How To Catch a Plagiarist

Let's Go Sherlock on these Clowns

So you've written a novel, a story or a poem, or created a graphic design.  You were pretty confident that you owned it and no one could take it from you without your permission.  Then, you read about David Boyer, who plagiarized my work, Lisa Morton's work, Jane Baxter's work and even seems to have stooped to grabbing Activision's copyrighted artwork.  Suddenly you're not so confident anymore.  You realize that you don't even know how to find out if your work has been stolen. 

What can you do to find out?  Finding the answer to that question is the first step to catching a plagiarist.

If you're an artist/graphic designer and are looking to see if your work has been plagiarized, I suggest going to the website Tin Eye to use their reverse image lookup.  Take an image of your own work, upload it and watch as it goes through over a billion web images in mere seconds so you can see if someone else is using it.  My lead researcher discovered this resource, and I suggest you use it.

If you're a writer, you've probably heard about sites like The Rusty Nail, or Preditors and Editors or Writer Beware.  They keep you up to date with the latest information about who to watch out for.  The HWA's Lisa Morton has written a powerful cautionary piece called "PIRATES! Or, How to Protect Your Intellectual Property on the High Seas of the Internet."

And now I'll share what my researchers learned along the way:

First, plagiarists, as they get more canny, will change the titles of your work so that you can't easily find what they do.  But you should still look for your titles first.  But remember, titles are not copyrightable so you will probably run into a few works using your title.  Maybe you'll find some of your own stories under the title you gave them.  That would be great, but don't stop there because, as I said, they can also change the titles on you.

What next?  Take unique blocks of texts from your story and search the net for them with your favorite search engine.  Sometimes that will yield the good result.  Other times not, even if your story is actually out there.  What to do?  What can we do if they change the titles.  I was at a loss.

But here's something interesting that my lead researcher discovered- a lot of the works plagarized are available through Google, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc. with searchable contents.  Take the books you suspect and use those searchable contents to your advantage by looking for your unique blocks of text within those windows.  You'll even be able to see the Table of Contents- and maybe just see your title there.


And screenshot every violation you find- that way when the plagiarist goes back to delete the evidence, you'll still have what you need to prove your case.


Plagiarists want to use the Internet to steal our creative work, sell it or give it away as a free download like Boyer did to me.

Let's turn the tables and use the Internet against them.  And we don't have to fight them alone.  When we find we've been plagiarized- we can let our friends in the Blogosphere know.  You'll be surpised how many good people willing to help.  

Help Pin the Tail on this Plagiarist.

He Can't Write So He Stole My Story

"Electrocuting the Clowns"



I wrote a short story titled "Electrocuting the Clowns."  It was copyrighted in 2003 in an anthology called "Beyond the Porch Light."  Check it out on Amazon and you'll see I wrote it and that the story is there and was copyrighted in 2003. 

Here's one of many places this guy publishes my story under his name: http://www.booksie.com/horror/short_story/horrormaster/electrocuting-the-clowns.  There's more and he's clumsy.

As  a member of the National Writers Union, UAW Local 1981, I am fortunate enough to be able to report this a plan for investigating this action.  The first step was to research everything about him and his activities.

Here's his bio/lies at this link: http://authordavidboyer.webs.com/photos/My-book-covers/IndieFilmHandbookR2.pdf on page 233.  To save you the work of having to click there, here's what this clown says about his work:

About The Author 


David Byron is the founder/CEO of NVF Magazine, an online publication
that promotes Indie filmmakers, actors, actresses, FX artists, graphic artists,
and musicians. He is the author of five non-fiction books, including The
Queens of Scream, Film Prodigies & Legends, Cinemassacres, Hot & Horrifying:
The First Ladies of Horror, and The Indie Filmmakers Handbook.
His other credits now include fiction writer, poet, screenwriter, producer,
and editor. His short stories, Electrocuting The Clowns and The First Cut Is The
Deepest, were both nominated for a Bram Stoker Award in 2008. He lives in
Indiana with his cats, Toby and Buckwheat, who are both a constant inspiration
for another story or film. You may view his magazine at www.freewebs.
com/nvhmag1 or email him at his personal email, db5948@gmail.com.

I know I wrote "Electrocuting the Clowns" and am going after that, but does anyone know who wrote "The First Cut is the Deepest?"  Did he steal that from someone else?

I've already notified the HWA about this guy.  I can't find any record of either story being nominated.  They cite this stuff on the web.

Oh, and his real name seems to be David Boyer.  He uses a lot of names.  Doc Byron, Iron Dave, David Boyer (real name), David Brookes, Leo Wolfe, Jerry Burkette.

Also, I'm notifying Lulu.com of the need to cease and desist making the story available to people and asking for what monies they paid out for the stolen property.  Amazon is next and... well, you get the picture.
Including the South African magazine.
 
This loser even cites my story on his Mingle web site.

But will you help me find out as much as I can about this man and his plagiarist activities.  This could happen to any of us.  I'm sure most of you are more web savvy than I am, and I'd appreciate the benefit of your knowledge and skills.  It's important that we stop this guy because there are other people on the web who say that he stole their work as well. 


This plagiarst poses as an editor looking for submissions to his magazines, but is he really looking for stories to steal so he can claim he wrote them?  Please look into this and see what you can find out about his activities.  Check out how many places on the web where he sells my story: 

He's selling it as a download on Lulu.com.  He's published it in a South African magazine.  He's got it in an anthology.  Take a look at these three links as starting points:

Play detective.  See how much you can find out about this creep.

This could happen to you, too.  So I'd appreciate your help. 

How would you stop this clown?  What can we do as a community of honest writers to bust plagiarists?

Have you ever looked on the web to see what's been stolen from you?