About reporting theft
So, I came upon a story in LJ that is direct copy of late Thamiris's In Principio. I haven't encountered the author yet, but I'd like to know if there's anything else I can do aside from facing the author directly? Should I report LJ abuse?

ETA: In Principio is not the only thing that the author plagiarized: He also plagiarized Thamiris's journal entries. See this thread for links. I have made an abuse report and informed the mods of tham_preserved at LJ, and I'm in process of informing the mods at the "author's" communities.

ETA II: Comment plagiarism, too. WTF?

ETA III: LJ Abuse hasn't responded yet, but some of the fannish communities that I contacted have reacted. He's been banned from slash and classics_slash (Thamiris was a member in the latter) and both scofield_sucre and pbslash have promised to act. Also, I've made a post at stop_plagiarism that is waiting for mod approval. ETA: pbslash has posted an announcement about what happened. There will be also an announcement at scofield_sucre . (Update: Announcement is up.)

ETA IV: thelana posted this info in

ingrid's LJ-post:

"For what it's worth, boyan_fraser posted in my journal (like here)and I have IP tracking on. It lists his IP as 89.216.183.201. ip-address traces him to Belgrad, Serbia

IP address [?]: 89.216.183.201 Copy [Whois]
IP address country: ip address flag n/a
IP address state: n/a
IP address city: Belgrade
IP address latitude: 44.818600
IP address longitude: 20.468100
ISP of this IP [?]: Srpske Kablovske mreze - Serbia BroadBand (SBB) D.
Proxy: None / Highly Anonymous [Proxychecker]
Organization: IP Range for cable modem customers
Host of this IP: [?]: cable-89-216-183-201.dynamic.sbb.co.yu [Whois]"

ETA V: boyan_fraser's profile is also from Thamiris, and he has been plagiarized her from his first entry on. This just gets worse and worse.

Also, people have wondered if this story of his has also been stolen, although it doesn't seem to be from Thamiris. (According to this, it might be his own.)

ETA VI: Possible courses of action were brought up in this thread (courtesy of

snacky), but because Thamiris didn't want her family to know about her hobby, her family members can't be contacted.

Also, LJ Abuse responds:

"Dear user bofoddity,

Thank you for contacting us with your report of this situation. Though the actions of this user are reprehensible, we are unfortunately unable to accept reports from persons other than the individual directly involved -- in this case, due to the circumstances, we would need to receive a report from a family member of the deceased user. We are not able to accept reports from concerned friends or other users.

If you have the ability to contact such a family member, I urge you to point them to the following link [http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=105] -- this FAQ contains information on how they can make a report to the Abuse Prevention Team so that investigation and proper action can be taken.

Please note that in the case of possible copyright infringement, LiveJournal would require some additional information to be provided before investigation can take place. To file official notification of copyright infringement, a family member will need to follow the steps described at http://www.livejournal.com/legal/dmca.bml. Note that the Report Abuse form linked in the FAQ mentioned previously contains an option for reporting copyright violations, which will then lead the person through the process of filling in all the necessary information through a simple form.

This information is required in order for us to be in compliance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which defines the procedures to handle such reports. Once we have received this notification from a family member, we will require the user to remove the infringing material.

Regards,
Annika
LiveJournal Abuse Prevention Team"

ETA VII: Journal is now being friendslocked.

thedorkygirl has one page saved here.

ETA VIII: Thanks to

jocondite, we have pages!

boyan-fraser's LJ before the locking.
Plagiarized post about cliches.
Plagiarized New Year's post.
Stolen In Principio, page 1.
Stolen In Principio, page 2.
Stolen In Principio, page 3.
Centim gets defensive.

More saved pages here:

http://www.cadarnle.net/plagiarist/30248(page1).html
http://www.cadarnle.net/plagiarist/30248(page2).html
http://www.cadarnle.net/plagiarist/30248(page3).html
http://www.cadarnle.net/plagiarist/30248(page4).html

The explansion of Centim's thread.
Journal before lockdown. (link will be updated)
Stolen profile.
More screencaps here.

These came from

suzvoy:

Resolutions post.
Queer Confessions Of A Fanboy.
mz_bstone's thread on In Principio.
Bunnies poem.
Post on feedback.

ETA IX: I received three files with screencaps from

seperis, which can be uploaded from here:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/t3fclo

An anonymous person also posted a file with boyan-fraser's posts here:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/p009y5

I won't be able to do more updates today, but I will edit the post with the updates when I return.

ETA X:More screencaps and saved pages. These were made by

mally, uploaded by

suzvoy:

meta on journal writing
intent to offer unsolicited concrit
recs/reviews of various scifi books
meta on the pressures of giving feedback/scifi quiz
thoughts on RPS
music rec for Falling You

5th June to 4th July
26th June to 29th August
2nd July to 4th September
29th August to 6th October
1st October to 4th November

meta on how words can have different meanings for different people
deciding not to complete his/her PhD
difference between 'than' and 'then', and feedback woes
ficlet from Iphicles' PoV, 'Patterns'
fic, A Measure of Now II (Ares/Iphicles, NC-17)

Caps by

minotaurs:

Profile, Oct 03, Oct 05, Oct 06, Oct 17, Oct 19, Oct 19 b, Oct 23, Nov 01, Nov 02, Nov 07, Nov 10, Nov 15, Nov 16.

And apparently, he has apologied.

Let me know if I missed something.

Plain ETA:

viva_gloria is locking the post where boyan_fraser showed up, so his comments and responses to them can be viewed here:

boyan-fraser "explains".

Shiny examples include:

Hi. Yeah, I know you hate my guts and I'm the last person you probably
want to hear from right now, but before you spontaneously combust from
rage, can I just ask you one question: how can you presume that you
know who I am and who I was to * (aka Thamiris)? And if I'm just
a "thief" would I be so stupid to steal and post the stuff in a public
journal?

See, there is a perfectly logical explanation -- but why bother, when
you've already chose what you want to believe in? So it doesn't matter
what I have to say, when you don't want to listen, right?

Okay, you can now resume hating me.

And:

If there is a 'perfectly logical' explanation, then you should have
included it with every post. Otherwise--how are we supposed to know?

You weren't supposed to know. That was the idea. HER idea. And I've
already said too much.

I only uploaded the html-file, so it's very bare, but should be readable.

ETA: After managing to ignore it for hours and hours (*headdesk*), here's a link provided by

willow:

http://www.ljseek.com/users/boyan_fraser/

All boyan-fraser's LJ Seek-saved posts. The overall count is 107.

ETA: The "apology" is gone, but it can be read here. I also have a back-up copy saved.

ETA: I'm happy to announce that boyan-fraser has been SUSPENDED.

(Read comments) - (Post a new comment)

snacky
2008-01-04 05:15 pm UTC (link)

Hey,

bof, if you want to add this to the post, please do.

I asked a friend of mine on the LJ Abuse team about this, and here's her response (please bear in mind that when she first answered me, she hadn't seen the report yet, so was speaking only generally, not from any knowledge about this specific case):

The basic answer would be that LJ Abuse would still need to hear from a relatively close family member -- parents, sister/brother, daughter/son, perhaps out to the uncle/aunt/grandparent level. So if anyone knows a family member that can make the report, that'll be the best option -- anyone else (friends, etc) will be told that it has to be a family member.

The possibilities for action would depend on something that I can't research until an actual report is filed -- is it impersonation or is it a copyright issue? Meaning, is the entire journal filled with content that thamiris originally wrote, nothing at all written by the 'real' person? Are they wholeheartedly pretending to *be* thamiris? If so, then it's impersonation, and the journal would likely be suspended as a whole for being an impersonation.

But if it's just this guy who has an otherwise normal 'real' journal for himself, but chose to post a few stories/comments here and there that are someone else's, then it becomes a copyright issue only. The plagiarized material could be taken down, but not the journal as a whole. Meaning, if you, Snacky, chose to go post some stories that weren't yours, that's not impersonation -- you're not actually pretending to be that other person. You're just an idiot that stole a few stories and tried to pass them off. You'd be required to take down the violating material, but your main journal would stay.

Also, if it's more a copyright issue only (not impersonation outright), copyright law requires a specific set of information to be given. If you find a family member to file the report, have them go to this link http://www.livejournal.com/abuse/report.bml -- select the first option, click Begin, select 'copyright violation', click Next, select 'Yes' they are the copyright holder, and then they'll get a form to fill out that asks for all the information we need. Click Continue and there'll be one last 'free form' field where they can then explain the situation in more detail -- they should be clear that thamiris passed away last year and that they are an immediate family member, etc.

Again, it's not LJ asking for the info -- the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) requires that this specific information be filed (from the copyright holder or their authorized agent, in this case a family member) before we can investigate and take any appropriate action.

Let me know if you have other questions about it -- the main thing to 'take away' from my explanation above is that it'll have to be a family member that makes the report.

She also asked this:

Can you make a comment in the appropriate thread wherever that multiple people writing in won't matter? The abuse board is flooding now with friends writing in to report this, and while I truly appreciate their intent and am as horrified as they are at the situation, multiple reports serve no purpose other than to make extra work for the Team. It doesn't matter if 1 or 1000 reports are filed -- if we don't hear from a family member, none of them matter.

I'm not trying to be cruel or heartless (because believe me, someone doing this at all, but especially to a dead person, pisses me off just as much as everyone else), but by law we simply can't accept third-party reports in this situation -- and they're all going to get the same answer saying exactly that.

I don't know if anyone can contact a member of Thamiris's family, but that seems like the next step to take here. Because while it seems more and more like that idiot actually stole pretty much everything from her, I don't know if it counts as impersonation, since s/he's not claiming to be Thamiris.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

	bof 2008-01-04 05:21 pm UTC (link)
	I'll edit it in. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	(Anonymous) 2008-01-04 05:29 pm UTC (link)
	Please, please, edit it out. Thamiris did not want her family to be aware of her lj. (Reply to this)(Parent)

aukestrel
2008-01-04 07:33 pm UTC (link)

LJ is being a little... disingenuous.

You agree to NOT use the Service to:

1. Upload, post or otherwise transmit any Content that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortious, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, invasive to another's privacy (up to, but not excluding any address, email, phone number, or any other contact information without the written consent of the owner of such information), hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable;

and #6 Upload, post or otherwise transmit any Content that infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright, or other proprietary rights of any party;

I can see where #6 applies to the DMCA and copyright infringement, but how does provable fraud - which we have here, as boyan_fraser is passing off her posts as his own - not fall under TOS #1?

If one wrote to LJ and received a response referring to the DMCA and family members, I suggest one then asks what LJ's stance is on fraud.

(Also? Plagiarism is defined as "UNLAWFUL" copying. Again: it falls under TOS #1.)

(Reply to this)(Parent)

	(Anonymous) 2008-01-04 05:24 pm UTC (link)
	I don't believe Thamiris' family knew about her porn hobby, and IIRC when she died people were specifically asked by Thamiris' friends to respect the boundaries she'd set in her life, and NOT to inform them. So I really don't think informing her family is a good idea, unfortunately. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	snacky 2008-01-04 05:31 pm UTC (link)
	Ah, that makes sense, but yeah, it's unfortunate. Hopefully, LJ Abuse will see it as an impersonation issue then. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	(Anonymous) 2008-01-04 05:28 pm UTC (link)
	Tham didn't WANT her family to be aware of her LJ identity or her fanfiction. PLEASE respect that. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	bof 2008-01-04 05:31 pm UTC (link)
	Edited the post. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	snacky 2008-01-04 05:34 pm UTC (link)
	My apologies, anon. I wasn't aware of that, and was not trying to disrespect her wishes, simply trying to offer a suggestion that might help resolve the situation. (Reply to this)(Parent)

(Anonymous)
2008-01-05 12:31 am UTC (link)

"The possibilities for action would depend on something that I can't research until an actual report is filed -- is it impersonation or is it a copyright issue? Meaning, is the entire journal filled with content that thamiris originally wrote, nothing at all written by the 'real' person? Are they wholeheartedly pretending to *be* thamiris? If so, then it's impersonation, and the journal would likely be suspended as a whole for being an impersonation."

It seems like impersonation is the cue. If the profile is lifted from Thamiris's Journal and the postings and responses are lifted then that is an impersonation. Let him/her prove that the postings on their journal are theirs. Thamiris's family doesn't have to be made aware of her journal writings and yet the plagerized material is taken down.

(Reply to this)(Parent)

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