Cam Meets a Plagiarist

[misscam]

Cam is not amused. Cam is pissed. Cam wants to smack.

There is a foul litle plagiarist on the loose. DarkTyger

It all starts when my dear friend lotus79 discovers DarkTyger's MailDay MailDay Officer Day is a copy&paste of her old You've Got Mail. Only the names have been changed.

To wit:

Sample a)
It was the end of a long day. The case had been a tough one to crack. Everyone was glad it was over. Unfortunately, the bigger the case, the more the paperwork, and Tom wanted three officer's reports yesterday. Kelly, PJ and Amy each sat at their respective desks, typing away. For once, there was no joking, arguing, gossiping or innuendo; the office was uncharacteristically quiet.

Sample b)
It was the end of a long day. The case had been a tough one to crack. Everyone was glad it was over. Unfortunately, the bigger the case, the more the paperwork, and Jeff wanted three detective's reports yesterday. Jack, Mick and Rachel each sat at their respective desks, typing away. For once, there was no joking, arguing, gossiping or innuendo; the office was uncharacteristically quiet.

Obvious, much? It gets much more obvious.

lotus79 snoopes around.

Midnight Raid is stolen from a story with the same name by Brady Udall, a published writer. (How stupid can you get?)

Unresolved Issues is stolen from Hilde's A Little Too Late

Confession stolen from Shattered Mirror Glass (skim about halfway down to see the letter DarkTyger stole)

In the Closet stolen from In the Closet

The Last Precinct: Temptation stolen from an original fic called Skull and Scythe on fictionpress. You can search it.

misscam snoopes around.

Check out the entry by Jess - it's the same e-mail as listed in DarkTyger's profile. Serial offender.

Her journal - save the humans, kill an idiot? Oh, if only...

We also discover she lives in Brisbane, Australia (I used to live there!) and apparently attend Uni. I can only hope for her sake she's not as word-thieving at Uni.

Cam fires up her e-mail.

Hello there, little thief.

Yes, I am calling you a thief, as your little MailDay MailDay Officer Day story is pure copy&paste from Sarah Lotus' You've Got Mail. You just changed the names. And you stole Unresolved Issues from Hilde as well as quite a few other stories. You think no one would notice? Well, they did and word got around. The authors have been informed as well. And authors have friends - real authors, that is, not little word-copiers like you - and friends are protective. I am a protective friend and if I could, I'd tell your parents about your little hobby of stealing, but sadly, I'm left with just your e-mail.

So now, little thief, listen and listen good. Despite the fact that you utterly don't deserve it, you ignoramus ass, I'm going to give you a piece of advice. When it comes to writing, plagiarism is taken very seriously. If you plagiarise at Uni, it can end your academic career. See, you are supposed to write your own stuff and not be a lazy bum with copy&paste, as you seem to be when it comes to fanfiction.

But then again, if you want to truly be mindblowingly stupid like that, who am I to stop you? Have a nice life working at McDonalds, if so. I'll have a large order of fries and milkshake, thanks.

Your bio says you're 18, but I truly hope you're lying there too, as the thought of a legal adult being as idiotic as this depresses the hell out of me. How about trying maturity for a change? I can recommend it.

May leaves of the stinging tree fall on your ass,

Cam

Now Cam hopes little miss thief will rudely reply so Cam can truly fire up her insult-crafter and show no restraint whatsoever.

*shakes head* Truly, stupidity knows no bounds.

Comments

[piecesofalice.livejournal.com]

*stares*

How on earth would someone think they could get away with that? It's not even audacious, it's just STUPID.

Do you want me to track her down? Deliver anything in person? ;)

[misscam.livejournal.com]

Oh, tempting offer. We actually tracked down her Uni and about where she lived - if I was still living in Brisbane I'd be mightily tempted to see if I could track her down indeed. *mutters darkly*

But I think I shall have to satisfy myself with Internet vengeance.

[lotus79.livejournal.com]

And she replaced my mediocre title with a ridiculuous one, let's not forget that. WTF is "MailDay MailDay Officer Day"?

[misscam.livejournal.com]

Well, she clearly is an idiot.

*offers you another drink on the house*

[belegcuthalion.livejournal.com]

Good gracious, what does that little chick have where others use to have their brain?

And your email makes me shudder. It is obviously dangerous to be at the receiving end of your rage...

[misscam.livejournal.com]

Cotton?

That was actually quite restrained compared to what I wanted to say. If the little brat denies it or insults Saz in any way, the gloves come off. I'm thinking of delicious insults already.

[velocityofsound.livejournal.com]

Wow. The stupidity, it burns! ;) *heh*

I love your smackdown. Remind me to never get on the wrong end of your trout. Then again, if anyone ever stole my fic I would just laugh, because really, turn a CSI fic into a Pokemon or whatever the hell she "writes" and the comedy of the situation would be so amusing I would be too distracted to be angry.

You tracked her down! You guys are too much. I would be my bottom dollar that her term papers are bought online, or just out and out stolen.

People have too mucht time on their hands. Glory me.

[misscam.livejournal.com]

*shrugs* Everyone reacts differently, really. I remember I was just in a state of "huh?" when it first happened to me. And this chick is really so stupid you just have to point and mock. Not to mention her pretensious "Goth-ness". DarkTyger. Hoo boy.

If her papers are indeed stolen, I have full confidence in the Uni discovering it, since she's not really showing much of a brain.

And if she replies to me, then we'll see smackdown. Oh yes.

[falena]

Plagiarism makes my blood boil. Not to mention this lass must be a complete twat if she thought she could get away with it...

Your letter is the right mix of snark, indignation and protective-friendness (which I thought was very sweet, btw)...Reminded me not to ever cross you ;P

[misscam.livejournal.com]

Twat is an excellent word. Wouldn't surprise me if she plagiarised all her fics.

Heh. Never cross me :P And that wasn't the nastiest I can be either. I'm saving that if she turns out to be even twattier and deny it all. I'm almost hoping for it. Do not be a twat to my friends. It does not please Cam.

[saxihighlandck.livejournal.com]

Ah.. Idiot.

Plagiarism is bad! We got threatened to be failed and kicked out of the class. This person is just an idiot.

People are stupid sometimes. Yeesh.

[misscam.livejournal.com]

Yes. Plagiarism can in fact screw up your life. Do not do it. *smacks twat*

[ladyiapetus]

What a pathetically stupid bint. She's got to be extremely deficient in the imagination and originality departments if the best title she can come up for a plagerized work is "MailDay MailDay Officer Day." Can't wait to see the follow-up for this; undoubtedly she's going to be dumb enough to e-mail you back flailing her limbs and whining about how her stuff is the original work and lotus79 and everyone else she copied plagerized her. It's the MO for just about every fic plagerist out there.

At least she's just changing the names and titles of what she copies and pastes. A couple of years ago another 'Net friend of mine had her work plagerized by someone who then "rewrote" certain parts so that the "right" couples got together (her story had yaoi, the plagerizer turned everyone straight) and, I think, so that there was an underlying current of Christianity to everything.

[lotus79.livejournal.com]

I'm almost hoping she does, just for the sheer stupidness of it. Since my fic was posted in 2000, and hers 6 days ago.

Then I can point and laugh at Teh_stoopid some more.

[smalldiver.livejournal.com]

*Raises eyebrow* How the heck did she think she'd get away with that?

I'm glad I friended you now. *Sits back with popcorn to watch the upcoming battle*

[misscam.livejournal.com]

Feel free to hit the open bar, too.

I guess she thought no one would notice. Whooops. They did.

[briasoleil.livejournal.com]

To quote Michel (from Gilmore Girls), "people are particularly stupid today." Obviously, this girl doesn't much care which day it is. Cause this? Is stupid.

Feel free to smack her with your trout of doom. Repeatedly. And with much force.

True plagiarists make me ill.

[misscam.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Copy&paste plagiarists are not only stupid, but the most obvious thieves of all.

*smacks*

[gehayi.livejournal.com]

Thief, thief! We hates plagiarists, we hates them, we hates them forever!

I want to see you tear her to shreds.

I'll bring the popcorn.

[misscam.livejournal.com]

If she replies, I promise that you will.

[lotus79.livejournal.com]

Ohgod, why did I keep looking?

blueheelers.org has a forum. She's posted the bloody fics there too.

*reporting fics again*

She has many other posts there, too. Including one with a photo of herself. See, if you still lived in Brissie, that's plenty of info to stalk her with. Stupid woman.

Sadly, she *does* look 18. You can look for yourself, but you'd need to register. I just gave it my spam addy ;)

[misscam.livejournal.com]

That little brat. I think we better check some of the BH mailing lists too. We'll track her down. *mutters darkly*

It really is rather sad I don't live in Brisbane no more. I'd like to give her a real life lesson.

[wcspegasus.livejournal.com]

Gah...I hate plagiarists. A few of us had to battle one in the Pirates of the Caribbean fandom early last year. And she was even stupid enough to leave the fic titles intact (which is how we found her in the first place). She was posting the stuff on some other journalling site and thankfully a kind site admin took care of her for us.

Good luck with this one...plagiarists deserve the flames they get.

[misscam.livejournal.com]

That's good. Maybe she'll learn not to bloody well do that again.

Yeah - when you copy&past half a dozen stories, I say flames are in order.

Oh,

[freckles-knows.livejournal.com]

My goodness. Not the smartest in the world, is she? Actually, I am rather surprised she had brains enough to change the summarys, the little bit that she did. Plagiarists baffle my brain, to be quite honnest. I mean,how can they THINK that no one will notcie? And then to go one step further and usually deny it.

But, it seems enough information has been collected on her that all anyone would need to do, is talk to a friend that just happens to currently resides in Brissie and well... See what happens from there.

However this resolves, it almost promices to get better what with her stupidity, and everyone elses firey passion to bring her down, and bring her down hard... So while you do that, Ill be sitting here with popcorn watching as the little moron morethanlikley diggs herself in deeper ^^

Re: Oh,

[misscam.livejournal.com]

I hope you'll be entertained ;)

[trialia]

You go, girl. Word-copiers deserve all they get. I mean, honestly. Did she think people wouldn't notice?

[misscam.livejournal.com]

I guess she did. Probably posted one stolen story first and when getting away with it, figured she could get away with more. We all see how well that went.

[puredeadthingy.livejournal.com]

*stares* OK, plagiarism is not cool...how can you steal someone's work and call it your own without feeling guilty?

[misscam.livejournal.com]

More need for attention that conscience?

[magika83.livejournal.com]

I think I'll just leave this whole matter in your very capable hands. I'm so glad we're on the same side here. ;-)

Honestly though, how stupid can people get? I can only shake my head and roll my eyes. She must be lacking a lot in life (including a brain). *Sigh*

[misscam.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry this happened to you. She's an idiot and I'll do my part for getting a little smacking in on her at least. Idiot thief.

[darksylvia.livejournal.com]

The thing I never understand is how that could be at all satisfying. I'm not even satisfied with good reviews of a story I wrote but am, for whatever reason, not happy with. Getting reviews for something that I didn't write wouldn't do anything for me.

[misscam.livejournal.com]

Yeah... I guess some just want attention, whatever way they can get it.

[shadowednavi.livejournal.com]

Holy bejeezus.

This is the third instance of plagiarism I've heard of in the last two months X_o;;; That email though absolutely rocks. ^^ Quite kind of you to step in and defend your friend like that. You have my respect, miss. ^^

I hope they reply. I want to see your response to it, especially if they try to play the sweet innocent "I did nothing!" card. bwahah.

[misscam.livejournal.com]

It's the least I could do, really.

I hope for a reply too - so I can really tear some. My claws are eager.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_lost_iris_/]

Just watch her have plagiarized her entire journal too. If she's such a lazy twit as to copy her fanfiction, why would she bother spending time writing in her o so d4rk&em0 journal?

[misscam.livejournal.com]

Now you're making me paranoid.

[kitness.livejournal.com]

For the record, you just became my hero as you are one of very few people i've met who would actually send a sugar-coated e-mail to someone like that.

I have absolutely no patience for plagerizers. Argh. Just argh. Give me something to smack her wish will you?

[misscam.livejournal.com]

Thanks, I think. The sugar goes off if she turns rude or denying, however.

*offers a fish*

[maureenlycaon.livejournal.com]

Unbefuckinglievable. But then, it always takes my breath away how stupid plagiarists are. Zakk is right -- it's not just an attempt to avoid doing actual work, it's a mental syndrome.

A prediction on my part: if she doesn't claim it was all her work and everybody else stole it from her, she'll claim that she didn't copy and paste the stuff. She'll claim it was her brother/sister/boyfriend who posted it because he thought it was cool stuff she should see, and it's all a dreadful misunderstanding.

Pfah.

My sympathies to the victims. At least they can have the satisfaction of watching a good old-fashioned Internet beating being dealt out to the offender.

[misscam.livejournal.com]

Well, we did find out she says she suffers from DID, which has something or another to do with having somewhat a split personality (from what I understand). So we did entertain the thought that she might claim her other personality did it.

[unendingreverie.livejournal.com]

Now that plagiarism is fucked up, if you don't mind the language.

[kittkatbar77.livejournal.com]

goodness...what an ignoramus. *rolls eyes* i can't stand people liek that. They deserve a good kick in the arse.

[limegreen-sloth.livejournal.com]

I bet she's stolen most of her assignments too - the stupidity of some Uni students in this country never fails to amaze me. The worst I've seen was a guy in my boyfriend's course. A well meaning girl gave him her essay to give him some ideas for an assignment. His response was to photocopy the essay, stick his name on the front and hand it in as his own.

He did this in a course of 30 people. A very tightknit 30 people. And thought he wouldn't get busted. Even if he doesn't get expelled this is a career path where your future is completly reliant on the goodwill of your peers and the contacts you make in university. Wankers, the lot of them.

[misscam.livejournal.com]

The stupidity not only burns, but burrows too sometimes.

[colorstoobright.livejournal.com]

O___________________o

!!!!!!

[misscam.livejournal.com]

Yes, it is hard to find the words.