. Plagiarism is stealing, period. End stop. This is the #1 reason I absolutely hate universe canon characters, they don't belong to you. 

 

As for the OP. Like Rune said, "not my circus, not my monkeys." It's not your responsibility to make sure every app on a site you don't admin on is original and not plagiarized. Leave it to the admin team to do what is necessary if they catch it. Even if they don't. Leave it be.

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As an admin, I'd like it brought to my attention. I wouldn't think you were causing trouble, quite the opposite. I had this issue recently where a member of ours who'd been around for 6 years was accused of plagiarising lines in their posts (not all the post but very clearly specific lines from other players) and I had to deal with that shock. The original authors had screen captures and side by sides so it was clearly something they'd been following for a while with this particular player. 

 

I also literally just had a member who copied and pasted their app that was obviously from another site (a 'town' site) to our own. In ours, there is no singular location, just all over America, but their history very specifically mentioned this non-existent town and how'd they'd come to live 'here'.  That too baffles me. I re-use my own characters in different verses all the time but I'll reinvent their stories to be appropriate for the setting.

 

I think it's something that needs to be pointed out because sometimes as admins we miss it, but it's something I like to watch out personally so if a member brought it to my attention I'd be grateful. 

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I agree that plagiarism is unacceptable and shouldn't be encouraged. If you see something, say something. Intellectual theft is not ok. It's one of the reasons I don't like canon rpgs, as well. On my site, if I see a character that someone has lifted from somewhere that's not their own creation, I'll point it out. This happened not too long ago on one of my sites, where the character Abby from NCIS was recreated and dropped into our setting. Now I love NCIS and Abby. But this was not the forum for that kind of character. And my staff and I said as much. It was basically a "hey, we love this character idea you have, but we find it too similar to the character this actress plays on a tv show. We'd like to see you make her more your own." Ultimately, the member never returned, and removed their apps completely. Which was sad. We saw this as an opportunity to help this member grow in their writing and were more than happy to help guide them through that process. But they weren't interested in that. 

 

If I was a member and saw something similar? I'd send a discreet message to the staff voicing my concerns and leave it up to them. It would bother me not to say something. But if the staff was fine with it, or dealt with it on their own, it would be out of my hands. I did my duty, and that's all I could do.

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Like other staff, I'd appreciate it if a member noticed it and told me. I've had them do it in the past because there's no way one person can be familiar with everything and people will rip from all sorts of weird places. 

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Well, probably a controversial opinion here... but I don't really think republishing someone else's book under your name, and copypasting from another RP app elsewhere are quite the same thing. Since for one, a book has commercial value - so when you're publishing someone else's book under your own name you are denying the original author's right to profit from their work. But, it's not like anyone profits from RPing, no? So technically there's no commercial or monetary value to a character app or site lore thread on a RP site.

 

That being said, this doesn't mean I condone or tolerate plagiarism, of course not. Since plagiarising character apps or wiki articles still reflects badly on one's ability as a writer, because 1) it shows they are outright lying about the premise being their idea (and nobody like being lied to), and 2) it casts doubts on whether they really understand the idea they're working with - and these are two things I'd definitely not condone. 

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Monetary value has no bearing on it. Plagiarism is theft whether it's a published book or someone copying and pasting someone else's work into an app and passing if off as their own. If I was cruising around sites and I found a character that had written that was posted under someone else's name, you can bet your ass I'd be flaming pissed. Why? Because they stole my idea and my character concept regardless if I was getting paid to rp or not. Plagiarism is theft regardless of monetary value. Just because there's no money involved doesn't mean it doesn't have value. 

 

Saying it's okay because they're being taught it's okay is like saying those old times pickpockets aren't stealing because they were taught it was okay. Taking something that doesn't belong to you without expressed permission is stealing. 

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Pretty sure copyright laws (in their current form anyway) only protect the exact words. Ideas aren't exactly something that can be copyrighted. Like yeah, it'd be a dick move to copypaste someone else's character app and pass it off as one's own. But ideas and concepts aren't something anyone can claim ownership of. i.e. it only prevents one from using say, Wolverine outside of works not under Marvel. But it doesn't say no one can create their own character who also has enhanced senses, a healing factor, berserker rage, claws and a metal-lined skeleton. Ergo, the name "Wolverine" and the character's distinct likenesses are the intellectual property of Marvel, but not the premise behind him being a regenerative berserker with a metal-laced skeleton. So yeah, there's a difference. 

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