Since this is the only relevant place I can actually chat about this at the moment, I thought I would start a discussion about plagiarism in internet-based stories.
The internet and apps are a great way to self-publish and get a name for yourself as a successful and talented writer.
However, we have to be very careful when it comes to plagiarism.
Yes, there are the more obvious types like directly copying a story. However, copying the plot of a story and changing the names is also plagiarism and if you publish it, you are infringing on copyright.
The defence “I didn’t know they were so alike” just doesn’t cut it, unfortunately. You can still get in a lot of trouble since that is their intellectual property whether you were aware of it or not. Be very careful and do your research when you’re writing a story.
The worst kind of plagiarism is where the plagiariser tries to change enough details to fool most people. It shows that they’re aware of what they’re doing and that it’s bad!
I once had a person plagarise something I had written. I had a wattpad account a long time ago, nder a different name and user obviosly. But my teacher sent me to this writing thing where you could share your stories. So I ended up sharing the story I had written on that account. And one of the girls there told me I stole that story, and showed me proof. Essentially another person has copied the story and published it two years after my inital publishing.
I deleted my account and gave up on Wattpad because that bugged me. To a serious extent.
But I seriouslt hate plagarism – it just shows that someone is lazy and cant be bother to either learn how to write or they just cant come up with their own property and decide, eh whatever Ill just steal this.
The thing that irks me the most is when plagarism happens and the plagarised story is my popular than the original.
