#doesn't mean it's not a dick move

[mikkeneko]

This post got me thinking about plagiarism as applicable to fandom works, and how like many other things that used to be topics of common discussion and common understanding in fandom, no longer are. Got me thinking that perhaps a touchstone on the topic would not go amiss.

Obligatory disclaimers: I am not an IP lawyer, nor a BNF, nor any kind of authority on matters; I am only familiar with copyright and IP conventions in the United States; and I am speaking from the perspective of "I was present for the discussions that hashed this out in excruciating detail in the _journal days, and this was my takeaway from those discussions."

WHAT PLAGIARISM IS:

1) The direct copying of actual text, that is to say the exact same words in the exact same order, from a source text, republished in an independent context without permission or acknowledgement that the text is copied, without acknowledging the original author, or by claiming to be the original author. 2) A dick move. 3) Grounds for specific retaliatory actions in specific communities, i.e., an academic setting or an archive, which may choose to reject a plagiarized work or expel a member of the community found to have done it.

WHAT PLAGIARISM IS NOT:

1) Illegal, in the sense of being punishable by legal action. 2) Using some of the same words, in sort of similar order to the original text. 3) Using the same title as a different text. 4) Using the same story setup as a different text. 5) Using the same characters, settings, plot elements, or narrative arcs as another text. 6) Translating a text into another language. 7) Reading, saving a copy of a work to your hard drive for re-reading, printing a copy for hardcopy reading, etc. 8) Copying out sections of a text in a comment, or as an excerpt to accompany a work in a promotional post. 9) Using a work as reference material. 10) The only kind of dick move there is.

Thousands of hours of round and round debate boil down to this: You cannot own an idea, but you can own the actual words that you write, and you own those words by default, without needing to take any specific actions to that end. (Proving that you own the words is something that you might, under some circumstances, need to take action to do, but really only if someone else tries to stick their oar in to claim ownership for some reason, which is one of the reasons why plagiarism is A Dick Move: forcing people to defend ownership when they shouldn't have to is inconveniencing and unpleasant.)

Even then, there's a fair amount of wiggle room on the topic of Actual Text which falls under fair use. For instance, if you reference a line or several lines of canon dialogue from a book because you are retelling the scene from a different perspective, that is generally considered fair use, but copying the actual text of the entire scene would not be. By the same token if you had a line referencing canon dialogue in your fic, and another person references the same line of dialogue in their own fic, the other person is not plagiarizing you. And if two people in completely separate fandoms reference the same Hozier lyric as a title for their separate fics, that is not plagiarism either.

I also said that plagiarism is not illegal, because strictly speaking it's not. It's an extremely rude thing to do, but it doesn't become illegal in the sense of being punishable by legal action until a lot of other factors start coming into play, most of them having to do with money. At which point the objectionable action is usually not described as "plagiarism" but as "copyright infringement" or other more legally granular terms. (You'll note that I said up above that you cannot own an idea; whether you can own a specific implementation of a character or a setting is another matter, and where IP law starts getting really into the weeds. But this post is only about plagiarism, not copyright infringement.)

Generally speaking, you can't get the law on your side unless you can pose a reasonable argument that the other person's actions have harmed you in some way, including some financial way. This last distinction is the primary reason why fandom creativity has stuck out as long as it has despite our society's (historically speaking) very restrictive IP laws; IP holders are not losing money to sales if fanfic authors are not selling, and they are not losing reputation or recognition if the fanwork is not seeing wide reach.

WHAT ABOUT AI?

That said, there's an awful lot of breadth between what is considered outright illegal and what is considered a really rude thing to do which may start seeing social penalties accrued. Which is why scraping someone else's Actual Text and doing something like feeding it into an AI bot without their consent is an incredibly rude and unpleasant thing to do, even if it does not fall under the definition of Literal Plagiarism, and if a person does this a lot and word gets out about it, that person may find themselves very unwelcome in the community.

[cringefaecompilation]

idk guys but i think "black lady making a parody campaign of an overrated kid's book written by a transmisogynist where they mock the original book and its writer at every given venue and it barely feels like the original" is not nearly equatable to "white guy making a joke about an asian trans woman having a dick in her intro, immediately calling attention to it by laughing at his own joke, and not developing that poor trans woman as anything more than a mildly antagonistic force/love interest for another trans person"

[squid--inc]

....

[brittlebutch]

a lot of people seem to use Entry #61 as 'proof' for the crux of the "Brian didn't care about Tim, he was Taking Advantage of Tim's conditions and Forcing him to work as part of totheark" thing, but honestly when you think about it there's no possible way Brian could have possibly orchestrated that series of events, like you almost have to interpret that as a baffling group of coincidences

[ohyesididnotjustdothat]

the vast chilchuck characterization differences between manga and anime fans is so funny

[tommyssupercoolblog]

Me over and over and over again: please don't say you love me please don't do kisses or flirting or anything towards me I don't care if it's platonic it makes me extremely uncomfortable please please stop I don't like it, only Seàn is allowed to do those things, stop it

Everyone else: hiiii let me just ignore that hahaha yeah I love you so much bro here let me kiss you platonically lol OMG what if I put my Minecraft bed next to yours 😜 haha

Me, actually physically fucking sick and shaking like a sickly wet animal dying of covid and tuberculosis at the same time: I want to t hr Ow up and di E

[paradife-loft]

fuck around (put a bunch of books with long waitlists on hold at the library for some point in the future)

find out (they all come in at the same time and now you have three weeks to inhale five rather substantial books in your spare time)

[computer-boy]

me giving advice: 'honestly just say what you mean! being honest is important in relationships'

me when i have to be honest and say what i mean:

[wowbright]

Uh oh our new neighbors like to listen to loud music with the windows open

[p2ii]

.

[eastgaysian]

he's so casual about the fact that dozens of people died it actually endears him to me. well it was less than ideal that you killed a woman we just met in cold blood but hey, pobody's nerfect

[casgirldykery4ever]

everyone's suffering bc of barbenheimer opening weekend but bc I'm in the kitchen I've been somewhat shielded from the brunt of it

[timbourinedrake]

Drawing parallels between Bruce's grief over Jason and Heathcliff mourning Cathy. The destruction of self and everyone around them, the guilt of feeling responsible for their death and being haunted by it every waking moment.

The same comparison can be made with Cathy and Jason if you really dig in to it, the two being complex characters who are so full of life and passion that they can't help but leave a lasting mark on everyone who meets them. Despite the pain Gotham caused Jason, he still loves it and is drawn to it and is almost the very personification of the city, much like Catherine has the very spirit of Wuthering Heights within her.

'Why am I so changed? Why does my blood rush into a hell of tumult at a few words? I'm sure I should be myself were I amongst the heather on those hills' Jason's return to Gotham almost reflects the same sentiment as this, he's trying to return to the person he once was, return to a time where he was happier without the anger and trauma he carries now.

Both stories show how easily love and hate can get twisted, how love isn't always positive, that sometimes it can be a destructive, obsessive force. It would be better for them to let the love go and move on, but instead they'd rather watch the other burn, because love is misery and if they do not suffer- is that really love?

[ohyesididnotjustdothat]

do u think Porsche ever gets ptsd nightmares from "that night" and it just absolutely devastates kinn

and Porsche is torn bc even tho most of the time it is that dark figure that they never caught, v rarely it is Kinn as the looming figure and that is smth that he just continues to have to reconcile w his sincere love and forgiveness of Kinn????

[dreadfutures]

unlike some people, the anger and frustration and lack of agency i have in the important situations that surround my intersectionalities and marginalization don’t make me decide to shame any not-perfect attempt at progress in another, less-dire area of life where i do have some agency and burn it to the ground for not being 100% good enough immediately, or for not elevating me and my suffering to the top of the suffering olympics

[gerritcole-coded]

Leaving Ben V*rlander unblocked for now so I can see his reactions to every piece of news that drops in relation to Ippei and Ohtani