this message may be offensive
So recently, there has been a small issue with plagiarism. I dealt with the issue firsthand, seeing as I was to one who reported it to the original author on fanfiction net, whose book that was copied (by sheer luck and perfect timing) I had been reading hours before it was copied.(Not naming any names) The author and I communicated about the person who had plagiarised not just one of their oneshots, but multiple. In fact, I'm pretty sure most of the book was plagiarised from what I read. (and I've read probably most of the Dramione oneshots on all platforms, so I recognised most of them) The person who copied has since had their book taken down, but I just wanted to take a minute to address the issue of plagiarism.
As an author who has had their work stolen and literally found it myself on ao3, I think that copying other people's work is an issue that is extremely undermined. It's spoken of very little, and usually, the problems are dealt with quietly. But it is a huge issue. Professionally, if you plagiarize someone's work you can actually be fined massive sums of money or even canceled.
So please, people, just don't copy someone else's work. That's just (pardon my Frech) completely fucking stupid and fucking ridiculous and you are always going to get caught sooner or later (hopefully sooner, seeing as anyone who uses someone else's work for success is an utter dickhead) so just don't do it, okay? It's that simple. If you are so insecure about your writing skills that you need to use someone else's work to get reads and votes, you should take a break from copying others and just read the stories so you can learn about writing. (Something that I have done myself because I have become a MUCH better writer in my time on Wattpad)
Anyway, that's my rant about plagiarism, have a good day/night, take care of yourself!
