Apology to the Community

CptStephenKidd · Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 6:09 am Post subject: Apology to the Community

To All Members of the Dragonsmark Forum

I would like to apologize for the recent situation which I created. As many of you may be aware last Thursday I was accused of plagarising two story threads in the Bedtime Stories For Pirates folder at the Red Dragon Inn. The two threads were stories which I had purchased from a outside third party, though after investigating the situation the stories were lifted from Livejournal, and originally done by a writer of the screen name Mamazano.

I apologize to the community for posting stories that were not written by myself, and for not doing the proper research to ensure that they were not indeed plagarised material, and lastly for creating a eviorment of tension during the past couple days.

A letter of apology was sent to the livejournal poster Mamazano.

SulissurnXukuth · Old Wyrm Joined: 23 Apr 2006 Posts: 380 Location: A shadow

I commend you for coming forward and admitting what you have. It must have been difficult for you.

However, I am having a very hard time accepting the fact that a peer--that a fellow role player, who should rely on imagination, who wrote character histories and stories, back stories and scenes, creates settings and writes felt the need to pay someone for their imagination.

It's very disheartening, but I hope that in the future your honesty about this situation stands as a lesson to many others.

According to the live journal author, Mamazano has been banned from this site entirely.

Might someone explain that, please? Yes, I know it's tedious, but I am afraid when it comes to matters of plagiarism, mistaken or purposeful, I am a bit concerned as to what DM: RDI's stand point is.

AOL RDI's stand point was absolutely zero tolerance. It seems that DM:RDI has taken a different stance. So what safe guards are in place for role players? What will happen if someone rips off our character writing word for word? What guidelines are in place to help protect our story lines and writing here on the forums?

Thanks!
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Panther · DM Admin Joined: 04 Mar 2005 Posts: 2132 Location: RhyDin

bear with me if this is ... a bit incoherent, I'm fighting a nasty head/chest/throat.. something.

Basically, the situation was brought to our attention, facts were verified, posts were removed. The complaining parties took it upon themselves to continue to be confrontational in public postings and in emails.

Are we going to hold players here accountable when they screw up? yes. But in the view of the admins, the situation was resolved, nothing positive was to be gained by allowing anyone, on either side of the issue to continue to stir the pot.

The only reason those accounts were created was so they could further fan the flames, so they were disabled.

As far as what protections anyone here has... we do not monitor every single posting. It is beyond our abilities or desires to go out and Google on every posting to see if it was lifted from somewhere else. Our essential policy remains the same - if there's a question about something, bring it to us and we'll look in to it.

We will probably end up adding something to the general guidelines for handling similar situations in the future where offending parties may lose their folder privileges for a period of time... we've still to figure out how specific or non-specific such a policy needs to be.
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Tales of the Cat

SulissurnXukuth · Old Wyrm Joined: 23 Apr 2006 Posts: 380 Location: A shadow

Thank you very much, Panther, for answering my questions, I appreciate it!

Panther · DM Admin Joined: 04 Mar 2005 Posts: 2132 Location: RhyDin

Pharlen · Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 1:58 pm Post subject:

I am rather concerned about this. Enough to actually sign in and post.

I am wondering just who this seller of role playing fiction is. I am basically the caretaker for a lot of peoples writings, those people having left role play but allowing their stories to remain available for reading, and I certainly do not want to think they were not only stolen, but for profit.

I'm not looking forward to a whole sale scouring of this or any other site just for the purposes of looking out for my players and former players.

I would appreciate to know whom this "seller" is, mainly so that if others have purchased from him/her, they can promptly remove the posts as being suspect for plagiarism. Also so that if anyone else feels the need to buy stories from that person, they can be forewarned.

Yes, I know the whole behind the scenes punishment, etc, but this involves the work of others. More importantly, it potentially involves the works of people who are unlikely to discover that they have been plagiarized.

Thank you for coming forward, but there are still problems.

~pharlen
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PrlUnicorn · Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 2:47 pm Post subject:

Panther · DM Admin Joined: 04 Mar 2005 Posts: 2132 Location: RhyDin

PrlUnicorn · Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 7:05 pm Post subject:

Pharlen · Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 10:15 pm Post subject:

I appreciate the point, as well, Panther, but I really think the broker needs to be listed. For all I know, this person is selling over to people on Gaia.com, and that's an enormous population base. Or to any of the gaming communities.

You know my stance has always been "bonus, steal my work, I'll be there to be taking back the money you made off of me", but I'm not flattering myself that my work may have been stolen. I do, however, have some exceptional writers and I need to protect their interests and keep their posting space as safe as possible.

So I am asking the original poster to please let us know who this broker is. Hopefully, they would be at least demanding their money back and making it clear to any other customers that they are buying stolen work.
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Pharlen
Beware the Were-Virgins

New! Improved! Less Filling!
http://www.sralos.com/crystal/

Lerida · Old Wyrm Joined: 18 Apr 2006 Posts: 333 Location: Rhy'Din

I wasn't aware there was a safeguard for us posting here.

Some of my work and that of Julia's player were stolen and posted elsewhere by a member of this site who decided to sew some lines of ours together to form posts for herself on another rp site.

I never thought there was anything that could be done. The player knows I know and lied to me over AIM saying that someone was posing as her who was doing this and then this person made money off it. I know for a fact this is a lie.

If I ever was to find out someone made money off my posts here I'd be concerned too. Perturbed. Sad.

Not every word I've written here is amazing, but there are some things I have created I am proud of, because they are undistilled, pure thought that came inspired from this character.

I guess this is a wake up call.

My situation is water under the bridge; I finally came to see it as flattering and of no real "threat", I guess I initially found it creepy which is why I shared my thoughts with a few. But by the same grain, it's still a worry if whole chunks of works are being "sold" elsewhere. My case was only a matter of some lines from posts.... not threads upon threads.

We may not be published authors all of us here, but it's still our time and energy and imagination being exploited. It'd be nice to feel safe about posting. Stealing from writers here isn't on.

I perform IRL and will have upcoming gigs later this year, where I already have, and probably will, use some of my works from Lerida on stage. That's why this situation makes me uncomfortable. That is the edge I dance when not a suit 9 - 5, so it is more than just some rp issue for some of us.

Panther · DM Admin Joined: 04 Mar 2005 Posts: 2132 Location: RhyDin

Alysia Skye · Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2008 8:50 am Post subject:

Plagiarism Today (http://www.plagiarismtoday.com) has a wealth of information about stopping internet plagiarism and copyrights -- including the limitations of copyright and what it doesn't apply to. The site also has stock letters (Cease and Desist, DMCA notices) you might want to look into if you determine someone has been ripping off your work.

Lerida · Old Wyrm Joined: 18 Apr 2006 Posts: 333 Location: Rhy'Din

Thanks Panther, Thanks Alysia.

Gosh.

I'm very naive to how it all works. Even when this happened with my work I didn't know there was anything to do.

For me, I'm not worried anymore, as I said, but it's something to be mindful about before posting anywhere on the internet.

SulissurnXukuth · Old Wyrm Joined: 23 Apr 2006 Posts: 380 Location: A shadow

I know it's off topic and everything, but I felt that it needed to be said in lei of the negativity DM (of no fault of anyone, just happens) tends to see: all of you are rocking my face off with your powers of discussion. <3

Thanks. I now return you to your regularly scheduled talk.
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