Disclaimer: This was posted for awareness purposes ONLY. None of my books were copied. This situation was me (amongst many others) standing up for another author.

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I will never comprehend people who copy.

I felt like I needed to adress this considering copying is a lot more common than we might think. I know too many authors who have had this issue. I also know so many copiers who have refused to take down their copied work when asked nicely. Not saying that anyone who is reading this copies or that copiers deserve disrespect... but copying someone else's work will NEVER be okay whether you had 'inspiration' from said work or not.

Let me be extremely clear: inspiration ≠ copying. You CANNOT copy someone else's work. If you get inspiration from someone else's work, you can write your OWN idea based from their story. Not copy their entire idea or write their story word for word and put your name on it. It's wrong period.

Use your imagination, it was given to us for a reason so use it. Don't take others ideas because you like what they've written.

Considering copying someone else's work would be theft, anyone can report you for stealing. Not only could you lose your account here on wattpad and all of your progress with it, but in the eyes of the law, anyone found guilty of copyright infringement could be ordered to pay either actual damages or "statutory" damages at not less than $750 and not more than $30,000 per work infringed. For "willful" infringement, a court may award up to $150,000 per work infringed.

So... honestly... is copying really even worth it?

I've had plenty of inspiration. Some of my own inspiration comes from non-Ml related books; other inspiration comes from Ml books; more inspiration comes from music or even my dreams. But I DO NOT copy their work, and neither should you.

Now, you're probably wondering why this topic was brought up? I'm about to show you a conversation that went down that I thought was just important to share.

The pics are in order of how the conversation started and ended...

And no, the person who replied to me was NOT the person copying. They were simply someone who knew the copier and was trying to defend their actions.

But still...

Shook.

Anyways, lots of people reported the copier and their friend, and wattpad took action and deleted their accounts.

So woohoo!