I just found out some very disturbing news. I woke up to a distraught, close friend of mine, @hacked-by-jake. Things that she's written on Tumblr have been reposted here on Wattpad, without her permission or any credits (even though the author claims to give credits, they don't) and then translated to Spanish. Luckily, this has been taken down now.
This type of behavior infuriates me. While Wattpad is great because it gives us all access to free stories, they are still the hard work of the person who wrote them. Even fanfic comes from someone's mind, and I know for a fact that Hacked-by-Jake and many others consider every word that they write. This is especially true when they're writing in English and it isn't their first language.
Just because something is fanfiction and can't be written for money doesn't mean that it's open season for anyone to take it and do with it as they wish. It's still the intellectual property of the writer, and to take it without even mentioning it to the person who wrote it is a disgrace to the writing world.
What's even worse is that people are enjoying these writings and not a single person asks, "who is the author?" in the comments. They just comment on how much they're enjoying it. They may even believe that the person who posted them is the author, since many don't read the description section of someone's story.
@digital-corruption was also a victim of this same person, and she has spoken up about it.
I applaud @Lyon-Amore for alerting the writers to what was happening.
If this doesn't make you mad, then consider this: these may be people you don't know, but the writers are all human beings. We all have feelings, and it's terribly painful enough to spend hours, days, months, or years working on something, then have the courage to put it out for the world to see. It's that much worse to find that someone stole it from you.
