Our Stance on Plagiarism

[Hesperus]

Our community is scattered across the globe, and the best means available to us to share our insights with each other and to celebrate all the ideas and experiences that connect us is through the written word. Blessedly, the community includes more than a few exceptional writers who brave criticism to share their work with the goal of enriching and inspiring all of us. For all the risks our authors accept in publicly sharing their personal thoughts, one they should never face is plagiarism. As some of you have doubtlessly noticed, some unfortunate cases of posting written works without attributing the proper credit to their authors and even wrongfully claiming authorship of others' writings have recently surfaced within the community. Taking credit for another person's work is, frankly, theft. It runs deeper, however, than stealing some physical object, as most things can be replaced, but robbing authors of their creations amounts to tearing away a part of the authors themselves. Particularly in a community that depends so heavily on written communication, losing one's words seems indistinguishable from losing one's very identity.

The harm of subjecting members of our own community to this degree of disrespect extends far beyond hurting our authors, however. Left with understandable distrust, writers who are plagiarized are less likely to share their work in the future, denying the entire community the benefit of words that often hold the power to unite and fortify us. Furthermore, when true authorship inevitably comes to light, plagiarists and all associated with them run the risk of being discredited, creating a broader environment of mistrust in a community that all-too-often already lacks a strong sense of solidarity. The growth and the very survival of the community relies upon properly attributing recognition and genuinely enjoying the contributions of our peers and how those gifts help all of us. Petty jealousies and seeking to advance in the community without putting in the effort will not benefit anyone; who wants to be an Elder in a community whose members cannot trust each other and which victimizes and chases away genuine talent?

The House of the Dreaming (HotD) contends that the only solution to misrepresentation and deceptive secrecy is to fully and immediately flush the truth out into the open. Many others, including well-respected and long-standing Elders and leaders, prefer to handle these matters more privately, and the HotD respects the right of each House leader and each individual to decide how best to set these issues right when such distressing information comes to their attention. We expect nothing more than the same courtesy. While we fully endorse the virtue of discretion, discretion is in place to protect the identities of our community members, and protecting the identities of our community members who have been plagiarized is precisely what HotD intends to do by outing proven plagiarists without hesitation and without regret.

That said, this is not a call to arms or a declaration of war; far from it, our House sees this unpleasantness as an opportunity for the community to draw closer together. We may differ on how to correct issues of plagiarism, but certainly we can all agree that this sort of behavior is unacceptable and needs to be addressed. It is perfectly reasonable to feel disappointment, anger, and embarrassment at the discovery that someone close to you has acted unethically, and reacting with harsh words directed at an inappropriate target is understandable, and need not be dwelled upon, but in the end, this subject should offer us all common ground.

In the interests of avoiding unnecessary confusion in response to this letter, the House of the Dreaming would like to share the following guidelines that we consistently use when this troubling issue comes up:
-Confirm with absolute certainty that a work has indeed been plagiarized before bringing anything up publicly. It can be difficult to determine exactly who has plagiarized whom, but this is clearly a vital piece of information that should precede making an open allegation. Given how long the HotD's membership has played an active role in the community, this process usually begins with a first-hand recognition of strikingly familiar work, and is followed by searching old records and contacting the suspected actual author.
-Inform the community at large (typically in an online post) of the incident so that the spread of misinformation can be contained as quickly and effectively as possible. Each person who mistakenly attributes a piece to the wrong author only to later discover that they were misled is one more person who will come to associate our community with deceit. As such, we feel it is important to act swiftly and to appeal to the whole community at once.
-Open lines of communication with any Elders/leaders who have taken responsibility for the actions of the plagiarist(s). If those who have misused another writer's work belong to a House or other formal organization, the head(s) of that House should be informed so that they may attend to the matter internally according to their own standards and also, if they wish, issue a public statement to reassure the community that they are taking the incident seriously and working to correct it.
-At this point, the role of the HotD usually ends, though we may, with permission, take the opportunity to re-post the plagiarized work with the correct author's information in an effort to both promote quality writing and heal some of the damage done to the real author.

We sincerely hope that this unhappy event will motivate a renewed desire for cooperation and solidarity among all the community's Houses and groups that value both honesty and the creative works of our community's members.

[The Madame X]

Thank you Hesperus!

[Wulfsunus]

Wonderfully thought out and written Hesperus, thank you!
I know do not need to even worry a bit about it being plagiarized.