Follow up to the rules post.
On October 22 we were contacted by a community user regarding a prompt fill that they felt was “an exact copy of a different story from a different universe.” The user provided a link to both the fill and the story which they felt had been copied.
The original story: His Eyes, Part V by simons_flower.
The partially plagiarized story: Now Three by xushi (now deleted, link at the kink meme also deleted).
We were also told that they had been blocked from xushi ’s journal once they made contact.
In an attempt to clarify the situation we PMed xushi, asking that she unlock the entry she had linked to as the fill (in line with community rules) and that she answer our questions about the origin of the story, since we had concerns over its originality. We also noted that both her fill and the story it was alleged to be copied from had been read by one of the moderators who could confirm that certain key elements, if not the entirety of the story itself, bore more than a striking similarity to each other.
The totality of our exchange with her is below:
inception_anon: Hello xushi.
I am contacting you because the community mods have been notified that your story "Now Three" (http://xushi.livejournal.com/259419.html) is very similar to His Eyes (http://www.triofic.com/viewstory.php?sid=210&textsize=0&chapter=5) by simons_flower. So similar that some parts are copied word for word.
There is no way for me to independently confirm this, as your entry is now locked.
This is your opportunity to unlock your story and respond to me before further action is taken.
xushi: I have this bad habit of saving stories I've enjoyed in the past, without title names or fandoms, and as such started working on the Arthur/Eames/Ariadne prompt over top of the file I saved the story in question under.
It's being deleted now.
inception_anon: Even without looking at your story or having caps, the mods have decided that you did in fact *knowingly* plagiarize from simons_flower. Two separate members of the community contacted us and are certain that you have taken passages from her. You initially locked the post and have now deleted it instead of unlocking like I asked. Your excuse is ridiculous--are you honestly trying to say that you didn't notice the Harry Potter names when you wrote your fic over simons_flower's? Yeah, no. Sickeningly enough, there is no way for us to contact simons_flower, as she is deceased. These factors are enough to fully implicate you in our eyes.
The burden of proof was on you and solely on you; you failed to provide evidence that you did not steal from simons_flower. You will now be banned and the community will be notified.
xushi did not reply further and we made the decision to inform the community. Our reasons:
1) Transparency in the way we run this community and respect for every member of fandom, including their fic/art, are most important. 2) In our opinion the deletion of the story was a clear attempt to conceal plagiarism, in line with the initial locking of the entry and her deletion of the fill from the meme. The story was also deleted from a number of Inception fiction archives. 3) In spite of their rules on documentation that would prevent us from making a case to the community, we then went ahead and contacted stop_plagiarism for advice on how to procede with such a delicate situation (as noted above, simons_flower passed away last year). spiralleds confirmed that stop_plagiarism could not step in but she also said they would support us if we decided to go public with this. 4) Ultimately, xushi's lack of remorse and unbelievable (at best) excuse were the deciding factors.
Plagiarism is unacceptable and will result in an immediate ban. Community members will be notified. We define plagiarism as presenting all or a substantial portion of another’s work as your own. If another case such as this occurs, we ask that concerned community members contact us with links and screencaps for both the original fic and the fill which they feel is plagiarising it. We will then examine both and make a decision based on what we feel is appropriate given the circumstances. We do not encourage anyone to contact or confront an author suspected of plagiarism.
ETA: Discussion on this post will stay open. You're free to have different opinions, be angry, etc. But keep it civil. Anonymous comments made to start wank will be deleted.
The original story: His Eyes, Part V by simons_flower.
The partially plagiarized story: Now Three by xushi (now deleted, link at the kink meme also deleted).
We were also told that they had been blocked from xushi ’s journal once they made contact.
In an attempt to clarify the situation we PMed xushi, asking that she unlock the entry she had linked to as the fill (in line with community rules) and that she answer our questions about the origin of the story, since we had concerns over its originality. We also noted that both her fill and the story it was alleged to be copied from had been read by one of the moderators who could confirm that certain key elements, if not the entirety of the story itself, bore more than a striking similarity to each other.
The totality of our exchange with her is below:
inception_anon: Hello xushi.
I am contacting you because the community mods have been notified that your story "Now Three" (http://xushi.livejournal.com/259419.html) is very similar to His Eyes (http://www.triofic.com/viewstory.php?sid=210&textsize=0&chapter=5) by simons_flower. So similar that some parts are copied word for word.
There is no way for me to independently confirm this, as your entry is now locked.
This is your opportunity to unlock your story and respond to me before further action is taken.
xushi: I have this bad habit of saving stories I've enjoyed in the past, without title names or fandoms, and as such started working on the Arthur/Eames/Ariadne prompt over top of the file I saved the story in question under.
It's being deleted now.
inception_anon: Even without looking at your story or having caps, the mods have decided that you did in fact *knowingly* plagiarize from simons_flower. Two separate members of the community contacted us and are certain that you have taken passages from her. You initially locked the post and have now deleted it instead of unlocking like I asked. Your excuse is ridiculous--are you honestly trying to say that you didn't notice the Harry Potter names when you wrote your fic over simons_flower's? Yeah, no. Sickeningly enough, there is no way for us to contact simons_flower, as she is deceased. These factors are enough to fully implicate you in our eyes.
The burden of proof was on you and solely on you; you failed to provide evidence that you did not steal from simons_flower. You will now be banned and the community will be notified.
xushi did not reply further and we made the decision to inform the community. Our reasons:
1) Transparency in the way we run this community and respect for every member of fandom, including their fic/art, are most important. 2) In our opinion the deletion of the story was a clear attempt to conceal plagiarism, in line with the initial locking of the entry and her deletion of the fill from the meme. The story was also deleted from a number of Inception fiction archives. 3) In spite of their rules on documentation that would prevent us from making a case to the community, we then went ahead and contacted stop_plagiarism for advice on how to procede with such a delicate situation (as noted above, simons_flower passed away last year). spiralleds confirmed that stop_plagiarism could not step in but she also said they would support us if we decided to go public with this. 4) Ultimately, xushi's lack of remorse and unbelievable (at best) excuse were the deciding factors.
Plagiarism is unacceptable and will result in an immediate ban. Community members will be notified. We define plagiarism as presenting all or a substantial portion of another’s work as your own. If another case such as this occurs, we ask that concerned community members contact us with links and screencaps for both the original fic and the fill which they feel is plagiarising it. We will then examine both and make a decision based on what we feel is appropriate given the circumstances. We do not encourage anyone to contact or confront an author suspected of plagiarism.
ETA: Discussion on this post will stay open. You're free to have different opinions, be angry, etc. But keep it civil. Anonymous comments made to start wank will be deleted.