Which P word? Well it be similar to the way I stole that title from a Skype conversation with Wildone... Figured it out yet?

Plagiarism.

Yep, a thief struck again. I'm sure many of you remember my rant from a few weeks ago about how one of my stories, and 6 other authors' works were plagiarized on another site. A conversation ensued about how to protect your work, as an author, but I never had a chance to post it officially on the site. Well, this time we had a thief try to post their stolen work on GA, but they were busted. I contacted the original author and confirmed the theft, removed the work, removed their account, and our site integrity was restored.

There is a silver lining to plagiarism, which often brings the community together. Unfortunately it happens more often than you might think. Previously we had a large incident with multiple stolen works, which brought us the lovely Cassie Q. She found she liked the site, so she stuck around and continued posting her stories. This go round we have gained another great author, Gee Whillickers. While I hate that it took a theft of their work to bring them GA, I am happy they decided to keep posting here. Make sure you say hi to Gee Whillickers when you see him on the site, or check out his stories posted so far.

So how do you protect yourself against having your stories stolen?

Write bad stories no one wants to steal?

Some think it's a form of flattery, but I'd rather just get a nice review. If you post a story for free online, there's no way to prevent someone from copying it, unfortunately. Some plagiarists, the really lazy ones, just rename it and post it as their own. Others take more effort, changing names of characters, locations, and significant events/themes in the story. I had a daemon story turned into a werewolf fiction. I saw a contemporary story where the main character's gender was changed.

Fortunately for us, the MM reader community is pretty tight. People who read here also read on Awesome Dude, or Archive of Our Own, or Literotica... or many other sites not as well known. Reader discovery accounts for about 25% of the plagiarism we've caught here on the site; usually on work that's posted after the author has left the moderation queue. Why did they wait until then?

Every new author is subject to the mod queue on GA until they hit 75 likes. Until that point, their stories and chapters are checked, partly for our posting and content guidelines, and partly to verify the stories aren't stolen. That's how we tend to catch the other 75%. How do we do this? Can you do it? Yes, you can, and it's really simple.

How to check your stories for plagiarism:

1. Pick a distinctive phrase such as: Nyle looked up nervously as he rode under the portcullis.
2. Search the phrase within quotation marks "Nyle looked up nervously as he rode under the portcullis.".
3. Repeat search with a distinctive phrase without names: "The austere chapel and rigorous training had been a sharp contrast to his youth".

Tips: Search on both Bing and Google. Search phrases from the first chapter and later chapters. DO THIS OFTEN.

How do I get the story removed if I find one that's been stolen?

How to report plagiarism:

1. Look for a report button or a contact us link.
2. Copy the story link to the stolen story.
3. Share the stolen story title, author name, and links to your original. Haven't posted online? Keep copies of all sent mail to beta readers/fans with advanced reader copies of your work to prove when the content was written and sent. Offer to provide a forwarded copy of said email. If you really want to protect your work, purchase an official copyright, especially if you might publish later.
4. Follow up. Most sites will work with you to remove the content. Sometimes you have to take it further to the ISP.

How to issue a DMCA notice:

1. Contact the site owners/ISP with the following information: Your signature, links to your copyrighted work, links to the plagiarized work, your physical and online contact information, a statement in good faith that the plagiarized work is unauthorized, and a statement that your information is accurate under penalty of perjury....

There's a lot more to DMCA notices I don't want to outline here, but there is a great website which explains the process: The DMCA Takedown Notice DeMystified by Ken Liu

Sample notice:

So that's basically it. Search your stories proactively, but feel free to let me know if you need any help. I've had to deal with this type of situation many times, and I'm always willing to give advice or guide a new author through the process.