Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but plagiarism ain't

[DavidDvorkin]

Someone sent me an e-mail alerting me to a blog post about vampires (http://vampires284.tumblr.com/genderandsexuality) that lifted a lot of text from my essay (http://www.dvorkin.com/essays/vampallure.htm) about vampires.

A link to my essay would have been nice. A polite request to use some of the text, with attribution, would have been even nicer. Unfortunately, I don't see any contact information on that blog or even a way to comment.

Hmph.

[mainer]

1. That happened to me once. A third party alerted me.

It turned out the plagiarist was just a college kid who didn't understand what plagiarism was, and thought it would be OK to lift entire paragraphs to write "her own" story. Once someone contacted her and explained that she'd committed plagiarism, she was very apologetic and immediately took down her story.

It sucks that there doesn't seem to be any way to contact the "author".

[DavidDvorkin]

2. The lack of contact information or a way to post a comment

adds another whole layer of annoyance.

[Agnosticsherbet]

4. In the side bar it lists "Content contributed by Cassie Whitt, Carolyn Menyes,

Brigitte Smith, and Colin King.

It doesn't give anyway of contacting them. You might be able to search for them using their name and tumblr, but it would be difficult to know which one is which.

[DavidDvorkin]

5. I guess they want to pontificate without feedback

Or plagiarize without feedback.

[CasseWhitt]

9. Comment Deletion Request

Hello!

I am the Cassie Whitt in question here. It looks like the offending blog entry belonged to Colin King, and I'd like to politely ask that my name be removed from this comment or hat it be deleted now that the issue has been resolved (as noted below).

Unfortunately, this vampire blog was a group assignment from a college English class (hence the 284, which was its level number), and we were unaware that a partner we had been assigned at random had plagiarized. Now graduates, we also don't have the login for the blog anymore, so deleting it altogether is proving difficult.

Both my friend Carolyn Menyes and I are now professional journalists, and--to severely understate it--it does not bode well to have a thread about plagiarism listed among our search results. Haha!

Thank you!
Cassie

[DavidDvorkin]

10. Cassie, thanks for the update

I'm sorry you got tarred with the same brush.

I hope Agnosticsherbert will see this, as well, and change the post with your name in it.

Deleting the original post that started this thread won't delete the responses to it, which include the one with your name.

[CasseWhitt]

11. Thanks!

Thank you for noticing my reply! Fingers crossed that Agnosticsherbert is still around and willing to make that edit!

If not, at least my response is now available to anyone whose eyebrows may raise at this post.

I've contacted Tumblr to see if there is a way to remove the blog entirely. We will see!

I'm very sorry this happened to you. As a fellow writer (one who writes primarily for the web, where theft abounds), I know the frustration well.

[DavidDvorkin]

12. You could try sending Agnosticsherbert a message via DU.

[CasseWhitt]

14. Unfortunately...

...because I just now started this account for the purpose of leaving my comment, I don't have enough posts to send messages, but thank you. Haha!

[DavidDvorkin]

15. I didn't know we had such a limit

I've been here for so long, I've forgotten stuff like that.

Well, keep posting! It's a big board.

[gopiscrap]

13. Welcome to DU

[DavidDvorkin]

6. Someone advised me to send a DMCA takedown notice to Tumblr

Which I did, and they removed that blog post right away.

Well done!

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

7. The stupidest piece of plagiarism I have ever come across

Was from a student who plagiarized a paper written by the professor to whom he submitted it.

[DavidDvorkin]

8. Wow

I assume he didn't bother to check the name of the author.

[dylb2]

16. reply

Damn