Copyright / Plagiarism

[Michele Nylons]

This is based on my own experiences regrading copyright and plagiarism. For background purposes I'm a newby on Chyoa but I have a considerable body of work on other online story sites and like most amateur authors my earlier works are very 'amateurish' and I often cringe when I read them.

But

As I got better (some will argue: "did you?") I found that most of my better stories were being plagiarized, either by other authors posting them word for word under a different title on free story sites or by commercial online publishers offering my stories using the same title but accredited to another author.

Amazon seems to be the main offender. Stories posted on Literotica are targeted almost on an industrial level. I wasn't aware of this until several readers contacted me and sent me the links. The author forum on Literotica and other story sites have similar posts and discussions regarding this issue.

At first I was outraged and I was of a mind to protest but was advised that nothing would come of it and anyway what could I expect in the way of compensation. Did I want some form of monetary recompense or just to be acknowledged as the author?

Neither was likely to happen and after a while I will admit that my anger dissipated and I comforted myself in the knowledge that someone thought that my stories were good enough to be of commercial value. I suppose that once you write something and post it online you lose control of it.

Others I'm sure will be outraged but I have decided not to try to take on these commercial entities and simply be a little flattered that someone is willing to pay (sparingly I admit) to read my story. If I find my story had been plagiarized on any of the myriad of non-profit online story sites I contact the moderators and report the incident with the view to having the author banned and my story removed.

 

[android1966]

This was an interesting read. I have considerably more ideas for stories than I will ever have the time to write. One idea I had was a retelling of A clockwork orange, but with the protagonist instead of being brainwashed to find violence and sex physically sickening the authorities trick them into signing a consent form and performing a gender reassignment operation. I was not planning to copy word for word, but roughly follow the course of the opening chapters of the book up to Alex's arrest and incarceration.

 

[Michele Nylons]

As many famous authors have stated: there are only so many types of stories to be told. I have used the basic premise of many books I have read and movies and television shows that I have seen for inspiration.

I have written many stories using the same premise that you espouse above as indeed have many authors of transgender fiction. Forced or coerced gender transformation is a popular genre which I think fires the imagination and desires of many closet queens and their admirers.

Probably my most famous story of this ilk is 'Biker Bitch' the tale of a biker who is discovered to be a closeted crossdresser by his outlaw motorcycle club (OMC) and is beaten and left for dead in a shallow grave in the desert.

He is rescued by an unscrupulous FBI agent, given gender reassignment surgery and a new identity and forced to work undercover as a member of an OMC using (her) extensive knowledge of OMC culture and organisation. The concept allowed me to delve into the psyche of the protagonist who is finally able to live their life as the transgender woman they most sorely craved to be whilst exploring narratives of intrigue, love, crime, brutality, acceptance and betrayal.

I was watching Sons of Anarchy when the idea came to me and along with my research fellows Google and Wikipedia, the television show provided me with most of the 'colour' needed to make the premise seem possible.

The characters in the story reappeared in a couple of sequels which introduced many twists and turns.

As an aside, Biker Bitch was also plagiarized and released on Amazon without my consent.

 

[gene.sis]

You should also be able to complain about copyright infringements on Amazon. (I assume that it's not exactly Amazon but third parties who publish other authors' content on Amazon.)
The problem with that might be that you need to provide some information about yourself. (Though maybe it is also possible to have an agent who acts on behalf of you who provides that information.)