Thoughts on this thing some authors do?

i don’t know if any of you guys have read these kind of stories, but i’ve seen some authors directly copy and make an episode version of popular (or not-so-popular) physical books. take dork diaries as an example. if you read carefully, at the beginning of those books (or any book in general) you will see a page about the copyright information that always (basically) says that no part of the publication may be reproduced, and you must have written permission of the publisher if you do so. these episode authors doing this completely ignore that and just reproduce it. although it is never listed in those books, reproducing the publication can include making an episode version of it. it is very likely that the authors who do this don’t have permission to redistribute these non-episode stories. what are your thoughts on this thing they do? i personally think that it’s wrong.

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if they are directly copying, then what they are doing is illegal and they should stop and take their story down

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they are. if you search “dork diaries” or smthn on the episode search bar and read some of the stories, you will see that they are word-for-word writing the dialog in the book series.

then you report the story, its against the rules, or contact @tyler

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Yes it is wrong. I mean you could take inspiration from something or just come up with a similar idea but like obviously it’s not okay to rewrite The Hunger Games in an episode from or something like that even if you do have permission from the author and publisher because of episode guidelines.

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This is totally against Episode’s guidelines, and even if it wasn’t it’s morally wrong. You cant just take someones creative property and use it for your own personal gain without permission. And it’s not really fair that they get away with this either, because other authors have to come up with their own original ideas

Now taking inspiration from someone’s work is fine, we even do that unconsciously sometimes

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Moved to Episode Fan Community since Community is for discussion of specific stories. Make sure to check out our Forum Tutorial for more info about creating topics, and feel free to PM me if you’ve got questions. :wink:

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It’s totally wrong, morally, and technically. Morally… you’re stealing someone’s work! The author of that story has spend months writing it, and you just convert that into some cheap Episode story? And for those saying that they’ve seen other rip offs before, that makes no sense! For stories like Mean Girls and Clueless, and stories featuring celebrities like the Dolan Twins and Demi Lovato, Episode got permission from them to feature their name and brand. I seriously doubt any of these books stealers got permission from Ms. Author (idk her name) to use her work. Also, technically, it’s wrong, because it totally goes against the community guidelines. This might be one of the few things I agree with Episode with here, and it’s a very valid rule! Please report stories like these. It’s so wrong to do this. To steal someone’s work they worked so long on.

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If they copy everything than it’s not okay, but if they change it, in some way than it would be appropriation which is legal and okay

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That’s so wrong
you can take inspiration from real work and make it your own
you can even take elements if you change it or credit it
but blatantly copy though? I’d be reporting them if I ever came across
I remember reading a story that seemed oddly familiar to perfect chemistry so I go to the fanmail, Im not the only who noticed this, author said she took inspiration but, it seemed like an almost exact copy

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We need to come up with our own ideas, shaking my head…
All it takes is for one to just lay there on their bed, stare at the ceiling, and think of something creatively.
(That’s just an example, lmao.)

If you will view this and think that you’re not creative, you’re wrong. You’re creative, one way or another. No matter how much time it’ll take, you can come up with a creative story idea too with just some thought and time!

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okay, can I just say…Dork Diaries…omg ‘squeee’ - that was my childhood book, read every single book!! Mackenzie and Nikki haha ‘I hate it when she sashays’ :joy: :joy:
but yeah to answer the actual thread, I’d report them because it’s flat out copying

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If you see any stories that are plagiarized work, please do report these stories and say in the report what story they are plagiarizing. PMing @Tyler would probably be the easiest way.

Same thing for reporting artwork. Tracing and/or copying the direct likeness of another person is not acceptable.

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Directly copying like that is illegal. I would report the story or kindly remind the author. It is important to take those stories down and make sure that the author is aware of what they are doing.

It happens very rarely where an author is completely unaware of another story that seems so similar to theirs that it looks like the Episode author copied though. Even so, it is still wrong in my opinion (even if it wasn’t their intention).

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Hey! If you find any works on the app that are directly plagiarizing publicly known works send a PM to @Tyler with the names of the stories and the uthie. He will investigate it cause that’s his job :slightly_smiling_face:

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