Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't have said a peep about this. But this time around I just couldn't keep my mouth shut, so here I am, jumping on the bandwagon.
I am not going to bother giving long winded explanations. If you do a Google search using the keywords "Story Siren blog" you'll find a LOT and I do mean a L-O-T of information on the topic at bar.
Now, if you have read some of the summaries you found, I encourage you to go here and here.
Why am I posting this at all? Well, I have found several blogs that actually are of the opinion "that things have been blown out of proportion". Since I think that plagiarism is something that will not go away any time soon, and given the fact that the perpetrator this time around (the owner of Story Siren) posted a non-apology "apology" (which is standard when plagiarists get caught), I would have just shrugged and moved along. Let's face it, this type of incident happens and will continue to happen, and invariably with all due time they totally blow over. However, that being said, this time around there is one fundamental difference: the actual victims of the plagiarism have been harassed by a bunch of friends and/or fans of the plagiarist. The matter is now even worse, as the owner of Story Siren has kept quiet on that particular matter (the harassment), implicitly condoning the said harassment.
This seems to be something that is flying right over the heads of some people and what has motivated me to post my very short comment on this topic. Again, plagiarism has always existed and will continue to exist, and this sort of incident usually does blow over quickly, but this time around the rules of the game have changed, and that is what makes this particular incident disturbing and upsetting in the eyes of many readers, as well as adding a major point of concern. How is this bullying of the victims going to affect the acts of those that in the future may find themselves in the same position as the victims of this latest plagiarism scandal? I don't know if it's the fact that this time it involved the YA online reading community and a couple of blogs that have nothing to do with reading; but fact remains that there is a rather disturbing element that has been thrown into the standard mix, and I can't help but wonder how is it going to influence online interactions among bloggers, readers, etc. in the future. I guess only time will tell, but I do believe this is very much a matter of concern, and I do believe this time there is more than one difference that makes the matter go above and beyond a standard plagiarism scandal.
Mireya
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