Stolen Fics: Please Read!

[sevendeadlyfun]

I was approached by someone who asked my permission to translate one of my stories into Italian. Before I could get back to them, they translated my story and posted it to their own website WITHOUT permission. When I emailed the poster telling her that she did not have my permission and that she should remove any and all of my works from her site, she responded with:

"I'm so sorry. I was answering you to tell you now that I had already posted your fiction and if for you it was not all right I would immediately have cancelled it. I liked a lot the history and I wanted to also do it light to one my friend that the English doesn't know...
I am sorry a lot to have you somehow offended. I hope that you will forgive me, and that you will allow me to leave it on the forum...And did I also want to ask you if, now that I have (Had?) your permission, could make also her post in the site http://lovesbitch.altervista.org / ."

I've also found many, many other stories by some of our own authors translated and archived there. Below are the links to the screenshots I've taken of this website, including the link. These authors may or may not have given permission for this group to archive their stories, but given what I've been dealing with today, I bet not. In addition, they are redistributing the stories as PDF files (see SS11).

I'll put the authors names I recognize in parentheses next to the screenshots, but there may very well be more. If you see your name (or some you know) and have not given permission, please email me at sevendeadlyfun (at) yahoo.com for the archive owner's email address. Please pass this message on to those authors who may be involved! This is outright theft, in my opinion. Yes, they credit the authors, but reposting and redistributing without permission is still stealing!


SS 1 (tamibrandt, carlyinrome, thatotherperv)

SS 2 ( thatotherperv, c_woodhaven )

SS3 (stoney)

SS4 (Addie Logan)

SS5 (paganbaby)

SS6 (paganbaby)

SS7 (paganbaby)

SS8 (paganbaby)

SS9 (nautibitz)

SS10 (bittenandstaked )

SS11 ( bittenandstaked, PDF download)

SS12 (HollyB, Ashlee)

SS13 (mrsmuir )

SS14 ( jerzeyanjel )

SS15 ( slaymesoftly )

SS16 ( alwaysjbj, mrsmuir)

SS17 (me)

SS18 ( tamibrandt, carlyinrome, thatotherperv, c_woodhaven, katb)

SS19 (slaymesoftly, bittenandstaked, nautibitz, jerzeyanjel, Saber ShadowKitten, hollydb)

Comments

[anxiety-junkie.livejournal.com]

Wow, you put a lot of work into this. Nice catch and well done!

[sevendeadlyfun.livejournal.com]

Yeah, welcome to how I spent my morning! Seriously, this took forever. But, I just couldn't imagine not telling everyone that their work was being stolen...

GRR! Down with bad peoples and their stealing!

[anxiety-junkie.livejournal.com]

Well....just to play devil's advocate a little bit; is it really stealing if they credited the actual author? All they did was archive without permission, they didn't really plagarize.

Or am I looking at it wrong?

[sevendeadlyfun.livejournal.com]

I just think that taking something that doesn't belong to you without permission is stealing. Maybe some of the other authors won't mind. I do. And since I've told them to take my work down and they haven't, I'm going with "thieves" as the appropriate appellation.

*shrugs*

Maybe you and I just have different definitions of stealing...

[anxiety-junkie.livejournal.com]

And since I've told them to take my work down and they haven't, I'm going with "thieves" as the appropriate appellation.

Oh, I completely agree, and I'd probably feel the same if it were my work they had taken. I just always tend to look at things from both points of view, because I'm annoying like that. *g*

[spankspike.livejournal.com]

See? Yet another perfectly good reason not to like people.

Why do people do this crap? And perhaps more importantly - why doesn't anyone ever steal my work? *pouts*

I only ever thought I'd found some of mine posted without permission once, and then I remembered I did give permission a l-o-o-o-n-g time prior. I'd just never actually gone and looked at the site where it was put up. *is stupid* :p

Seriously though, I guess I've just been lucky. I remember once when one of my regular readers wanted to print out one of my series to read because she had issues with her eyes and found it difficult to read online. She actually contacted me first to ask permission. And she wasn't planning on doing anything other than enjoying it herself and she even came back and commented.

Did you enjoy your holidays?? I'm sorry we haven't talked. Ick on stupid rl. Today's Arianna's 16th birthday. How did that happen? How can she be 16 when I'm pretty sure that I'm only about 21???

[sevendeadlyfun.livejournal.com]

Does this mean I'm a BNF now? Isn't that the criteria we set oh so many eons ago...getting your shit stolen made you a BNF by default? So, yay for backhanded compliments?

You are indeed only 21 and it was sweet of you to adopt that poor orphan teen-ager in order to give her a better life. Angelic, even. I admire you immensely, particularly your plump panties...which I, of course, covet immensely for mine own! :P

Love you, honey and call me whenever you have time. I have no life, so I'm always available...Sad, innit? Tell EoH I said Happy B-Day and not to put out without getting dinner first!

I'm sorry...

[tania85.livejournal.com]

Maggie, I'm sorry that one error of mine has created this whole confusion.

The authors of the original stories had always been informed (ALWAYS, it's just possible that sometimes we have the wrong email address or for some reason the mail doesn't arrive). The only thing we do that can disturb is that if we don't recive a reply we start to post the story (always writing the name of the real author and a link to the original fanfic, and only because often we found out that the author had not replyed because he didn't even care of what we do), and if the author contact us saying that he doesn't want to give the permission, we simply delete the story, as we did with your fanfic (because we did it as you asked! You simply didn't gave us enough time to do it, but it doesn't mean that we were ignoring you)

We don't steal nothing, stealing is saying that someone else's work is ours, and we are careful to write the author's name and a link to his site.

All we want to do is let other fans know the beautiful work of the authors.

I repeat you that I am really Sorry if my actions offended you, or someone else.

Tania

[ladyvirgo1956.livejournal.com]

As far as I'm concerned it is stealing. Giving permission is one thing but asking and not giving it and them doing it anyhow is another. My daughter had a story she wrote that was an original stolen right out. They did not ask permission to post it and on top of that they put their name on it as well. A group I'm a member of had a rash of story thefts as well and the person who discovered it posted the site and wrote a scathing letter to the owner of the site since that happen the site has been taken down. Three cheers for you for catching this and letting people know. I do know this much I wanted to archive one of your stories in my memories and I asked for permission before I did it. It is called command courtesy on the behalf of the writer. I sure don't want something I wrote stolen. So I give you a hug in thanks for letting people know and one in sympathy for having your material taken like that.

[laazikaat.livejournal.com]

As an archiver myself I can sympathize with the desire to publish as soon as the email request has vanished from the outbox, but it almost ALWAYS upsets the author.

I find the authors I approach take my interest in their stories as a form of feedback, which it is, and are happy to think someone is interested enough in their stories to want to archive them.

To not let them know is stealing a potential moment of pleasure from someone who really deserves it.

To want to go to the trouble of translating the story into another language is a huge compliment to the author, but without a dialogue in place first, the author will feel ripped off instead of complimented.

I have stories on Spander Files that I have to link to as the authors have either told me no or more often never replied. It's a shame, but as I can hardly keep up with all the authors who have responded to my requests, I can live with it.

I can also add that sevendeadlyfun was only too happy to allow me to archive her wonderful stories when I asked her for permission, as I've found most authors are.

[sevendeadlyfun.livejournal.com]

I was so incredibly thrilled when you asked to archive my stories at Spanderfiles...You have no idea. I'd read tons of great stories there and to be asked to contribute was just lovely! If I haven't said it before, let me say thank you right now for being such an awesome person. All the time and effort you put in to Spanderfiles and keeping up with so many authors is incredible and I'm always totally stoked when I see my name there!

(Yes, occasionally my ego does block my view of the computer screen. I just shove it over and keep typing. :P )

[sevendeadlyfun.livejournal.com]

Thank you, hon. I appreciate the hugs most of all! And yes, it is common courtesy to ask and then wait for permission. Well, I guess we should call it "uncommon" courtesy since it seems to be so lacking these days.

Re: I'm sorry...

[sevendeadlyfun.livejournal.com]

Thank you for apologizing. I really appreciate it. I would like to take exception with something you said up there. I want to note that never, in any of my posts, did I call you or anyone on your site, a plagiarist. I was very careful to point out that you did indeed give authorial credit. However, you took my story without permission and that is stealing. Taking something that doesn't belong to you is stealing. You stole my work. Your intentions might have been good, but your actions weren't. A bit of unsolicited advice? The next time you find a story you really like, wait for permission. It may be easier to ask forgiveness than permission, as the saying goes, but it's also a helluva lot more drama for everyone.

I want to tell...

[sasy-1803.livejournal.com]

Hi, I'm a lovesbitch member and I would like to tell something. I don’t translate stories but in spite of this I obviously know that is not a right thing to publish someone else's story without permission. I know very well the spirit of our web site that is simply a place to write and read stories with characters that we love so much. So, what I want you to know is that we read and translate that stories for passion and not for fame, and an error like this has been done simply because the translator was so excited to show the story, that she liked so much, to the other members that she couldn’t wait. Which could be the further reason? We love everything about Spike and for that reason in every story we translate, we also tell writer's name. That's why Italian readers know very well foreign writers, the kind of stories they write, the way they write them and search more stories of the writers they prefer.
I apologise and I hope this fact could help us to be more patience and you to understand how we simply love you're stories that make us enthusiastic. We spent lot of time translating, simply because we wanna do it the best we can, to show the story with the same words you used, to make it (we try:)) identic to the original.
I love our site because make me know lot of cute person thanks to a passion for Spike and we just want to continue reading, translating and writing. I hope it'll be still permitted.
Thanks.

Bye, bye.

[laazikaat.livejournal.com]

I am so glad to know that you're happy with Spander files. I love your stories, they're such an excellent addition to the site.

Feedback is the only payment a fan writer receives, so to withhold it by not trying to enter into a dialogue with the author (by waiting for a reply) before using their stories seems very wrong, though I think the person's letter shows that it seems to be more a case of thoughtless enthusiasm on her part. She just didn't stop to think.

Now shove that ego out the way and get yourself back to the keyboard, you need to continue Ashes from here:

“Yeah,” he nodded. “Think I’ll shower and go see Spike. Maybe a little patrol’ll do me some good.”

Off you go now, people waiting here.

*hugs you hard*