I heard about it happening to a blogger last year - evidently a review she posted on her blog was copy and pasted by someone and written up as their own review on Amazon! I was amazed that anyone would bother to do this; I mean why fake a review?
Well early last week, one of my reviews was plagiarized!!
That's right, nearly my entire review had been copy and pasted, and passed off on another blog as their own!
I know what you're thinking, WTF?!?!
How did you find out? What did you do? How did you fix it?...
Well, someone who is familiar with my blog read this other review and was shocked to discover that at least three bloggers in all, had parts of their reviews mashed together and published on a Romanian book blog.
After this friend contacted me, I took a look for myself and was absolutely gob-smacked. What kind of person does this?
Needless to say I immediately sent an email to the blog owner, asking them to remove the plagiarized review and for an explanation.
Many emails later I can tell you this: The blogger originally contacted the author and requested to do an interview and book review on her blog.
The blogger, having run short on time gave the book to someone else to read/review and insists that it is her friend that plagiarized the review, even though the blogger published the review as her own.
The blogger has not as yet actually read the book in question and so can't write a fresh and honest review of her own at this time.
The blogger had the gall to try and make me feel bad for her being found out as a plagiarizer!
The plagiarized review has now been removed.
In the end a good result but I'm still kind of gutted. The book in question, got a 5 star review from me - I absolutely loved it and I'm really pissed that the book and the author have been cheated this way. Yeah, I was a bit shocked and angry about my review being pinched, but at the end of the day, I feel bad for the author most of all :(
This brings me to the giveaway section of this post :)
I'm going to give away, three (3) kindle copies of the book that got shafted out of its honest review... but I'm not going to tell you which book it is, that's for the winners to find out!! *if the winners have already read said book, I'll substitute it for a gift card to the equivalent value*
a Rafflecopter giveaway
I don't believe anyone has ever stolen my work. However, I would be royally Pissed if I found out someone had done so.
ReplyDeleteThat's just awful. I would be pissed too. Some reviews are difficult to write more that others and for someone to claim MY words as their own would be upsetting. Ugh!
ReplyDeleteI'd be so pissed! Even if I don't win, I want to know which book it was! LOL! The nerve of some people. Frick!
ReplyDeleteI think that blogger didn't really had anything to said and just started to make up things. I guess people plagiarize reviews because they want free books and they just copy and paste several reviews believing they won't be caught. It's really sad this happend to you. I don't think I've been plagiarized, I run a small blog and I don't have contacts with publishers I just review books I have bought or of tours. Thanks for the giveaway!
ReplyDeleteTo the best of my knowledge, no one has stolen my technical papers or their associated powerpoints, or my reviews. (Although I DID give someone permission to give my presentation during a class they were teaching in Africa, in return for a small souvenir - which I never got!)
ReplyDeleteI guess the secret is, if you write like sh-t, no one wants to claim your work is theirs!!
I'm so sorry this happened to you..love ya!
ReplyDeletePlaigarism sucks! Hasn't happened yet to me (notice, I say "yet") but being a blogger myself, I'm expecting it at some point!
ReplyDeleteIt has not happened to me, but I feel terrible for yourself and for the author that it happened to. Good on you for calling them out on it and getting them to remove it!!
ReplyDeleteYou are the epitome of turning a bad situation into a good one. I applaud you for your control. As a blogger I would also be very upset. Just amazing the lows people reach these days. I hope it never happens again.
ReplyDeleteNone of my stories have ever been plagiarized {knock on wood}, but I did have a women in one of my online college classes plagiarize one of my forums word for word. She changed only a few items in it, but the rest was what I had written, the thing is it was a forum about my life and my goals for the future. I emailed the professor and they said they would look into it and nothing was done because she continued to plagiarize not just me but others in the class as well for the remained of the semester. To me, if you cannot write something yourself, come up with your own thoughts and feelings on a subject, then do not bother writing anything at all. Copying what another writes and passing it off as your own is unforgivable. And like you, I feel sorry for the author and the book, neither one should have been treated in such a manner, nor should of you been treated in such a way.
ReplyDeleteYes, bloggers, authors and others all are artists with their own creativity and when someone comes like a thief in the night without permission or giving credit to the creators, it sucks. Kudos for tracking and resolving the issue. Glad to found your blog.
ReplyDeleteWOW!! That is just awful to know someone stole your work, but another thing is that your work is great enough for someone to steal!! lol!! I don't think mine would ever be stolen!! haha!! Anyway, on a serious note, I'm glad it has been resolved.
ReplyDeleteplagiarism is stealing whether it is writing a review or writing a book or a report. If you copy someone else's words in anything, that is just wrong.
ReplyDeleteAll I can do is SMDH at that. I mean really??? You cant think of something to say??
ReplyDeleteI have never seen any thing close to my books, but have found Vox the Voxian ? A Cartoon Fox. Does make you wonder. Book 1 was also on a book site that I hadn't given permission for along with many others including Stephen King and J K Rowling.
ReplyDeleteI've never had it happen to me, but I've seen other bloggers that I follow and am a fan on FB mention it. I think it's horrible. Any plagiarism or piracy is wrong, but when some does it to a book, you can understand the why, they're trying to make money without having to do the actual work. So wrong but at least we all know the reason. But a review? Someone's personal thoughts on a book or other product is ridiculous. I assume its done out of laziness, but still horribly wrong.
ReplyDeleteI am not a writer, so I have never been plagerized. I have lots of writer friends and cannot imagine how difficult that might be for them. Writing is difficult work. Cheaters never win and winners never cheat. I just hope this was not done on a blog that I follow.
ReplyDeleteWell handled, is all I can say
ReplyDeleteI'd be ticked beyond belief if someone did that to me. Glad it got resolved. Dishonesty comes in all forms.
ReplyDeleteIs there a way to prevent this? I think I've come across a book blog where there was a badge saying material was protected somehow. Of course that still doesn't prevent someone from stealing it, but maybe it would scare a potential plagiarizer off?
ReplyDeleteNo, this has not happened to me...although I have written over 300 reviews on Amazon and I really could not tell you if it happened or not.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it is not fair to the author...thank you for making us aware of this..
to me? No. Parts - yes... but what I find even funnier is that someone applied to review for me - and every review she had was exactly the same as another reviewer on goodreads - after specifically telling me that she never "got into" using goodreads.
ReplyDeleteYeah- I gave her the reason for not adding her to the team- and what do you know - her blog is now down- and there was no response.
People are funny - the lengths they will go to be noticed.
I cannot believe anyone would have the gall to do that - the whole idea of a review is to give a personal opinion of the book!
ReplyDeleteI would rather tell the author I ran out of time, than steal someone elses opinion of a book. After all it might be radically different from mine when I finally got round to reading it. Besides how could I be trusted to give an honest review if I stole someone else's work?
ilona
Okay, I just wrote an insanely long comment on my phone only to accidentally touch something that caused it to be wiped!! GAH!! So let's try this again - shorter this time :)
ReplyDeleteI'm so sorry that this happened to you!! I have not ever had anything of mine plagiarized to my knowledge, but then I don't have a blog, am not an author, and haven't written much since leaving the working world about 2 years ago. However, I do follow a lot of book blogs like yours, and in the relatively short time I've done so (just over a year), I've seen it happen already like 4 or 5 times. And that's just with blogs/reviewers that I follow; who knows what it's been like for the hundreds of OTHER book blogs out there?! I echo Mindy's words above - you are the epitome of someone taking a bad situation and turning it into something good! I mean, I'd be tempted to not only mention the book/author but also to call out the offending blog/blogger by name (which others to whom this has happened have certainly done).
Also, Emi Lia said the other main point I was going to make - you can *almost* understand someone who desperately wanted to be an author, who maybe had a contract and advance but also had writer's block, plagiarizing in such a situation. But just to write a book review?! Either way, it's THEFT, and just because it's words or ideas and not material things doesn't make it any lessvso. I can only imagine what it must feel like to have someone appropriate that which you no doubt spent a lot if time working on; in some sense I can even servitude hurting more than if they'd stolen some thing from you (even if it were expensive!), because it was YOURS in a whole different sense of the word.
Anyway, it sounds like you handled this situation with true grace, of which the same cannot be said of the offending blogger (or her "friend" - right). I admire your ability to remain so positive, and I think you're amazing for wanting to have this giveaway to support the author! (Have you told him or her what happened??) Take care, Cath, and may this never happen to you again!
It has not happened to me and I am saddened that there are those out there that feel the pressure to plagiarizer other people's efforts. I thank you for the classy way you have handled this, as like you have I have seen some terrible behavior over this issue around the net that ends up making those injured and the one doing the plagiarizing look bad. Thank you for the informative post and taking the high road :)
ReplyDeleteHi guys :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for all your wonderful thoughts, comments and messages>
The things some people will do ay?!
You've also asked some really great questions, and I've done my best to answer the more popular ones here: http://mybookchatterchat.blogspot.co.nz/2013/04/plagiarism-your-questions-my-answers.html
Hope you take a minute to check it out... thanks for stopping by
((hugs))
Cath
aka Book Chatter Cath
xx