InsaneJournal

I'd make that Cassie Edwards post but it seems this wank is far from over. Smart Bitches Trashy Books readers offered to take on Cassie Edwards novels to see if there was anything else to find--and they found (among pages and pages and pages of other things) that the woman'd taken chunks out of a Pulitzer-winning novel from 1930.

Big, clunky, recognizable chunks.

Fandom_wank is linking left and right here and here.



Okay, whatever. I'm going for it.

Thankfully, Signet has finally decided to start taking this shit seriously (going back on their initial statement that Edwards had "done nothing wrong") and thus I am spared the moral conundrum of how to bite back at their publishing house without aversely affecting their innocent n00b or mid-list authors. Too bad I can't figure out a way to boot some of these Edwards defenders' brain cells through the computer, though. These people are trolling SBTB and Dear Author, and have shown a dazzling (if somewhat predictable) array of logical failure.

If you have time to check things like that then you need to get a life!
Say (general)you see a crime being committed. If you report it or try to stop the criminal, does that mean you need to get a life?

You've done the outing, now you should just let it go!
Signet tried to brush this under the rug when it came out. We (as bloggers, readers, buyers, and anti-plagiarist individuals) have every reason to believe it’s because of our massive outcry that they’ve taken back their initial statement. Why should we believe that they’ll continue to do the right thing if we ease up on the pressure?

Besides--people keep catching other things she’s stolen, and (to lift a phrase) I'm curious as to how deep this rabbit hole goes.

It’s fair use!
Fair use requires citations. This was her passing off a number of other people’s work, both fiction and non-fiction, frequently word for word, as her own. That’s plagiarism. Big difference.

You’re just attacking her! You just wanna ruin her career!
I’ll mock her for being a shitty writer while I get the flamethrower for the plagiarism, sure. But shitty writing is just shitty for the people who have to read or edit it. Plagiarism is another full fly-infested pit of feces entirely. And no, I firmly believe that plagiarists should not get publishing contracts—especially those like Edwards, who refuse to understand or acknowledge that they’ve done wrong. Come on, now. Publishing a known plagiarist is like having some guy who's promised you a nice date taking you to a barnyard and nailing a sheep in front of you, then calling you back the next day to ask for another date. Are you gonna say to yourself, "Well, he was such a nice person--Maybe his sheep-fucking days are over and I should give him another try!"

Of course you wouldn't!

Readers are pulling stolen chunks out of books Edwards published from 1983 to 2007. This woman has made a career out of stealing other people’s work. Why the hell should it continue? And why should we try to protect Edwards from the consequences of her own actions?

It has to be proven in a court of law!
I don’t know where the fuck people get off with this. It’s right there, in writing and in almost mirrored text. It’s not cited. That’s plagiarism. John M. Barrie, the guy who helped create anti-plagiarism software for colleges, has called it plagiarism. That really means it’s plagiarism. You’re telling me that you don't believe your eyes or an expert in the field, that you need a judge to spell out to you that these texts are the same? Are you fucking serious?

Add in how plagiarism in and of itself isn’t illegal (though hideously unethical), but copyright infringement is, and your demand for a criminal trial becomes a little ludicrous I guess I’ll have to start pulling the still-in-copyright stuff she’s been caught stealing. Like the encyclopedia bits and research books and Pulitzer winners and wildlife magazine articles, and the fully lifted author's note, and . . . Jeez, I need a beer. But for the still-being-compiled list of what's been hit, check here.

Why does it matter, she isn’t selling nearly as much now anyway!
So it’s okay because she’s already made money off pretending someone else’s work is her own?

But she’s an old woman and you’re just being mean to her!
Please tell me what age I must be to no longer be held responsible for my actions.

(The ubiquitous) You’re just jealous! *invocation of Godwin's law, Snacky's law, so forth*
Because outing someone for stealing and hating the fact that they stole has something to do with jealousy. And speaking out against that is an act of treachery, treason, unnecessary aggression, and just plain meanness. Really now.



May add more later. Still being angry. But this is certainly a wank of legend.


But for the happiness to this massive wankstorm: Nora Roberts! I think I love Nora Roberts now. I still haven't read her stuff but after reading her posts during the Lanaia Lee wank and seeing her have the balls to stand up and decry Edwards's actions to the AP (when so many authors are quiet in an attempt to not rock the metaphorical boat and when that moron Jennifer Crusie jumped into the fray to decry SBTB's outing as bullying when the posts themselves were remarkably objective) . . . I want to send her shiny things.