Have posted this in the WW loung forum, then realised it would be better placed here.

Just out of curiosity, what is stopping someone from stealing work we've posted to this website and using it themselves? Sorry to bring up such a sour tasting gobstopper of thought, but there are some stark coincidences out there between one group member's work and others.

I'm all for one person's work inspiring a new piece of writing in someone else, (as in David Holmes' "Resigned Despair" moment - cheers for that David!) but surely there should be an "honour among thieves" policy among us, whereby we respect other writer's ideas?

I wouldn't like to be in a position where I feel I have to delete my uploaded work from the archives because of copyright, or even just blatant copying! I have to admit, it's crossed my mind.

Lisa

Any work that I'm genuinely concerned about people stealing I don't post on here, or anywhere else for that matter.

However, my short "Ascension" was recently totally and blatantly ripped off by someone on a chat forum, who did a scrappy re-write and tried to pass it off as his own work.

The fact that I'm a regular on that forum had obviously momentarily escaped his thinking.

But the bottom line, from my point of view is, better safe than sorry, and if you don't want people nicking it, don't put it within their reach.

You're right - although I enjoy the feedback on my work-in-progress and it helps to improve my writing, I don't like seeing it swiped (suffering from the same thing you were). I think I will remove my more important writing from the archives.

Shame to find oneself in that position, but sh*t happens.

Lisa

Sorry to read about your experiences.. how does one go about copywriting is it enough to print off stuff and post it to yourself and keep it unopened?

Ellie

by default you own the copywrite to your work provided it is of course is your own work to start with.

equally as I understand it you can copywrite a piece of work but you cant copywrite an idea or a title. It is of course easy to copy something on the net

I find certain things phrases etc that people use may inspire another piece but that as far as I can see that is no different from picking soemthing up out of a conversation.

Is it possible for David Bruce to stop the copy facility being used other than by the owner? But that wont stop plagarism of the idea

If something inspires me I try to always remember to say that this piece was inspired by ...... as per the Resigned despair topic already mentioned.

equally I agree with Lisa and the others if we cant trust each other to not plagarise our work then we may as well all pack up and go home


david

My only concern is that I believe that much of the material on this site is read by more than just the active members.

Since, with the exception of some group work, all material can be read by anyone who happens across the site, any one of these passers by can take a piece of writing, chop it about a bit, and pass it off as their own.

Now, I know that such a thing will never improve the writer's abilities, and that at the end of the day I can always prove if required that the original was mine, but at the end of the day, I shouldn't have to worry about that and also I find it quite offensive when people try to make themselves out as better than they are using something that they didn't write.

I was told upon finding the story of mine which was recently copied that "immitation is the best form of flattery". To which I thought "so why don't I feel flattered?".

There is a difference between immitating something because you want to emulate someone, and stealing their work because you lack the ability, or the motivation to create your own.

David's idea is a good one - limiting the copy facility to the owner of the piece would certainly stop downright theft, since anyone too lazy to write their own stuff is hardly likely to type it all out from this site. I have heard of people stealing work in this way and adding their own name to publish on the web; one author I read about (can't remember who) regularly does a google search by typing in the titles of his stories, and actually found that someone had done exactly that.

Ideas are almost impossible to protect I believe, unless you're a best-selling author with a big publishing house behind you.

Unfortunately, you have to accept that if you post anything to the www it's in the public domain, and if anybody's interested, they'll steal it. There's no honour and no thought to the hours, sweat, and tears that you might have put into your work. It's happening all the time.

The magic and curse of the www is that anybody, anywhere in the world can take anything they want (just look at what the Government did with the Iraq dossier) ... Look for it, go to your browser, select all, and copy and paste into your world processor. A thirty second job at max, and there's nothing anybody can do to stop it happening.

Intriguingly, just go to google and type in the name of your article (or your writewords username) and you'll find that writewords comes pretty high on the listings. I even rate on page 2 for 'noddy'.
Very impressive indeed.

The simple answer is, if you're worried about stuff being copied, don't post it onto the www.

<Added>


... but that shouldn't stop people posting. After all, how better to get a big audience going on your writing. If you're lucky it could get viral and then bada-bing, you've got millions of people reading your stuff.

(Hey, David , I wonder if this discussion thread will save you gigs of disk space as people merrily go and delete their archive articles !)

Noddy, I googled a couple of pieces of mine and they came up near the top - I didn't realise they'd be picked up like that - scary but good too as the point is to be read after all. It also means that it's possible to prove that the author was the first to post the piece.

There's definitely pros and cons to it. Personally I agree with you, Nell, the bigger the potential audience, the better.

'If you're lucky it could get viral and then bada-bing'

Noddy .. I expect it was just me... but I didn't get your references to getting viral and bada-bing?' and didn't want to miss out .. is it some sort of magic software, or just street lingo for making it big time?' (I don't get out much)

I assume:

viral - spreads rapidly

bada-bing - becomes hugely popular and your work is in demand

Sorry, Andrew, got a little slangy there.
"viral" is the marketing term describing what happens when, for instance, you send an email link to five people who each send it to five others, who each send it to five others etc. etc. until half the population have it.

THE OXFORD DICTIONARY describes “bada bing” (also “bada bing bada boom”) as an exclamation to emphasise that something will happen effortlessly and predictably (originates from the Sopranos TV programme).

Kind of street lingo, I suppose (wow, now I feel like a rapper or something !)

Rgds
Nod

Surely the Godfather came out before the Soprano's, Noddy?

Thanks guys for updating me on the street lingo... I will add these viral words to my portable dictionary -bada bing bada boom!