While this isn’t the first time it’s happened, and most likely won’t be the last, that doesn’t make what I’m about to say any less infuriating. It’s coming to light right now that there’s yet another plagiarist on the scene. This time, they weren’t even “creative” enough to take bits and pieces of someone else’s work and mold them into their own. This time, an author by the name of Hunter Green has decided it would be okay to head over to Archive Of Our Own and copy the words of a fanfic author.
Now, maybe this Hunter figured that fanfic isn’t original writing, so it was fair game to copy the story, change the title, toss up a cover, and call it a day. The thing is, fanfic authors are often incredibly creative. Yes, they use the world someone else created as a springboard, but then they make it something different. Many times, they continue stories which have been abandoned by studios and allow the characters to live on. Other times, they play the ultimate game of “what if…” and build entirely new scenarios and worlds. In either case, THEY OWN THOSE WORDS.
Because plagiarism is a very serious accusation, here are a couple of screen shots. There’s ZERO denying what’s happening here.
Gravity’s Got Nothing on You by zosofi Summary:
Assholes in Love by Hunter Green Description:
But that’s just the blurbs, right? WRONG! Take a look at the first chapter:
GGNOY
AIL
I could keep going all day, but I think you get the point.
I have no clue what the answer to this problem is, other than for readers and authors to stand up and say this will NEVER be okay. The moment an author puts their words to paper, they own them. Unless they say it’s okay to copy and paste, it’s nothing short of theft.
Hopefully, Amazon will quickly take note of what’s happened and pull the plagiarized copy from their store. That will take care of this instance, but what about the next one? What can we do to get people to understand what they’re doing to the entire book community when they try to pass of others’ words as their own?
I don’t know the answers to these questions, but something needs to happen. Otherwise, authors are going to have to constantly be on the lookout for someone stealing their hard work and profiting from it.
If you’d like to read Gravity’s Got Nothing on You, you can read it FREE on Archive of Our Own.
Are you KIDDING me? Asshole’s in love? And from fanfic? How do these people SLEEP at night???