Every so often it’ll come out that a book was the work of plagiarism. The author is forced to pay back royalties to the rightful owner of the content.
Unless you’re Rand Paul. Last year he made more than $200k from book royalties, but his most recent release is actually the work of plagiarism full of quotes pulled from online sources. But to my knowledge he hasn’t had to pay back a single cent. This is disheartening.
He’s been called out for his plagiarism multiple times and still nothing has been done. He’s still collecting royalty checks.
What do I think of this? I think he’s a prick. And I think someone needs to file suit. Even if they’re simply trying to hold him accountable rather than trying to recoup money.
I’ve only heard of plagiarism happening in a few cases, and royalties are almost always paid back. I’m not sure why it hasn’t happened in this case.
What do you think of this guy just collecting money for work that isn’t his?
Johnny Reads 
It’s absolutely unacceptable but what are the criteria for proving plagarism?
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Well, if it’s one’s original work vs being taken from someone else without their permission or knowledge. Right?
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I mean for the sake of suing- I’m guessing it has to be frustratingly difficult to prove someone’s stolen your work (assuming they’ve gone to the trouble of paraphrasing)
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Well I don’t know.
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I’m curious now 😄 sorry for going off on a tangent!
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Apparently not if you’re Cassandra Claire either it seems.
The Mortal Instruments series’ are rife with direct quotes from movies, television and books and considering the books are not meant as parody this is considerably disturbing.
Only one author that I’m aware if has taken her to task over something. Unfortunately, that something is open source but the author (whose name I can’t remember offhand) is claiming she has sole authority to use it *sigh*.
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Whoa. I didn’t know that. The one that comes to mind for me is an author who used the work of Nora Roberts and put a different title on it.
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Not that one. Shadow Hunters is the Netflix show based on the Mortal Instruments books. I can’t remember the details, unfortunately. I do remember CC started as a fanfiction author who had a huge following but even then she was plagiarizing different authors, movies and shows. I tried reading her work but that was after I learned about the issue and then I found them to be too YA for my current tastes. I’ve burned out on heroines who can’t save themselves, don’t listen to the advice of those with more experience and don’t know what to do when a guy kisses her or with the feelings she has for him.
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Yikes. And she’s ridiculously popular too. Ugh. Such a bad example. I’ve never read anything she’s written.
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Yes, she is popular, especially with the older young adults. I haven’t read any of her works either, fanfiction or not, and I’m not planning too. I refuse to support someone who’s work isn’t from their own imagination.
Sherry Lynn Kenyon! That’s the author who took CC to court over plagiarism of her Dark Hunter series!
I do admit to reading fanfiction but those authors put a disclaimer on their works stating that the characters aren’t their own, just the plot line is.
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But fan fiction authors don’t publish that stuff through a publisher, right?
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Not unless you’re 50 shades of gray or Mortal Instruments. They both started as FF authors.
Some do go on to publish original works though. I know of a couple who have
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Right. But it’s fairly rare. Probably even more rare than self published authors making it big.
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Who knows, but I don’t think it’s all that rare if I’ve heard about it :D.
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