My new blogsite is now up and running!
annamlkoski.wordpress.com Go there to see some of my weird inner thoughts and listen to me ramble!
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I have become aware of some issues within the writing sphere about copyright infringement and plagiarism. However my issue isn't what you might think. My issue is that people don't seem to understand what this actually is within fictional writing and are speaking about it as if they do. This is causing serious backlash in a lot of ways. So I am writing this to define what plagiarism and copyright infringement is and perhaps teach something to help us become better educated writers and authors and how we can protect ourselves and our work. So let's begin! First of all, to clear up some misconceptions about copyright. Copyright protects the expression of ideas and not the ideas themselves. So if you write a story and someone takes it word for word and claims it as their own, or takes chunks and uses it in theirs. That is copyright infringement. It doesn't matter if they changed a few things here or there. They still copied your expression of that particular idea. However if someone sees an idea, like let's say a mute and abused omega (just to be REAAAAAAL cliche) in your story and they write that into their book or base a book off of it. That's not infringement. Nor is if you have an Alpha named Damien who is bitter and egotistical in your story and someone writes a bitter and egotistical Alpha named Damien in their story. That is not copyright infringement. Well unless the character's history and current means are word for word like yours, then it is but the same name and similar characteristics is not. Neither are some quotes or sentences. It gets even more away from copyright infringement/plagiarism if the person was not aware that your work existed before they wrote yours. That happens to be a coincidence and you can't claim anything on that regard. Which is explained in depth in numerous places as well. Wattpad's copyright page: Copyright only protects the physical representation of an idea, not the idea itself. Unfortunately, similar plots or story themes may not constitute copyright infringement. If you are unsure of whether a work infringes your copyright, we encourage you to seek professional/legal advice before submitting a notice. https://support.wattpad.com/hc/en-us/articles/204471770-Reporting-Copyright-Infringement Wikipedia: Copyright does not cover ideas and information themselves, only the form or manner in which they are expressed. For example, the copyright to a Mickey Mouse cartoon restricts others from making copies of the cartoon or creating derivative works based on Disney's particular anthropomorphic mouse, but does not prohibit the creation of other works about anthropomorphic mice in general, so long as they are different enough to not be judged copies of Disney's. Note additionally that Mickey Mouse is not copyrighted because characters cannot be copyrighted; rather, Steamboat Willie is copyrighted and Mickey Mouse, as a character in that copyrighted work, is afforded protection. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright Copyright House: Copyright doesn't protect: Ideas, methods and systems cannot be protected by copyright. Section 102 (title 17 of the U.S.C.) of the Copyright Act states, “In no case does copyright protection for an original work of authorship extend to any idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery, regardless of the form in which it is described, explained, illustrated, or embodied in such work”. To protect an idea, method or system you need to patent it. https://copyrighthouse.co.uk/copyright/what-copyright-doesnt-protect.htm Copyright.gov: What does copyright protect? Copyright, a form of intellectual property law, protects original works of authorship including literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works, such as poetry, novels, movies, songs, computer software, and architecture. Copyright does not protect facts, ideas, systems, or methods of operation, although it may protect the way these things are expressed. https://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-protect.html University pages: In no case does copyright protection for an original work of authorship extend to any idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery, regardless of the form in which it is described, explained, illustrated, or embodied in such work. https://ucomm.wsu.edu/what-copyright-does-not-protect/ As authors we need to completely understand our legal standing within copyright and how we can protect ourselves. This includes knowing what infringement is and NOT accusing someone of plagiarism when they haven't done so. So if someone used a similar idea as yours and you publicly call them out and shame them for stealing. They legally didn't steal anything and your accusation is actually defamation and libel. That causes an entire legal mess that is NOT good to deal with cause you can and sometimes will, get sued. or even charged with cyber libel in a criminal court. https://www.newmediarights.org/business_models/artist/what_are_penalties_false_copyright_infringement_claims https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/are-false-accusations-of-copyright-11292/ http://mcgradylaw.ca/Publications/Defamation_paper.htm http://www.legalline.ca/legal-answers/defamation-laws-cyber-libel-and-the-internet/ Now I'm not saying you don't have legal recourse to protect your work because you do, its just that you need to make sure you are 100% correct and proven right with evidence before you can approach this issue. You need to learn how to protect yourself. I'm not shaming people. I'm truly not. I honestly want to educate people because I am seeing so many people accuse others of copying and plagiarism when there isn't any and its hurting the community and writers in general. We are above spreading lies based out of misinformation. We write for a living for goodness sake! We should live and breathe random researching instead of just throwing things out there without any factual basis. We are better than this. Its not enough to feel cheated in some way, its not enough to gather a legion of followers, its not enough to publicly call out the person you are accusing. You need to have undeniable proof that is supplemented by side by side comparisons of both your stories, and legal advice on how to proceed. Many legal sites offer free consultations if you have questions, if you feel someone has taken your writings use these resources and act professionally and maturely. Your actions are a direct reflection on your claim and your case. Please, for the love of all that is holy, educate yourself because right now I feel like this: And that is no bueno.
Hey guys, this message is to my Amazon.ca users. So I have been in talks with amazon for the past few weeks because I noticed by book is not for sale in the Amazon.ca store. There was quite a bit of back and forth between us and Amazon finally came back to me with this: Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing Books are available on these Amazon sites:
As you can see, Amazon.ca is missing from there. This is because Amazon.ca is NOT affiliated with Kindle Direct Publishing and so my book will NEVER be available on that Amazon store.
As you can imagine, after the first fiasco with Amazon that this was highly irritating and even more so due to the fact that if I had kept my book on CreateSpace instead of moving it, my book would have been available on Amazon.ca after a few weeks. It's enough to make me want to tear my hair out. HOWEVER, there is a bright and silver lining to this dreary cloud and that is that Canadians can order Broken from Amazon.com and it will ship to them. This means you need to make an Amazon.com account. I know it's just another hassle but it is all I can do or recommend to fix this issue for you. Once again, I apologize for this serious inconvenience. Anna M. L. Koski |
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