I have my own personal internet plagiarist!

I also post on the website TelevisionWithoutPity.com (on there my 'name' is Anakela21, as Anakela was already taken), as well as a bunch of other places, and so earlier today I was googling myself to find something I had posted on TWoP a while ago, (yes, seriously), and I discovered someone taking my TWoP post, and passing it off as his/her own words on another website.

I feel so loved! I mean, if I was going to claim credit for something I hadn't written I would claim the good fanfic out there or something, you know? Who does a copy/paste of someone's post on TWoP and tries to pass it off as his/her own?? That's just lame and sad.

But not sad enough to stop me from writing about it and mocking you. :)

Me and the plagiarist, a side by side comparison

That's insane! Who does that?

(Hilarious list, btw. I would totally claim that as my own... I mean, uh...)

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I know, right- I mean, I know everything online is fair game and it's not like just because you wrote something you have a copyright on it or anything, but dude at least switch up the order when you copy/paste a list.

it's not like just because you wrote something you have a copyright on it or anything

Actually, it IS like that. The moment you fix a creative work of authorship in a tangible medium of expression (which includes posting original thoughts on a website), you have a copyright on that work. The problem with the internet is that it's very difficult to enforce/police the copyright, but it still exists.

The issue is that the internet is like the Wild West of copyright - there's just no way to keep track of all the violations, and it's also difficult to sue entities whose servers are entirely outside a particular country's jurisdiction.

Oh, and another thing to look out for is the terms of service of the website you are posting on - they might include language that says anything you post automatically becomes their property, in which case you would be relinquishing your copyright to anything you post on that site.