FrankenBoyer

Let me introduce you to everyone's new favorite Halloween toy.  A combination of Frankenstein and Gumby.  It's a  futile creature doll modeled after the plagiarizing publisher David Boyer of Vincennes, IN.

The idea came to a toy manufacturer after reading how Boyer tried to stitch together past plagiarisms from real authors into a new, nauseatingly bad  book.   He calls it "Shadow Dolls."  Why is ithis patchwork plagiarism so bad? One six year old expert think it's  "the bad man" stitched them together like a blind seamstress suffering from palsey.  I tend to agree.  But whatever the cause of his ineptness the result is stomach pain bad.

Let's try to understand this new failure of the puerile plagiarist.  Imagine if you will a plagiarist- a man with no creative skills of his own, and so low a character that he steals writings from teenagers and senior citizens alike- trying to blend a potpourri of plagiarism into a novel.  The idea can barely be contained within the human skull.

Perhaps we can gain insight by reaching back into the world of fiction.  In the novel Frankenstein, for example, Dr. Victor Frankenstein is brilliant but misguided in his attempts to create life.  Unfortunately, it was his bad judgement to include a defective brain in his newly created creature.  The results were dubious at best and should be intuitively obvious to the discerning student of human nature.

Likewise, when the pitiful plariazing publisher David Boyer of Vincennes, Indiana attempted to create a book that would be his own from multiple writer's work and not get caught, he started out with a brain issue.

Which is why, to this day, Gumby doesn't write.  You see, if you write using the mind of Gumby, for sure you're going to get Pokied.

I Want to Know- Where Do You Get the Pictures for Your Blog?

She Has Copy Rights, Too

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Artists have Copyrights, too.  Most of us bloggers, even with the best intentions, from time to time forget that.  Jonathon Bailey wrote an extremely helpful article on this back on July 14, 2009.  Here's the address for his article: http://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2009/07/14/creative-commons-image-search/
I recommend every writer who blogs read it.  Most of us are focused on copyright infringement as it it pertains to writing.  We run non-commercial blogs and we do it because we love to write about all things writing related.  But after being plagiarized, I learned that pictures have to be attributed properly to be used. 

Some of you may have noticed that for months I have been buying photos to use in my blog and going backward to replace photos and pictures that I can't remember where I got the originals from (PhotoBucket, mostly) with new pictures that I purchased the right to use.  I've been using iStock Photo for this purpose, since they have a good reputation.  I've even taken down a year's worth of posts to eliminate anything that I might have questions about in deference to artists and photographers.  All that's left are postings with pictures I've bought rights to use.

Maybe I've gone to extremes here, but I'm trying to learn from the mistakes that David Boyer made.  I have to admit, his actions have made me think.  After I saw that he'd used Ben Templesmith's art on the cover of some of his books without getting permission, I started to think that this must have been accidental or incredibly stupid.  Who would blatantly steal from a famous artist and expect not to get caught?  But he did it for money, not on a non-commercial blog so in the end what he did was very, very wrong. 

So I have to ask all of you- where do you get the pictures you use on your blog?  How do you make sure you're treating artists and photographers the right way on your blog?  Is it enough to attribute the creator, or do we need to get written permission?

Plagiarist Smackdown!!!

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Has David Boyer (hiding under the name David Byron and all his other names) plagiarized Activision? 

Compare the two covers above.  You tell me.

When respected publishing icon Tyree Campbell of Sams Dot Publishing agreed to publish the anthology "Crimson Screams" which was edited by David Byron (Boyer), "Iron" Dave(Boyer) told Mr. Campbell that he would provide his (David Boyer's) own artwork- this according to Mr. Campbell, who is above reproach.  But this was before he knew about Boyer's/Byron's plagiarism issues.  So Mr. Campbell, who is the most honest publisher you could ever ask to deal with, might have been taken in like the rest of us.  If so, then he's not very happy, either.

So tell me, in your opinion, after claiming that he (David Boyer/ David Byron) provided his own original artwork to Mr. Campbell, has Mr. Boyer (Byron) really ripped off Activision and Sam's Dot Publishing or what?  Or do you think he got written permission from Activision?  He never mentioned any of this to Mr. Campbell, so maybe he was trying to avoid asking for written permission.  So much easier to just take what's not yours and try to profit from it.  Compare the pictures again.  If he did rip them off,  do you think Activision is going to stand for that??

Now that Activision's lawyers have been notified, how pissed are they? 

If corporate lawyers were salsa, do you think they'd be mild, hot, or flaming hot over him taking their picture and claiming it as his own?  I can't wait to find out.



I think "Iron" Dave is starting to rust.