Bloody hell, I've been plagiarized!

[davidgillon]

I've been mostly out of 2300AD gaming for a good while, concentrating on writing, so I've only just realised a roleplaying article I wrote years ago for the Etranger 2300AD site turned up in issue 7 of the Colonial Times fanzine on Drivethrurpg under some else's name (Krijn Mout - never heard of him). The arrogant sod does credit me for 'support', but it's overwhelmingly my text. (Actually crediting me helps establish the copyright violation, so is an act of stupidity).

It's a freebie fanzine, so they haven't made anything from it, but I'm not having my work out there under someone else's name and it's doubly a problem as the bookending fiction text is a character I've always meant to return to and I need to establish that I'm not plagiarizing them if I do so.

DrivethruRPG can expect a rocket from me shortly in the form of a DMCA takedown notice.

(And it's doubly annoying as I was looking forward to reading the article!! Hang on, this sounds familiar...)

Comments

[umadoshi]

UGH. >.< I loathe plagiarists.

[davidgillon]

Yep, they already weren't my favourite people of the week - don't know if you saw #CopyPasteCris on twitter, it was mostly a romance thing.

[legionseagle]

How truly obnoxious. If you want a quick beta of your rocket from a copyright lawyer, ping it in my direction and I'll oblige.

[davidgillon]

Thanks, the offer is very much appreciated. I've sent Drivethru an initial message via their 'Contact Us' saying:

"Having just downloaded the fanzine 'Colonial Times 7', https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/209667/Colonial-Times-7 I find that the article "Manticore, When it Absolutely, Positively has to be there on Time' is a plagiarized copy of my article of the same title. The article credits me for 'support', however I have never heard of the alleged author 'Krijn Mout' and the text is overwhelmingly my own. I therefore require the magazine to be withdrawn until such time as the article is removed."

They just messaged back with "Your note has been passed along to our publisher relations team and they will be in contact with you soon." Hopefully the fact he actually names me as the originator within the text should make the process straightforward.

[cloudsinvenice]

The cheek! I hope they're going to be decent and handle it quickly.