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Library Statement on Plagiarism
posted May 6, 2002

Because of some recent events, the Library is making the following formal statement on how it will handle past and present cases of plagiarism. Plagiarism is stealing the ideas and thoughts of another author and representing them as one's own. An example of this is taking a portion of someone else's story and putting it into your own story without getting permission from and giving credit to the original author. Using sections of a story in which the original portions have undergone minor changes (wording, characters, etc.) but are still reasonably recognizable also qualifies as plagiarism. Plagiarism is wrong and is one of the worst offenses in the writing community because it is the *theft* of another person's creative efforts. As an archive of fan fiction, the Library takes plagiarism (and accusations of plagiarism) very seriously.

From this moment on, any author proven to have plagiarized will have ALL of his or her stories removed from the Library and will be refused the privilege of having future stories archived here. From here forward, all authors are considered duly warned of these consequences of plagiarism.

Because the Library has just instituted this policy, the Library's first case of plagiarism will be dealt with as follows: the author in question has been issued a warning that should she plagiarize again, she will have all her stories removed from the Library.

It is the responsibility of the fan fiction community as a whole to safeguard itself against plagiarism. The Library relies heavily on its readers and writers to alert us to cases of plagiarism, because no single person (not even the well-read librarians) can be reasonably expected to remember all stories so well that she can spot all cases of plagiarism. If a reader or writer discovers what she believes to be a case of plagiarism, she should contact the Library immediately with quoted examples from the original piece and the alleged plagiarized story. The Library, with the help of the original author if necessary, will then make a determination.

Robyn and the CL staff