Mass plagiarist caught red-handed

Wow, I hope she's sued big time. What an idiot. She didn't even bother to change much, I mean not only she's a thief but also a very lazy and stupid one...
I once encountered a series of books in a russian book shop which seemed to be a very close copy of Harry Potter but with all the genders reversed (the main character is a girl, she has a nasty sister, etc.) It's very annoying that people make money on such stuff...
 
wow she published 75 books before she got caught. Wonder how many more she copied.

Quite interesting though how these things can slip through the cracks, though I find it difficult that someone would not read both copies. A risky con indeed.
 
Personally if I knew an author that I had followed had done this - I'd drop them like a stone. Be interesting to see what happens to Harner's sales.

Although we don't know how much more fraud is involved - as @Zebra Wizard points out, 75 books (in about 5 years from the article!) really makes you smell a big stinking rat. This would seem to be cold calculated exploitation of other peoples work for hard cash.
 
I see ...
“Harner’s clever trick here was to pick a book that was not M/M [male/male], but M/F contemporary romance. As far as readers go, there isn’t a lot of overlap between the two genres.”
Also self published.

I can't imagine a reputable US publisher doing it today (In previous era the USA simply republished exact copies of UK books without royalties. There is still an issue of USA Radio air play performance royalties, which results in Europeans witholding payments to US artists.)

Well, yes sometimes translations are thinly changed copies of successful books.
 
"I’d say everyone in every genre needs to be concerned, both indie and traditionally published authors,” she said.
Sounds like everyone needs to take a look. For all I know she's sneaked into my house whilst I've gone out and ripped my manuscript from my hard drive. :eek:
 
Yeah, it's just plagerism at is most lazy and stupid. Almost word for word and scene for scene! And not just that, but the copied extract that was in the article didn't read well to me, with what seem to be slips in third person/first person perspective.

I remember reading about the Harry potter books Jackie mentions years ago (I assume its the same one). They tried to sue Rowling for plagerism, but the courts/investigations found no evidence of it (or possibly even the reverse).

It is just lazy... But is that a culture thing, 15 minutes of fame, making a quick buck and all that?
 
It's an insult not just to the original author, but to every struggling writer trying to make an honest living out of their own hard work.

Personally, I'd like to see a situation where the plagiarist has to refund every reader that bought a copy of the stolen material (or be forced to buy copies of the original work and hand them over to the people duped into buying the plagiarist's work).
 
Foxbat said:
refund every reader that bought a copy of the stolen* material (or be forced to buy copies of the original work and hand them over to the people duped
Click to expand...
Both.
Plus Civil damages to Author.
Technically in UK it's civil action/sue (no limit to liability of guilty person, damaged person gets the penalty), rather than criminal action in court (maximum tarrifs usually legislated, and actual penalty set by Judge, Government gets the fine. Often no compensation to victims in criminal actions/prosecution, till recently none at all.

[* Copyright violation isn't theft. The work has not been stolen, but copied. The penalties can be higher. e.g. Theft of Cable TV service about £5,000 under criminal law in Ireland, but usually the cable operator brings a civil case and there is no criminal prosecution, juries have typically awarded £100,000+ damages to cable co. for someone selling gear enabling theft of service under copyright violation. The purely criminal act of theft unlike plagiarism does exist in this case. There is no theft involved in plagiarism, unless an unpublished Mss was stolen. It's the higher penalty copyright violation (Berne Convention). The copyright holder or agent (publisher) has to sue in civil court.]
 
Last edited:
Ray McCarthy said:
"red handed", surely that would involve seeing the plagiarist with source book on desk while typing "copied" Mss?
Click to expand...
Naw -pick it up as an eBook (probably pirated), replace on the names, then you actually have to read the thing for a few technical details between genders…
 
Computers don't give much scope for red ink, do they? except when you're changing cartridges.
 
chrispenycate said:
when you're changing cartridges
Click to expand...
:D
They use Cyan Yellow Magenta & Black. :)
Actually why is it called "red handed" when you catch someone in the act? (excepting intercourse, which has a Latin phrase I can't spell).

EDIT: Actually I looked up the Latin. In flagrante delicto (Latin: "in blazing offence") is synonymous with "caught in the act" or "red handed" for anything illegal, not just intercourse. Oh well, wrong again.
Still don't know why "red handed".
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread starter Similar threads Forum Replies Date
Overread Massive Mercedes Lackey collection Book Discussion 0
Serendipity Super Massive Black Holes could contain dark energy Science & Nature 3
Phyrebrat Mike Flanagan's Midnight Mass (with spoilers) General TV Discussion 0
Foxbat The electron volt and mass Science & Nature 0
P.K.Acredon Is science-fantasy just one massive parody of sci-fi and fantasy? Book Discussion 36

Similar threads


Back
Top