Thursday, December 09, 2010

About a Little Thief

At first, I thought, Why bother? Why waste my time and my energy on such a pathetic thing? And then I thought, well, to warn my friends who write poetry and others who might read this of this character. And, hopefully, to shame him or her even a little bit so that next time he or she’ll think twice before taking what belongs to others.

Well, Nevine wrote about it in a much more elaborate way. In short, Joss of Lovely and Forever has taken one of her poems. It’s too bad because Lovely and Forever is a nice name and has a nice design. I read Nevine's post and went to visit the culprit’s blog. Big surprise! (Or maybe not so big…) His “Beloved Memory” of November 25th, is a slightly modified copy of my “Beloved Delusion.”


So, if two of those poems are taken from others, wouldn’t it be normal to assume that all the others also are? Perhaps... Go and check it out, maybe you’ll find one of your poems there…

Not only has Joss done this but, once caught, he or she doesn’t even have the decency to immediately remove those posts. I asked Joss to do so but, unfortunately, I was ignored. (It seems that Nevine’s has finally been removed by Google. That’s great news!!!)

I wrote something else here initially, but an e-mail from my friend Rick has changed my mind. Thank you, Rick. I don't know what the motives behind many of our actions are and digging into someone's soul could be dangerous and hurtful. So I will say only this: I hope Joss can rebuild Lovely and Forever in his or her own way.

P.S. I keep modifying this post, a word here or there.

Joss, come say "hello" in a comment to show that you've seen this and I'll say that what you borrowed from me is my Christmas gift to you.

13 comments:

SzélsőFa said...

oh, my. this is kind of shocking.
one may debate about different motives and perhaps ... LovelyandForever just wanted to express that s/he appreciates poetry in general, but to the original authors is is shocking.

SzélsőFa said...

and how's your novel, btw?

at the moment i have a 6,000+ characters article to write, and i can't wait to finish and submit it so i can revise my story :)))

hey, i did NaNo this year ;)
- but the road ahead is still unpaved and winding to the unseen...

Vesper said...

SzélsőFa, you're right, it is shocking in a way, but then again, we must be aware of such possibilities when we put our work on the web. More than anything, it saddens me, for many reasons...

My novel? It's going ahead but slowly... :-( Nevertheless, it takes all my available time.

Congrats for NaNo!!! I saw your "Whew" in my blog list and was planning on stopping by to congratulate you. This is fantastic!

K.Lawson Gilbert said...

Vesper - unbelievable! I'm sorry your work was stolen. Seems to be rampant. Rick told me I should "look around" to see if some of my poetry has been stolen, but I wouldn't know where to start. I'm sure he would help. Would be a shame for us to quit posting our work.

laughingwolf said...

you're a far more generous soul than i, v... i'd put something most vile on the blog of whoever stole anything of mine GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

wv: nosmook

the walking man said...

Yep it is always a concern.

I have had guns pointed at me with shaky hands holding fingers that could be set to fire without thought. so I have had something more tried to be stolen from me than my words. But little that pisses me off more.

I for one am with you and Rick and Nevine for this fight yet it is a world wide war and I can't use my favorite weapons in it. Fists. But they eventually all get found out and exposed.

Be Well Kiddo and please just privatize your blog instead of making it so long between posts.

Be Well

mark

Charles Gramlich said...

Been a rash of this lately. Or else it's finally coming into view. Man. How ridiculous. Sorry this happened to you.

BernardL said...

Plagiarism is as old as writing and unfortunately, there's still no cure. The only glass half full thing I can think of is if you have something stolen at least you know they don't bother to steal bad prose.

Akasha Savage. said...

vesper ~ I suppose it's sort of a back-handed compliment, at least your prose was thought worthy enough to steal...but what a horrible horrible thing to do. :(

Vesper said...

Kaye, yeah, it’s somehow unbelievable but at the same time kind of expected. The world is big and there are all kinds of people. I always forget that not everybody’s as I am…

Well, but you’re a wolf, laughingwolf…GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
:-) :-) :-)

Mark, I know you got a proper copyright but I wonder if even that would stop someone… Probably not.
It’s long in between posts because any moment I put into the blog takes away from writing my novel and I have a one-track mind right now: I want to finish this story, and now, not in ten years, not even in five years. Right now. And I have ridiculously little time to do anything at all.
What do you mean by privatizing my blog?
You too, be well, my friend.

Thanks, Charles. I would assume it’s happening all the time. It’s probably a coincidence that it happened now in our circle of blog-friends.

Bernard, thank you for the “glass half full thing” – much appreciated! :-) :-) :-)

Akasha, thank you. I guess it is… But not very nice…. :-)

Rick said...

Vesper, your elegant class comes so clearly through this post. Bravo for you. And bravo for you for bringing this to light- keeping it in the dark does no help to either or writers or the plagiarists themselves. I have to admit it has become shockingly prevalent. I hope your efforts to bring this to everyone's attention will keep us all vigilant. Happy Holidays to you, Vesper! Always your friend, Rick.

Catherine Vibert said...

I could not possibly be as tactful and forgiving as you dear Vesper. Ah it is good to be back here and reading your work. I am wishing you loving warm wonderful joy in this season Vesper. Much love and hugs too.

Vesper said...

Rick, you are so kind... Thank you again for your wise words. All the best to you, dear friend.

Cat, it's incredibly nice to see you here. And your photo is incredibly lovely! Thank you for your wishes and may they be returned to you many, many times more. Love and hugs to you too!
xoxoxo