RWA kerfuffle?

What's the Cassandra Claire plagiarism deal about?

Emily, here's a link to the RWA kerfuffle

Awards ceremony involving footage of Tiananmen Square set to "Don't Worry, Be Happy."

Cassie Claire: Long HP epics which lifted lines of dialogue from Buffy without attribution.

I forget what else, if anything, she got caught taking, but it got her kicked off ff.net. Yet her supporters are legion.

CC retyped in LENGTHY sections of Pamela Dean, merely changing the nouns. Pamela Dean has forgiven her, but I haven't.

For the record, all of the RWA board but three (the holdouts including the President) have issued a formal apology for the ceremony.

Ah. Thanks!

I think it was Cassie Claire who took quotes from lots of sources -- Buffy, Red Dwarf, etc and so on and put them in the mouths of HP characters.

I think it was Cassie Claire who took quotes from lots of sources -- Buffy, Red Dwarf, etc and so on and put them in the mouths of HP characters.

I cannot tell you how scared I am of doing something like this by accident. Not entire passages, but clever lines that pop to mind as if they were something I thought of rather than read or heard somewhere.

I think some amount of that is almost inevitable. It's not as if every two words that a given author puts together can be considered copyrighted for their use only. Just, y'know, be on the lookout for "I'm drowning in you, SummersWinters!" phrases popping up unconsciously.

Delurking for a quick bit because I love Cassie Claire stories...

The thing about the Cassie Claire plagiarism incidents was that it *wasn't* accidental with the bits of dialogue from various shows. She was putting them in on purpose, supposedly to give fans of the story a bit of a guessing game (like, "oh gosh, that line is from Buffy, right?"). She didn't disclaimer them though because... uh, I think because it was fun and a game and she didn't need to disclaimer them (and maybe because she liked people say "OMG CASSIE U R SOOOO CLEVAH!" but I am a cynical bitch side) if it was just a game. Or something.

The "several passages of Pamela Dean's" plagiarism - well, the story's changed a couple of times on that. I've heard it was "accidental plagiarism" (so big meanies can't call Cassie a plagiarist since she didn't do it *on purpose*) - evidently Cassie copied down those passages in her notebook because she loved them, and then when she was writing her Draco trilogy, happened upon them, thought it was something she wrote, and put it into the story. This explanation has changed a couple of times, though. I've heard that she knew it was Pamela Dean's work and just forgot to disclaimer it, I've heard that she put it in and didn't disclaimer it at all, and I've heard claims that she had permission at the time from Pamela Dean to use it (what I've never heard is her say, "Wow, I was wrong and I'm sorry" but there's my cynical bitch side raising her head again).

Supposedly she know has permission from Pamela Dean to use the passages, and she disclaimers all her fic including the quotes, so now she's not a plagiarist. Not that she ever was one. Ask Heidi Tandy.

The iPod and laptop things are other stories.