Tuesday, October 05, 2010

Lisa Morton Stands Up to the Plagiarist


I'm sure that most of you will be familiar with the wonderful writer Lisa Morton
You'd think with her resume and accomplishments, she'd be immune from plagiaristic theft.  I won't go into the details now, but let me share with you how she stood up to the man as taken from the letter she wrote to him after reading this blog and finding out she'd had her story stolen, too!

"Dave:


I did not give you permission to use the story with YOUR NAME on it as author, nor did I give you permission to post it at online sites such as Booksie. Crediting the story to yourself is plagiarism, plain and clear. The story has now been removed from Booksie per my request, but I have a copy of the PDF, which I've attached here. The PDF clearly lists "Doc Byron" as the author; the story even generated compliments for you at Booksie, which you did nothing to dispel. You stole my story."

How's that for standing up for her rights?  She's a great example for the rest of us.  We don't have to tolerate plagiarism.

And all of you out here who have been supportive (and I can't believe how many of you there are!), it's your success, too.

I've asked him to come forward and confess, apologize, give us all a list of his various aliases and make a commitment to leave these bad practices behind.  I'm still waiting.  So we wait. What do you think?  Will he come forward?

In the meantime, let's see how many of his other aliases we can identify.

MySpace Tracker

27 comments:

ANNA-LYS said...

Wonder, has anyone ever meet this person f2f, an ani-male, yes, but do we know he is a male? Better look under female names as well.

This clown seem to have no creativity, and a tiny brain due to the way the publishing has been done (kept the titles etcetera). So I guess a female name should be quite similar to the male names like Doc Byron, David Byron.

I am not English so I can't continue this thought without Your help. What female named can be similar "Davida"? "Doris"?

David Byron, the real legend from Uriah Heep, had an other name when he was born; David Garrick ...

A horrible thought is that this clown probably has published photo of "him"self, that might be stolen from an unknown site online. Again has anyone has f2f-contact with the clown?

Just a little thinking
a little outside the box :-)

ANNA-LYS said...

btw can You please make a list on Your sideboard of the clowns names so far, it is easier to detect,

laughingwolf said...

lisa morton, well done, indeed!

anna-lys, great thinking!

Anonymous said...

What a yutz. Who else are we going to find out he's stolen from? I hope it's someone huge with a lot of money for legal fees!

B said...

Here are the MySpace accounts I found from the infamous David Boyer:

http://www.myspace.com/1stladiesofhorror
http://www.myspace.com/thevagabondheart (jb7731@l***.com)
http://www.myspace.com/nightmaretvshow (IronDave59@*****.com)
http://www.myspace.com/FFOFRIGHT
http://www.myspace.com/good_bad_guys
http://www.myspace.com/kingsofscreamthefilm (irondv9@*****.com)
http://www.myspace.com/nvfonline (db5948@*****.com)
http://www.myspace.com/indiefilmshandbook
http://www.myspace.com/nvhpublishing
http://www.myspace.com/prodigiesandlegends

I think it's time for me to go take something for my PMS!

Ferrel and Lisa, I am so sorry you have had to go through this; however, on the bright side, we have all learned much about plagiarism, how to find it and how to get the word out to fellow writers.

What warms my heart and spirit is the community of writers I have discovered.

Charles Gramlich said...

Another day, another alias for him I imagine. How much pain one idiot with an internet connection can cause.

B said...

Oh, I also want to say thank you to David Boyer for giving me an outlet for my irritability, but I would rather not had your plagiarism as an outlet and had chocolates instead.

Lisa Morton said...

You'll enjoy this, I think:

http://cinriter.livejournal.com/194408.html

Rick said...

That really is thinking outside the box, ANNA-LYS. Wouldn't that be something? I have to think about this as well.

Rick said...

Hello Christine. So many people have been forwarding me information on this that suggests it's a much bigger problem than I thought. His "screenplays" for Indie films is next on the list.

Rick said...

B, you are a born researcher!

Rick said...

Hey Charles! He's devoted so much energy to being stealing other people's work I wonder how much good he could have accomplished if he'd stayed focused on better things.

Lisa Morton is just the first of many to come. She's a wonderfully forthright person and a strong role model for those still coming forward.

ANNA-LYS said...

Maybe the second comment in This Link
could put a little smile on Your lips.

ANNA-LYS said...

and it is in his own hometown :-D

Unknown said...

So, for humorous intent, enjoy his "Shoutlife" profile bio:

http://edgychristianfictionlovers.ning.com/profile/DavidBBoyer

Dubbed by some of his friends as ''then hardest working ''unknown'' man in horror,'' he has accepted this honor with pride, but is now branching out into different genres and other projects that will not dwell within the horror genre.
'' I have found the horror genre these days to be lacking in originality,'' he recently told someone in an interview. '' It has started to become stale, cliched. All I see when I look at the book store shelves is vampires, zombies, and serial killers. And horror films don't fare much better. The seemingly endless - and shameless - lame remakes and sequels to classic horror films almost borderlines on the ridiculous. Writers of horor films and fiction have seemed to have lost grasp on what key elements are necessary for a well-crafted horror film script or story.''

Hear that folks? Horror writing is "lacking in originality!"

James

B said...

Here is a bit about Boyer/Byron's Indie Film career:

http://www.fangirltastic.com/content/hot-and-horrifying-documentary-will-it-be-hot-or-just-horrifying

I especially love this part:

"He's just trying to write a book without writing a book and make a documentary without shooting any film"

Lana Gramlich said...

He has no reason to fess up, unfortunately. Not to mention that he's just a coward. I actually exchanged a couple of e-mails with him (during which he didn't DENY what he'd done, interestingly enough.)
BTW, I answered your questions over on my blog.

Rick said...

Lana, he actually already sent me an admission and apolgy letter to post on my blog, but he did it using the fake name David Byron instead of his name David Boyer, and didn't provide a list of all his screen aliases he's operated under so that the other people he's hurt can find out what's happened to their stories so I'm not posting it until he does.

Meantime, I'm preparing to take it to court and continuing to follow all leads on the web that tie back to him. Then, we contact whatever writers and artists he's wronged and notify them to bring us together for a group legal action.

We have screen shots of everything he has on the web that we find and more piling up all the time.

And we are preparing the formal grievance process with the National Writers Union UAW Local 1981.

There's more, but I'll email you and Charles about that privately.

Whirlochre said...

Never trust anyone with more than one alias.

Rick said...

Whirlochre, I never thought of it that way before, but now I agree with you.

Mike Wilkerson said...

A buddy of mine shot me over to your site, Rick. Not only is it a crap ass thing this guy is doing, but now I've got to stay on the lookout as well; he published one of my stories on his old site, Ligature Marks.

In hind site, this guy always seemed a little suspicious: always sending me updates saying he'd changed his email. The site going down due to a serious illness. His amazing bio, even though nobody'd ever heard of him. What a douche.

Kudos for you and Lisa for takin' it to him and also thanks for keeping us updated. I hope in the end this turns out well for all involved.

Except Iron Dave, of course.

Rick said...

Hi, Mike- Would you be willing to pass along details to us of where he plagarized your story? We're getting together as large a group for litigation as we can. Every little bit helps.

He hasn't agreed to confess completely, apologize, and provide us with a list of aliases so that we can make them available to everyone to check and see what stories of theirs might be plagiarized.

Also, if you're willing to help, the details of his methods will help others come forward. He seems to operate like most predators employing alternately friendliness and bullying tactics.

What we're also wondering if he's part of a small group of publishers doing the same thing. Most predators of this type link together to boast about how smart they are and how stupid everyone else is. If this is the case, we all need to be on the lookout for people associated with him exhibiting the same tactics. Whatever anyone can find out about this will help.

Another behavior common in such predators is their last ditch desperate efforts to turn themselves into the victim. Apparently David has a history of using medical issues as excuses. I've seen postings about this that are just disturbing.

And thank you again, Mike!

Rick said...

B- that Indie career thing is something I want to know a lot about. He mentioned at one point doing a screenplay on my story "Electrocuting the Clowns."

I've also heard that he has a new book coming out about spirituality- yep, you heard me right- named "Into the Light" or something light that.

Oddly, on the web he claims to have been saved as a Christian in 2003- a few years before he stole and began selling my story claiming it was his. Maybe he'll explain this in his confession and apology if he ever comes forward with the list of all his aliases so all of you can check to see if he's stolen stories from you.

Travis Cody said...

Sounds like y'all are really getting after this clown. Glad to hear it!

Robin B. said...

As a fellow writer, I take the theft of intellectual property very seriously. The part of this that matters deeply is - it is THEFT.

It would be good to know what legal penalties are available. Theft of a car, after all, can put a person in prison.

Mike Wilkerson said...

Rick- sorry, I probably wasn't very clear. So far there's been no plagarism with my work from this cat. Rather, it's just a pain knowing he's doing it to other people and at any time down the road he could do it to me as well.

Good luck and I'll keep my eyes peeled.

Rick said...

Thanks, Mike!