Yes, it’s true. Some moron has actually stolen one of my posts and reposted it as her own. Don’t believe me? Check this out!
Of all the stupid things to rip off, why would anyone steal the coulrophobia post? I suppose I should be glad she’s not plagiarizing anything halfway decent, but still, it’s the principle of the thing.
I guess I should be flattered, in a way. I mean, no one would steal my stuff if I totally sucked and no one read my blog. Granted, the thief in question isn’t exactly a literary giant in her own right, as a visit to her blog will readily reveal. And yes, I realize that plagiarizing Smith isn’t quite the same as plagiarizing Hemingway.
But that’s not the point, is it? I wrote it, she stole it, and that pisses me off!
I did try to take care of this the nice way. I didn’t want to air out dirty laundry in public. (I’ve already learned that lesson the hard way). So I PM’d her with a request that she either remove it or give me attribution.
I had to register on the site first. This in itself was a pain in the ass, since this is apparently a dating site of some kind and I had a hell of a time convincing their server that I wasn’t looking for a date. I sent her three PM’s, all diplomatically worded (I’m sure you didn’t MEAN to steal my stuff, dearie. A simple oversight, no doubt).
No reply. I guess she’s turned off by the fact that I’m not looking for a date with someone from the UK. So I left one of my usual delicately worded comments, which I assume is still there unless she clobbers it. I also sent a complaint to the site admin.
I’m still holding out hope that this is all just a misunderstanding on someone’s part. Maybe she’ll do the right thing. It’s not like I’m looking for money here, just a little credit for my own intellectual (in the loosest sense of the word) property. As John Lennon once wrote, “It gets on my tit!”.
-Smith
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