Posting work on the net is not all negative.

By doing so, one has a date of when it was first posted (even if the work is only in draft form) and several hundreds of witnesses (or hundreds of thousands)to the fact that it was that person, who as the author, is staking the initial claim to have written it in the first place. Therefore there is an evidence trail.

However, if the work is subsequently removed there is no evidence trail to check and later verify that it was they who were the initial author.

Likewise, if some else chooses to pinch someones work there is also an evidence trail that they have done so and they can subsequently look pretty silly. (Especially if the don't even correct the typos! heheh)

Andrew )

So I ask again, has anyone pinched someone else's work?

oo that sounded like a teacher... sorry!

..looking over the rim of your specs..rocking on your heels ..cane flexed. Yes it did conjure up a picture!

maybe this topic has gone as far as it can now...number one is No milk today followed by Coffee..perhaps we all influence each other in subtle ways..its a sort of osmotic process with words isn't it..I might just go and write a poem called Sugar now...

It's difficult with ideas..we can be inspired by others' but plagiarising surely would be very obvious.

We should be working on a practical solution to this not narking at each other. Have you got any ideas?

The only workable solution I can think of right now is to remove the auto login, making everyone log in each time, adding some regulation to the site stipulating that paying members must not give out their log in info to ANYONE, and then make an option allowing certain pieces of work available to paying members only.

Even then, that assumes that people will follow the regulations to the letter, which is almost impossible to control.

Personally, as stated before, the only truly safe option is to not post up pieces of work that you would be grieved to see stolen, and instead use the site as a showcase for writing experiments, or working documents.

Blimey!!!!!!!!!

I'm off-line for ten days (moving house, starting new job, etc... as ya do in life...) and when I reset my internet connections I receive no less than 85 e-mails because my forum notice has triggered something like the H-Bomb!

In answer to the many questions - yes, my work has been nicked - conceptually - (and by that I mean narrative technique, subject matter, twist in tail, plot and everyhting other than exact phrases) and by another WW member. D'uh - like I wouldn't see it. (Mentioning no names, coz it's essentially irrelevant).

Someone back in the reems of replies to this message finally got it back on track by talking about the moral issue here amongst us guys. If you're inspired by someone's work, talk to them about it and ask if they mind if you post something triggered by it (David and my discussion about "Resigned Despair" once agains springs to mind). But don't write an identical piece but not as good as the original and without having the decency to discuss it with the original author!

This is where the title of this forum piece "Honour Amongst Thieves" came from. Let's all keep reading work and discussing our work but have respect for the sanctity and hard work that has gone into producing these stories/poems/plays. Come up with you're own ideas! The majority of us do!

That's all this was about!

Lisa

P.S.
Why the hell not have a little flag (as someone suggested) reminding us of respecting personal copyright and not to nick entire concepts and plots coz we can't be arsed to come up with our own (despite it being on the web)?

Lisa, I know you said that it's essentially irrelevant, so I'm sorry to keep on, but are you saying that a member not only filched your ideas but posted the story on WW, or was it posted on another site?