plagiarism isn't cool kids

So this whole plagiarism-from-hell thing fucked up my Friday.

I’ve done my research as much as possible, and I think the underlying factor for me is: why would this bitch want to live my life? Has she no shame?

I cached her blog posts before she swiftly removed them – I found out her name and sent her a message pertaining to ‘you’re history sweetheart.’

But here’s the thing, this is the second time this has happened to me. And I’m starting to get a little crazy with annoyance.

In some twisted and super strange fucked up way, it’s flattering. That someone can’t come up with their own shit, so just whacked my shit into Excel, find + replace, and suddenly a girl called ‘Quirks’ is living my life.

The update goes something like this: The original writer of the blog alleges that her colleague at work had her blog logins and updated her blog for her, starting last year.

I smell a rat, sure.
She says it wasn’t her, it was her scaly mate getting back at her for something.

Here’s the thing: I. Don’t. Care I don’t care if she slept with this girl’s husband, it doesn’t negate from the fact that my intellectual arb property has been plagiarised. And it’s been there gaining commenters, readers and people who believed this was HER WRITING, HER LIFE, and yeah, well, it wasn’t.

I spent Friday afternoon in a surreal existence.
I went back through her history – this woman has been copying my blog posts- almost verbatim – for months, years, on end.

Get a load of this, and tell me it isn’t a ‘well fuck me crazy’ moment:

Going pages back, she actually started off writing her own material. The usual sort of bloggy stuff such as:

A Stream Of Kookiness
The joys of the working days!
Posted by Quirkyx on 3/15/2009 3:33:24 PM

Hi all, Apologies for my absence, things have been totally crazy! I started work officially on Wednesday, and you know it wasn't all that bad, I expected it to be worse. The driving to...

And it appears she was even allergic to wine back then. That’s quite a big difference between me and her:

A Stream Of Kookiness
Jobs
Posted by Quirkyx on 4/1/2009 11:57:40 PM Hi all, Apologies for very belated update on the resignation, but things have been a mad house both personally (love life), health (found out am a allergic to wine! WTF?!) and with...

Then she started getting less irregular with her updates and suddenly, my posts started popping up. Slowly but surely, she started copying more and more as she went along. Once she wrote:

Firstly I want to apologise for my lack of posts, lack of sarcasm and wit and the other shebang that everyone has come to love and expect from this dear blog of mine (ha)! What a rubbish week! well...

[If that’s a backhand compliment you crazy bint, thank you. But Jesus Christ: do YOU do have a set of balls.]

You gotta love this – when I bought a piano by mistake, she bought a drum kit. Have you ever:

I Bought a Drum Kit By Mistake
Posted by Quirkyx on 5/20/2009 11:47:58 AM You want a bad day? I'll give you a bad day. I bought a drum kit by mistake. And my car broke down in the middle of an intersection. The impulsiveness of my purchase started sinking in, yesterday,...

Look, she wrote to Usher too. Oh wait, except it was Robbie Williams. But still in my original hip hop lingo:
Love this – when I got a rug, she ordered an ottoman. But also asked for it in the exact way I did.
You get the picture. It’s all my work, and some material goes back years.

I still don’t know if this is sad, I should feel sorry for her, or it’s just fucking fucked up.

Identity theft? Her 54 fans must be mind-fucking too – one commenter who found out said this:
Fuck me, I have been reading her blog for so long on 24.com and loving it. So this morning's revalations were a bit of a "fuck me" moment. I went and dug through your posts and saw the correlation. Remember the letter to your kids? "Hello my darlings

This is your mother. She's just come back from a bernder [sic] at Green Man, so pardon mummy for being a bit tanked. "

She got all of is 24.com bloggers doing it!

Yussus man, I can see why you are furious.

Yeah I am mad, and this is the second time. It’s also the millionth time bloggers have had to deal with situations like this. I got some great advice from a friend who is a copyright lawyer over the weekend. And the issue is this:

I just want to make everyone who blogs aware of how easy it is, and how unfair it is too. Just to be aware and watch out for each other.

As one person did for me.

Shit stinks, plagiarism is an issue with a grey area, and it’s happened to a few of us. I’m pissed off, and I want to make sure that plagiarisers think twice before just copy and pasting and claiming as their own.

Writers take this seriously. As they should.
It’s taking my stuff and making it contrived – Fuck you if you’re reading this! By the way!

So let this be a warning to the fuckwit out there who did this. And I don’t care how arrogant you are to pass this off as your own work, you apologise and you apologise good.
You credit the work to the original writer, and you ask my fucking permission to use my posts. However crap or arb they are.

And if you have a story, or an explanation, you have a right to explain it. Go for it, I’d like to be in YOUR head for once.
Because frankly, you’ve been in mine for months on end.