Plagerism? Plagarism? Oh, Plagiarism!
Anyone want more plagiarism wank?

So, many months ago, a fellow named Ozmandayus (Shawn) was outed. See, he'd spent the past few years plagiarizing from X-Files fandom in Buffy, Smallville, Dark Angel, and Power Rangers. The linked web site apparently contains evidence that he'd plagiarized some 30 authors in 9 stories.

And for some reason, after months in hiding, he suddenly returns.

From: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BX_Fanfic/

Hi Everyone

Shawn here, formerly known as Ozmandayus. Months ago, before the new
year, allegations were raised on my old Yahoo Group that I was
stealing stories and rewriting or altering parts and passing it off as
my own work. Addie Logan was one of the first if not the first people
to accuse me, and she was telling the truth. I was the one who lied
when the allegations first sprung up because of extreme shame and of
course, stupid cowardly fear.

Over the five plus years of my writing fanfic there were times I stole
parts of scenes from stories written in the X-Files universe and
rewrote them, then added them into my own stories. I plagiarized their
work, and for that I am so very sorry. 85% of my work was written by
me and the vast majority of what I stole was the NC-17 parts, which I
altered or rewrote at different times. Nonetheless, I did what I was
accused of, and on three occasions early on in my writing I took big
parts of stories. As time past, my ego grew as did a don't care
attitude, the stories became more and more my own work. But many times
stories contained pieces of other stories I did not write. To all my
fans, friends, those authors I stole from, those who owned websites
that housed my work, those that defended me when the allegations came
out, as well as those that brought my deeds to the light who did not
deserve my venom when I was clearly in the wrong, I am terribly sorry.
I have removed all the stores that I know of that are out there under
the name "Ozmandayus."

I didn't handle any of this right. This apology and explanation should
have come months ago, and I could give excuses, some valid and some
not, as to why I kept postponing this, but the fact of the matter is I
was scared. Ego and pressure, as weird as it sounds when we are just
talking about fanfic, led to me breaking one of the carnal rules of
writing and for that I will always feel shame. From here on out I
swear I will never steal any part of any story anywhere ever again.
I'm not sure who'll believe me and who won't, but time seems to heal
all wounds and I am sincerely sorry and ashamed for my actions.

To those who I have been talking too over the last couple of months,
especially Brooke, Lexie, Wolfy, Silent Bob, Greywizard, Mathew
Schlussel, Robert, Bruce, Molly, Sara, Lauri Kirjavainen, Michael,
Juli, Greg, and others who's understanding and support have meant more
to me than I can say, thank you.

To Addie Logan, Ali, and pinkrangerkarone I offer my sincerest apology
for being a world class asshole to you three in particular when all
this first came out. You deserved better and were only telling the
truth, and I am sorry. Again, to the writers of the stories I took
parts from, whom I stole from, I offer my sincere apology and a
promise that I will never do anything like that again.

To all my fans and friend, again, I apologize and take full
responsibility for my actions.

Ozmandayus is dead, lol. Gone. I'm not ever writing anything under
that name again, or am I finishing any unfinished stories under that
name. I will be writing under the name Shawn, my real first name from
now on. I'm not changing my style or the way I set up my stores, nor
am I hiding them or anything like that. I have total confidence in my
skills to write and from now on it'll all be original. So if you see a
fic by someone named 'Shawn' that used to be Ozmandayus. No hiding or
writing under a new name when no one knows who I used to be. It's time
to make this right and stop hiding, so I here it is.

I'm still writing Buffy, Power Rangers, and Smallville stories.
Writing is my passion and even with my mistakes that hasn't changed.
If anything, the need to prove myself is even greater, and so it's my
challenge.

I'm going to start a new Yahoo work for all my new fics. I'm not
really sure if the two groups I am posting this apology to will want
me to post any of my new stuff there or not, so if you're interested
or want to talk to me you can join here and that'll be that. No stores
written by Ozmandayus will be found there period.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ShawnsLibrary/

DayShawn1974@h...

The group will be pretty bare bones for a day, just so if people want
to post, talk, ask me something or comment, then it's cool. Starting
tomorrow, I'll start posting all the new stories. Maybe even tonight.
I've got like 11 stories done already.

Again, I am so sorry for my actions and promise they will never happen
again. Thank you for reading this.

Shawn
Formerly known as Ozmandayus


The Rebuttal:

An apology that is full of lies isn't worth the paper that it's
written on.

85%? Let's try 85% plagiarized. The stories becoming more and more
your own? Your Smallville fiction was newer than much of your Buffy,
and much of it was pretty close to 100% plagiarized.

http://www.geocities.com/bxplagiarism/stories/Distractions.html
http://www.geocities.com/bxplagiarism/stories/Marked.html

Don't worry--we've got over 100 pieces of your old fiction and the
analysis is ongoing. What's posted on that website is only a small
fraction of what's been done. Sadly, the small amount that's on that
web site *only* reveals 32 plagiarized authors & work. From *9*
pieces of "your" fan fiction.

Let the readers decide. And know that the readers and administrators
are going to be keeping a very close eye on you.

http://www.geocities.com/bxplagiarism/index.html

And thus, the responses:

We LOVE your stories Shawn, and don't really care that they were plagiarized . . .

Example the first: You're work will always be valued to the BX community, and to fics like Early Mourning, they are pure classics to the BX fanfic kingdom. I eagerly await reading your new stuff, and you will always remain one of my favorite authors.

Example the second: You know what, I think this is all getting a little out of hand, Shawn is a great guy who writes great fic he has apologised for his actions what more can he do? Not one of us fic writers can say we are 100% original our universe and our base characters were devised by Joss Whedon not by us, yes we have twisted and developed them but they weren't ours to begin with, none of us make any profit from writing fic and at best we get our egos stroked by the lovely people who send us feedback. At the end of the day people need to get down from their soap boxes and accept his apology as just that an apology.

Incorporating both the fan fiction-writers-are-all-plagiarists theme, and the threats-against-the-anti-plagiarism website idea

Do you people really have nothing else to do with your life. Quite sad really, and an intresting moral standpoint you have, plagiarizers hunting down and condemning other plagiarizers, oh the irony.

Two groups of people can condemn shawn, the owners of the X-Files and the owners of Buffy, but gee... that would mean every author of fan fiction is guilty, oh the irony.

Grow up and move on,

C.

P.S. Slander is a crime so beware what you write on your web site, believe
we are watching you


I also wanked, because I couldn't believe that I was seeing praise of stories that have been proven to be plagiarized, and acknowledged to be plagiarized, but I have withdrawn. Apparently, I'm in the minority for believing that praising an author for stories that are known to be plagiarized is inappropriate.