Well y'all. this doesn't belong in the poetry forum, but you may want to take a moment to read further.
I recently discovered that a poem of mine had been stolen, word for word, by a MySpace member who claimed she'd written it. Upon further investigation, I discovered there were several other instances of plagiarism/copyright infringement. The most flagrant to date, however, was on a site called butch-femme.com. One member plagerized 4 of my poems. I've alerted the site, but several of you are also absolutely affected (your poems are there), including:
Mairi
Eire
LadyMoon
Xalia
Pale, I think at least one is yours too...
and I suspect more...
Below is the letter I sent to the administration of butch-femme.com. (It's a form letter I've modified from a website and is available to use without copyright infringement issues). Feel free to use my letter modifying as appropriate.
If admins/mods wish to deal with this with the butch-femme site directly, please feel free to contact me as needed.
Also, I do understand if this note needs to be moved to a more appropriate forum, but I do hope it will remain on the board long enough for those affected to take action if they choose to. For some of us, our poems are like our children and we want them back when they are stolen...
I will contact the administrator of Mels Webs to authorize release to butch-femme.com of my registration information to confirm my membership information. Please note that my email address and other contact information on Mels Webs is consistent with my butch-femme registration address.
I am the author and owner of the fore-mentioned copyrighted material. I have not authorized the use of my poems by “beautywithinalways.” My contact information is:
Lynn _________
(real name, address, phone and email)
The information contained within this message is accurate and under penalty of perjury, I attest that I am the copyright owner of the fore-mentioned poems.
Please forward to me butch-femme.com contact information so that I may enforce my rights as owner of this copyrighted material. Additionally, please remove the infringing work from butch-femme.com immediately. It is my understanding that butch-femme.com reserves the right to take legal action against copyright infringing members and/or terminate their membership. It is my hope that butch-femme.com will take prompt action to help to discourage any future copyright infringement by this member.
Please contact me upon receipt of this notice. Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.
Last edited by Sunny on Tue Mar 13, 2007 12:56 am; edited 1 time in total
Sat Mar 10, 2007 10:27 pm
DarkChyldesKiss Site Admin
Joined: 29 Mar 2005
Posts: 3381
Location: Inner Sanctum
Sunny,
An email has been sent to their webmaster in regards to the plagarism. As soon as I get a response from them I shall let all affected members know what is going on.
Thank you very much for bringing this to our attention.
I found two of my poems posted by Beautywithinalways on that website.
The longing of the heart and Autumn.
This really pisses me off and if I can ever get that site to let me post something...someone will know just how pissed this Irish b*tc* can get. _________________ All poems and stories posted by Eiregirl are
Copyright 2005 - 2008 Aoibhegréine
These literary works are my property under copyright. If you wish to use my work for any purpose please ASK FIRST.
Sun Mar 11, 2007 6:52 am
Mairi bheag
Joined: 04 Mar 2005
Posts: 5094
Location: Scotland
Only one of mine, thank heaven, and that was a pastiche of Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! At least I had the courtesy to acknowledge the original!
Mb
xx
_________________ all posted material (c) Marie Marshall, unless otherwise stated.
Sun Mar 11, 2007 8:42 am
Sunny
Joined: 18 Jun 2006
Posts: 1571
Location: Massachusetts
quote:Originally posted by DarkChyldesKiss:
Sunny,
An email has been sent to their webmaster in regards to the plagarism. As soon as I get a response from them I shall let all affected members know what is going on.
Joined: 18 Jun 2006
Posts: 1571
Location: Massachusetts
quote:Originally posted by Eiregirl:
Sunny,
Thank you very much for bringing this to our attention.
I found two of my poems posted by Beautywithinalways on that website.
The longing of the heart and Autumn.
This really pisses me off and if I can ever get that site to let me post something...someone will know just how pissed this Irish b*tc* can get.
Joined: 04 Mar 2005
Posts: 5094
Location: Scotland
I since found a whole lot of others, and I have put the matter into the hands of someone who will call for commercial restitution for the theft of my intellectual property.
Mb
xx
_________________ all posted material (c) Marie Marshall, unless otherwise stated.
Sun Mar 11, 2007 8:36 pm
Sunny
Joined: 18 Jun 2006
Posts: 1571
Location: Massachusetts
quote:Originally posted by Mairi bheag:
I since found a whole lot of others, and I have put the matter into the hands of someone who will call for commercial restitution for the theft of my intellectual property.
Joined: 29 Mar 2005
Posts: 3381
Location: Inner Sanctum
Ladies,
The Webmaster from the site has contacted me about the plagarism and are on the case! The member had been banned in February for other issues and they will be glad to delete the posts.
Joined: 29 Mar 2005
Posts: 3381
Location: Inner Sanctum
Ladies,
If others than those mentioned on the post have found their poetry plagarized by a member from the other site, please put your name and your poem down so we can keep track of what's going on.
Joined: 18 Jun 2006
Posts: 1571
Location: Massachusetts
quote:Originally posted by DarkChyldesKiss:
Ladies,
The Webmaster from the site has contacted me about the plagarism and are on the case! The member had been banned in February for other issues and they will be glad to delete the posts.
quote:Originally posted by Mairi bheag:
I since found a whole lot of others, and I have put the matter into the hands of someone who will call for commercial restitution for the theft of my intellectual property.
Mb
xx
Mb,
I can't say that I blame you. I too have found several copyright infringements and am extremely cranky about the whole thing. It's tough getting restitution for copyright infringement cases on the net though - first you have to locate them, then prosecute and win the case and then of course try to recover any monetary award, which, given the caliber of the slime we're dealing with, may be somewhat like trying to get water out of a rock... Nonetheless, I too am seriously cotemplating taking legal action, especially if these website administrators don't respond in a reasonably timely fashion. Sorry to have been the bearer of bad news, but I hope that perhaps we'll be able to reclaim what is ours...
Best to ya!
Sunny
I don't really care about monetary awards. First I just want them to acknowledge that they were not the original author of the work(s) if they will do that without hassal and give to charity any monetary gain (if any) they received I would be happy enough to let it go. If they deny even once that they stole what was and still is mine then I do not care how much it costs or how long it takes when (not if) I find them then I will make their life as miserable as the law will allow because I cannot stand for someone taking credit for what someone else did (unless they have that persons permission to do so).
Sunny, DarkChylde
Thank you both very much for all you are doing and all that you have done...it is very much appreciated.
Mairi...as a friend of mine keeps saying...you go girl and kick some ass while your at it
Eiregirl _________________ All poems and stories posted by Eiregirl are
Copyright 2005 - 2008 Aoibhegréine
These literary works are my property under copyright. If you wish to use my work for any purpose please ASK FIRST.
Sun Mar 11, 2007 11:29 pm
Mairi bheag
Joined: 04 Mar 2005
Posts: 5094
Location: Scotland
I just want them to get the message, never mind paying the money!
Mb
xx
_________________ all posted material (c) Marie Marshall, unless otherwise stated.
Mon Mar 12, 2007 5:36 am
Sunny
Joined: 18 Jun 2006
Posts: 1571
Location: Massachusetts
quote:Originally posted by Eiregirl:
I don't really care about monetary awards. First I just want them to acknowledge that they were not the original author of the work(s) if they will do that without hassal and give to charity any monetary gain (if any) they received I would be happy enough to let it go. If they deny even once that they stole what was and still is mine then I do not care how much it costs or how long it takes when (not if) I find them then I will make their life as miserable as the law will allow because I cannot stand for someone taking credit for what someone else did (unless they have that persons permission to do so).
Sunny, DarkChylde
Thank you both very much for all you are doing and all that you have done...it is very much appreciated.
Mairi...as a friend of mine keeps saying...you go girl and kick some ass while your at it
Eiregirl
Glad to be of assistance, Eire. FYI, both of the two who have responded to me so far regarding infringement of course said something to the effect of "Oops, sorry. I though I put your name on it", despite overt statements in the sites where they published my poems that they had written them themselves. They did remove the poems though...
I guess plagiarists who are so lacking in original thought and/or motivation are not bright enough to realize how transparent they are.
And Mairi, I echo Eire, "Go get 'em!" Please feel free to share any pointers you gather along the way. I'm not taking this lying down either...
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