Stop thinking about yourself and try to understand why.

I had to eat one crunchy peanut butter sandwich to be able to stay coherent but I apologize if I start ranting towards the end because someone thought it is okay to rant about an author who hides her fics whenever she gets plagiarized...thereby, making the fanfics unavailable for her to read. Others agreed with her and so here I am, questioning myself whether I am awake or having a nightmare o.O or if I sorta entered a different AFF dimension where stealing is okay and should be seen in positive light and the victim is to be blamed. 

Readers should understand that we don't have a say in this. I've seen fanfiction.net readers who think this way too and was rallying in twitter for ffnet to let a third party downloader grab fics from their site. They wanted to copy all their favorite fics just in case the author decided to put them down. Rant girl was thinking the same thing. For me, that's just plain disrespectful towards the author, especially when she explicitly said no copying. Even if its solely for reading purposes, no copying means no copying. No matter how much you love her stories so much, no copying means no copying. End of discussion.

We are reading for free, the least we could do is respect the writer's wishes and decisions. She has a valid reason for making her stories private. 

Yes, we cannot completely stop plagiarism. Yes, when we post something online, there is a chance that it would get stolen. But just because it can get stolen, doesn't mean we would just let them.  Here in AFF, Boss gave us tools to at least make it harder on them like disallowing text selection and the privacy options. Writers have every right to use them and readers who are reading for free should accept that.

This reminds me of that shipper who thinks that plagiarism is okay because it spreads her ship's love, something like that but whatever. If she chooses not to use the disallow text selection or any of the privacy options, then fine, but she shouldn't expect writers to follow her lead or to do the same. They have every right to use these features made available for everyone and she had no right to find fault in that. So go ahead and use them options. I don't know why she felt like her reasons are valid and that it's okay to put down writers who protect their work. And I don't understand how so many agreed with her.

It's pretty disturbing to know that people think this way.

And it's really sad to think that it's her own readers who think this way about her, who think not having fics to read is more important than her feelings. I am not her reader and yet here I am, explaining to her reader why she had to do, what she had to do. What happened to her, was not okay. I dunno why rant girl believe otherwise. I have yet to meet a writer who got so happy his/her story got plagiarized and I probably wouldn't. 

Be sensitive of other's feelings. Place yourselves in their shoes. What would you feel if someone took something you spent your time and energy on? What would you feel if a reader resents you for hiding the fic that was nearly taken from you? Just think for one moment about the writer and not your lack of fics to read. Don't be selfish.

 

 

 

- Keeper

p.s. gah, and it did end as a rant. i apologize once again but i just had to release all this negative feels inside me.

p.p.s. now where's my adobo peanuts? i still have to write that update... 

 

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whigmaleerie #1
To me, its like when people cheat on their spouse with their spouse's sibling. "But I love him/her, so its okay." Yeah. You love the person more than your own spouse, but that doesn't make it right.

People will validate their feelings by whatever means they feel like in order to satisfy their imaginations. But, that never makes it okay.
Iloveanime #2
They should be grateful. I mean, these fanfic authors could've spent time doing other stuff, but chose to spend time giving them fanfics to read. Seriously, it's our choice to use disallow text selection (I use it).

THEY SHOULD AT LEAST GIVE A NICE THANK YOU AND BE GRATEFUL!
kaiura #3
I didn't think that there was much of a fray area on this subject but, once again, AFF users never fail to disappoint me.
OTL isn't that a depressing thought :/
hideandseeker #4
Oh my god, you are so right. I actually had no idea people actually thought plagiarism was ever OK, but now that I know it's kind of gross that people feel like that.
kpopartory #5
The author's decision should be respected if she had chosen to hide her stories. Someone plagiarist her story, she is not the one that should be blamed. Stealing is not ok, in any shape or form.
daggerisms #6
Fanfic downloaders fall into the grey area when it comes to legality; people need to remember that it doesn't matter how much they want the material, if the original author chooses to take down the original posts, that's their decision and readers have got to respect that. There might be copies floating around, but those were obtained immorally, and the author could potentially slam someone with copyright infringement, as real people fiction can somewhat fall under "Creative Commons." Plagiarism anywhere is not okay; I know fanfiction sorta pushes the boundaries there, but what you write is your content, people should respect that above all else, and it's ridiculous that this is even a big problem.
iD0RKIE #7
The number of stupid Affers are increasing as is the community. Unfortunately, that means more rant posts that carry no logic and/or common sense. We, as graphic artists and authors will have to deal with these type of people everyday but it's just too much sometimes.
It never was and will never be acceptable in any way to copy a person's hard work. It's quite depressing to know that there are still so many who can't understand that.
FullmetalTitan #8
Bless you...just bless you. I don't think plagiarism is okay even in the fanfic world, someone else ranted about that to about authors putting copywrites on their stories so people won't take them without permission. There's nothing wrong with that if they want to do it let them. I haven't been plagiaized yet thankfully, but I know I'd feel at least a little disheartened. Sure we aren't actual authors but it's just not cool to copy someone's hard work word for word.
nizzyool #9
maybe one of the cause is because the numbers of ungrateful people is increasing in this Earth. sigh.
aleric #10
And on another note. Plagiarism is unfortunate enough to deprive readers of a story that they favour—you acknowledge how rant girl feels. But the said rant girl should turn all her hatred towards the person who plagiarised instead of the author. Since that's the source of why the author decided to put it private anyway.
pandawire #11
I think what they meant by copying was keeping a copy for themselves to read later not publish.
aleric #12
Respect the authors, they work hard to give you quality work and mofos thinks they can take it and claim it as their own work. Some of them are shameful enough to even state no copying of a work that isn't theirs. It's ridiculous.

Woahoho to comment below.

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candicane #13
she can go a cactus!

and i will take a pic of her and blackmail her by using that
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