Update on Wattpad

I received a response from Wattpad. They didn't delete the chapters; they only disabled access to it. Just in case the plagiarist insists they really did write my fic or something (so I'm going to be really petty and bitter and say that you're really going to believe someone who can't even spell "goddess" in their username can really come up with my fic?).

So I don't feel relieved about this outcome. I mean if you're going by dates of publication, one of the things you cannot edit here on ffnet is the date you've posted your story. You also cannot edit the date a review is posted to the story. So very clearly, it's documented here that this fic was first published on December 31, 2010.
(I still remember trying to finish that first chapter so I can publish it before the New Year's countdown started.)

I'm not familiar with wattpad, but when I was investigating how far the plagiarist reposted my story, there are no dates listed on wattpad on when a story gets posted. The only dates you'll find are on the comments and messages. And judging from the comments the plagiarist received when they reposted chapters 1 to 16 of this fic, they did it around 2017.

You're probably asking why did I only find this out now, four years later?
Well, I'm one of those people who try to have faith that other people won't be stupid enough to plagiarize any of my stories. So I only found out about this when someone on twitter was facing this problem and decided to see if it happened to me too. And holy shit, yes, someone decided to repost chapters 1 to 16 on there.

I think the only comfort I'm finding with wattpad's response to my claim is that the plagiarist posts RPF (real people fiction). This means that the plagiarist actually faces a bigger legal ramification in using real people's names and images (Dr4k3, N1ck1 M1n4j, R1h4nn4, B3y0nc3, etc). They're also embedding photos of these celebrities in their stories; photos that they definitely don't have the rights to.

Investigating this plagiarist, I wouldn't be surprised if the other stories they posted on their account also belongs to other writers. I'm just not as familiar with other people's work to recognize them since I don't read as much fic as I used to. If any of you are curious as to who the plagiarist is, I did post screencaps of their page with their username right on display on my livejournal (the-tower-room) and tumblr (thetowerroom) when I posted on there about this situation. Feel free to check out their other stories to see if they sound like you've read them from other writers and let those writers know their work has been reposted so they can file a report on wattpad.

To the readers who have sent me messages and comments: thank you. I'm very grateful for the support and empathy you've sent.

Please stay well.

caledon
Oct 7, 2021