Oct
14th
2020
[UPDATED] My story was copied and published to Wattpad · 12:08am Oct 14th, 2020
Looks like they took it down thankfully. Maybe they got my message or Wattpad stepped in after I messaged them on Twitter. Either way, I think the issue is resolved! I should really consider uploading to Wattpad. I know this wouldn't prevent other users from potentially copying my work, but at least people can know where and who the original writer is so they can tell if it's copied next time.
So it looks like someone decided to take my Welcome to Canterlot High story and publish it on Wattpad without my permission.
https://www.wattpad.com/story/201163583-thomas-and-friends-welcome-to-canterlot-high
Does anyone know if I can report this as my stolen/infringed story even though I'm not the owner of Thomas or MLP?
Report
LPFanFic · 1,034 views
· Story: Thomas & Equestria Girls: Welcome to Canterlot High
·
#Wattpad
#Stolen
#Copywrite
#Plagiarism
#Copy
#Infringement
#Crossover
#EquestriaGirls
Well ignoring the possible copyright violations of your story the other copy is i would think could still be taken down for plagiarism or something as its still your writing. Stealing a "stolen" work doesn't make the act not illegal.
Just to be clear I'm not saying you did or didn't do anything wrong but regardless of the legality of your actions they have stolen your work which is wrong.
Well I just tried reporting it and one of options I came across was this.
. So I say yes report it and to do that you look right of the table of contents and scroll down until you see a greenish circle with an exclamation point in it with the phrase, report this story next to it. But just be aware that Wattpad uses the DMCA takedown system and that will require you giving out some personal information like first/ last name, address, phone number, and email. Weather or not the person you are trying to report will see any of that I am not to sure.
5377418
That's why I'm kinda hesitant to report it. Obviously I'm not the owner of MLP or T&F so reporting copied content would be like me saying they're using characters/shows that I don't have real, legal ownership of. But that just gives them freedom to blatantly copy my writing word for word.
5377502
Well if its a non commercial transformative work it should be allowed under fair use from what I can tell.
This might be worth a read but the import bit is this.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.syfy.com/syfywire/how-to-keep-fanfiction-legal-and-avoid-trouble-with-lawyers%3famp
One question they get often at the OTW is whether they, a fanfiction author, actually have a copyright to their work. Short answer: yes.
"Fans own copyright in their own original contributions to a fanwork — they don’t own anything about the underlying work it’s based on, but they do own what they have made," Rosenblatt says. "The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) allows copyright owners, including fan-authors, to request that something be taken down if it infringes copyright."
This is why I hate Wattpad.
It's not just about the Wattpad. People are used to considering everything that can be found on the Internet as their own. The concepts of plagiarism and copyright mean nothing to many. I work with a content manager and deal with large texts, so I regularly use https://phdessay.com/check-for-plagiarism/ to check papers for uniqueness. Moreover, there have been cases when a writer thinks he wrote the author's content but researching the same source as another author received a big match in the text. Anyway, I'm glad it all ended well for you