Created in 2018 by Pseudonymous Watchdog, the goal of #StopFanficPlagiarism is to raise awareness of the fanfic plagiarism epidemic on Wattpad, as well as to help authors fight plagiarism of their fanworks.
Too many works on Wattpad are plagiarized from other sites, especially within the genre of fanfiction. Users copy fanfics from websites like Archive of Our Own, FanFiction.net, FictionAlley, LiveJournal, etc. and either pass them off as their own or "give credit" to the original fanfic author by stating that they don't own the content. Both of these things are considered plagiarism and against Wattpad rules.
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Plagiarism / pla·gia·rism / noun: an act or instance of using or closely imitating the language and thoughts of another author without authorization and the representation of that author's work as one's own; a piece of writing or other work reflecting such unauthorized use or imitation; literary theft (Dictionary.com).
Copyright infringement / copy·right in·fringe·ment / noun: when a copyrighted work is reproduced, distributed, performed, publicly displayed, or made into a derivative work without the permission of the copyright owner (US Copyright Office).
Copyright infringement, as per Wattpad's Copyright FAQ:
· "Posting the copyrighted works of others without their legal consent;
· "Posting on behalf of an author and giving credit to them. This is still a violation of copyright and will be treated the same way. Consent is ALWAYS required from the author;
· "Adaptations or slight alterations to a work, such as changing names, copying the events and writing them in your own words, changing character point of views, are a violation of copyright."
What Wattpad defines as copyright ownership:
· "Your work is automatically protected under Copyright Law as soon you put it into a fixed format, like writing it down" (Wattpad Copyright FAQ).
·"You own all the rights to the content you create and post on the Wattpad Services. Of course, if the content wasn't yours to begin with, putting it on Wattpad doesn't make it yours. Don't submit content you don't hold the copyright for (unless you have permission, including to grant Wattpad all the rights outlined in these terms)"(Wattpad Terms of Service).
Bottom line: If you don't own it, don't publish it on Wattpad! It's as simple as that. Unless you 1) contacted the author directly, 2) asked for permission to post their work on Wattpad, 3) received their full consent, and 4) gave them full credit, you can't post their work. Doing otherwise is plagiarism.
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