Can a writer be sued for plagiarism in freelance writing?

Martinsx1 Level 1

November 4, 2018, 5:06 am

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Can a writer be sued for plagiarism in freelance writing?

A lot of people have experience their work being copied and used without their consent. This act is very wrong by all means and if it's possible to sue the perpetrators, it would be good thing in my opinion.

But my question is how would it be possible to sue such wrong doers even if you have facts of where and when they copied your work?

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theresajane

theresajane

Yes, you can sue them. But, it would really be hard especially if the user who posted your work under his penname isn't public about his background information. This would take time, a lot of effort and resources for the investigation. Sometimes, I think, it's hopeless, but, the best way to deal with them is to report them on the admin, because they can be kicked out of a forum or group. But, that's not the case everytime, there are more complicated cases than this, so it's very hard. People who commit plagiarism cannot be easily erased, they are like hydras, cut off one head and two more will sprout.

6 years ago

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jaybee19

jaybee19

Exactly. I haven't heard of a similar case being brought to the court as well but I know how difficult it is to sue someone especially that you need to pay for your legal consultants and for other fees of which I am uncertain of. And, considering that it's hard already to sue even if you know who the culprit is, it's definitely gong to be much more difficult if the culprit is hiding beyond his/her fake online identity.

6 years ago

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nrnlss

nrnlss

I agree with you, I know a writer before who got his work copy and posted on a website, he tried to contact the admins and the writer who copied his work but no one ever get back to him.

6 years ago

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Youngshark

Youngshark

That is bad and so heartbreaking to a freelancer. we all love to be appreciated for the content we create hence it is always disappointing to get such experiences. I think that you can expose the writers that copied and the sites that are non-responsive to forums and on social media.

6 years ago

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Martinsx1

Martinsx1

"... People who commit plagiarism cannot be easily erased, they are like hydras, cut off one head and two more will sprout.. "

Seriously, it's annoying how one act so evil has become a norm in freelance writing. There is no way of getting to put it out completely no matter what you do. Even getting such a person kicked out of the forum wouldn't stop him from doing it in another forum. It's such a big shame.

6 years ago

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emiaj55

emiaj55

I agree. If they do pride themselves of being writers, then they wouldn't have copied other's work in the first place. Maybe they just pride on them getting away every time think, "Wow, easy bucks."

6 years ago

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mcnasci24

mcnasci24

Yeah, that's what must be going on in their heads. I mean, it takes a lot of nerve to copy someone else's work and pass it as your own just to make money. The worst thing is that it probably happens all the time.

6 years ago

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jayjaydimson

jayjaydimson

Yes, definitely. You need to hire some IT professionals just to track those person's location.

6 years ago

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stbrians

stbrians

"..cut of one head and others sprout...."

It is like a resignation of hopelessness. Oh, my God, plagiarised should be punished in a way. Search engines do punish them up but they seem not to deter them.

6 years ago

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Jeane

Jeane

Many of the websites that post plagiarized content are owned by blackhat marketers.

They have unconventional ways of promoting their sites. So even if search engines punish sites which post stolen content, it doesn't hurt these blackhat marketers that much because by the time the penalties hit they would have moved on to another venture. This is why it will probably be impossible to stop plagiarism.

6 years ago

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Martinsx1

Martinsx1

It's such a shame that the issue of plagiarism can never be eliminated completely and writers will keep suffering from the acts of these wicked people who uses blackhat marketers to promote their website.

6 years ago

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emiaj55

emiaj55

Right on point. The internet sharing system has come to a point that if it is shown to the public, then it belongs to the public. It is like an unwritten rule. If it is text based, they copy and paste. If it is picture based then the download or screen shot. If it is an audio file, then they just download them or re-record them. As there is just no means (as of now) to keep these things from happening, it is an consensus understanding on some level, that if it is shown to the public, then one way or another they would be copied.

6 years ago

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Kakashi2020

Kakashi2020

It depends if you copied a very popular book or a bestseller then probability dictates that you'll get sued by the author. But if you're a nobody who copied an article written by an unknown author or someone who's not popular, i don't think you'll get sued.

6 years ago

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jayjaydimson

jayjaydimson

Yes, of course, even it's only a form of writing, everyone should still have a uniqueness.

6 years ago

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jeffreyjose48

jeffreyjose48

I think so. I believe that people can be sued by plagiarism in freelancing jobs. No one is above the law.

6 years ago

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Martinsx1

Martinsx1

Some crazy writers don't give a damn about having uniqueness when it comes to writing. All they are very much after is the easiest way to add contents on sites and earn. They achieve this very quickly with copying and pasting of another writer's work.

6 years ago

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jaymish3

jaymish3

I've never heard of such a case interesting discussion though. In academic circles your're penalized for plagiarism mostly by institutions like Universities. however when you're writing in a magazine online, I know the author comes after you. I've never had a situation where it goes to court. I think for you to go to court and succeed, I think you need to have legally protected your worth through a patent other legal channel.

6 years ago

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Barida

Barida

That is the thing, you should always have your content backed up by copyright for you to be able to sue the person to court. Though, I have not seen that happen, but it is possible.

6 years ago

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Martinsx1

Martinsx1

This is exactly what I'm looking at finding out if it's possible to drag the said culprit to the law court for plagiarism. I'm very aware it's going to be very hard to do it because proximity can be a huge barrier to getting this done. If the person is in Germany and you are in Russia, how are you going to get it done? It can only be possible if there is something like online court where freelance cases are sorted out.

6 years ago

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stbrians

stbrians

It is not a matter of whether to sue when your writing is plagiarized but the culprits have to face the consequences. Plagiarism is a bad vice. The culprits should be deterred.

6 years ago

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nrnlss

nrnlss

I agree with you, the writers who work hard writing it will be really hurt if he/she get copied and can't do anything about it.

6 years ago

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stbrians

stbrians

Punishment of evildoers is the only way to deter them. When a crime is done, which plagiarism is, must have its consequences. Plagiarism should be punished.

6 years ago

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Martinsx1

Martinsx1

It's very much agreed that the culprits should be punished but the question is how best would it be possible to give this punishment to these copycats? Kicking them out of the said forums isn't enough punishment in my opinion.

What else can you suggest?

6 years ago

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stbrians

stbrians

Imprisonment is what I will suggest. Very many years in gaol will serve them right. They should learn to work hard at producing their own content.

6 years ago

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Martinsx1

Martinsx1

I don't think that it's a punishment that fits the crime to have them face Imprisonment for Plagiarism. In as much as it's a very bad thing to do, Imprisonment seems to be too harsh as punishment. Personally, I would recommend them having to pay heavy fine.

6 years ago

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Jeane

Jeane

If it were possible to punish someone for plagiarism the best way to do it is to have them pay for the stolen content. If the article costs $20, they should fork out the $20 to the aggrieved party. It would be hard however to set a price for an article published on your site because you can't be sure of the amount of passive income that article would earn over a number of years.

6 years ago

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esteban123

esteban123

Yes I agree that a writer can be sued for doing some plagiarism in freelance writing since it is very unfair if some writer would copy our content without asking some permission and they would used it for their own benefit without doing some sort of modification in the content and just mainly post it the same as what we do before since we may not gain some credit on our content which is really a bad habit by other writers. As much as possible we must refrain from doing these and instead make our own original content so that we will not experience some problems later on.

6 years ago

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Martinsx1

Martinsx1

There are some writers who always ensure that they work within the lines of rules especially when it comes to being a freelance writer but their are those who simply are in the system to manipulate and ruin it.

Have you considered why spammers still exists even with all the attacks they are getting all over? They are just cancer to the system.

6 years ago

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Kakashi2020

Kakashi2020

If both of you are in the same country. But if the one suing is from the US and the one being accused of plagiarism is in China then I don't think filing a case can do any good.

6 years ago

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nrnlss

nrnlss

Yes, and its very sad that you can't do anything about it.

6 years ago

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Martinsx1

Martinsx1

Exactly! I was actually thinking about how proximity would affect the possibility of sueing such person. Being in the same country, it would be a bit easier as long as you can get the person but if it's another country, it's practically impossible to sue.

6 years ago

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amelia88

amelia88

I don't know the legalities of it all, and I do wonder if it's different from country to country. I imagine that it would be the case, but I don't know how much success someone would have suing a private freelancing individual than they would suing a large company.

6 years ago

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Martinsx1

Martinsx1

It's basically hard to sue an individual freelance writer. Remember it's a freelance writer who can up any time or day and quit, disappear without leaving a clue as to how to find him at any sign of trouble.

But if it's a corporate entity, it's very much easier to sue such establishment because they are already registered and can redact their business records.

6 years ago

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amelia88

amelia88

That's true, and especially these days with so much freelance work being conducted online, where people may not even be giving the full details of who they are...it becomes almost impossible to really track someone down unless they'd committed some super serious crime. And I don't think law enforcement count plagiarism as a serious crime.

6 years ago

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Martinsx1

Martinsx1

Seriously, to track such writers will be almost impossible because the means to track them is not available in the open world.

Just like you mentioned, it might only be possible if such people commit a serious crime that would lead either the CIA or DOD to investigate them.

6 years ago

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Corzhens

Corzhens

Plagiarism is getting to be a big issue in the internet because copying of contents is getting to be prevalent. With the invention of the spinning software which can give a copied content a different look I guess plagiarism is a hot issue that will hound freelance writers for the days to come. My question is how would you sue a plagiarist when you find that your blog was copied word for word? What if the plagiarist lives in another country? That would be a big problem to file a case against him.

6 years ago

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Martinsx1

Martinsx1

"... Spinning software.. "

Really? I don't even know that such software do exist which gives one's the swift possibility to copy one's work and redo it like a new different work.

Now, my question is who are the ones behind the development of such horrible applications or softwares? This is pure evil in my opinion.

6 years ago

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vivalavanda

vivalavanda

Plagiarism is much easier now compared to before's generation. Today, you can just copy and paste an article without crediting it to them and that is called plagiarism. You can sue them but it will be hard if they are anonymous as you will not know who plagiarized your work.

6 years ago

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Martinsx1

Martinsx1

As long as it's online, plagiarism is very hard to be controlled because of how online works are carried. Sometimes, it's actually the reason why some site owners moderate contents before approving to be published on their site in order to avoid getting copied work republished on their site. This forum WordClerks is set up that way.

6 years ago

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astraherondale

astraherondale

This is entirely possible. I'd even say it's necessary, with the increasing prevalence of plaigiarism among writers online - if only it doesn't take so much effort and money to track the offender. It will be hard since the writers' identities may be hidden under usernames and they may use proxy sercers, but it can be done.

6 years ago

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Martinsx1

Martinsx1

Exactly! Most writers hide under anonymous identification when writing online and this makes it very hard for one to track them down when mess up your work.

It's not possible to get writers to use their real pictures as profile photos. This way it would be easy to track them.

6 years ago

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Jeane

Jeane

It is possible to sue someone for plagiarism but in freelance writing if someone plagiarizes your work, instead of suing them it is better to use other means to deal with this person. Why? It is relatively easy for someone to be completely anonymous on the net. How would you sue someone you don't even know?

That doesn't mean you shouldn't try to have them delete content they've stolen. Contact their webhost and hopefully action will be taken. Even if they aren't punished, you'd at least have done something.

6 years ago

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Martinsx1

Martinsx1

"... Contact their webhost..."

This seems to be a good thing to do about those who get into plagiarism. When there is a substantial amount of proof against them showing how they copied your work, their webhost would have no other options but to punish them for it if they don't delete your work completely.

6 years ago

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anyone01

anyone01

A professional commercial enterprise individual or even Freelance writer may also find that the harm from plagiarism follows them for his or her entire profession. Not simplest will they probably be fired or requested to step down from their present role, however they may absolutely discover it hard to acquire another decent job. Relying at the offense and the plagiarist’s public status his or her name might also turn out to be ruined, making any sort of significant profession impossible.

6 years ago

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Martinsx1

Martinsx1

Trul, plagiarism is not something good for anyone who is a freelancer to get into because it can ruin your online image and reputation.

Once you have been identified as someone who is well deep into plagiarism, nobody is going to have any confidence in your work and as such you are reduced to nothing.

6 years ago

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HappyLady

HappyLady

It would be expensive, which is probably why you get so many doing it. However, they broke the law and I would think you can sue them. I try to email myself with anything important I write so that there is now way the person could claim my work as theirs. I also put my own stuff through plagiarism checkers as you never know when you subconsciously wrote something you read.

6 years ago

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Martinsx1

Martinsx1

The time stamp on my work is what I normally use as proof when the work was done, so anything that was published after that time would easily be determined as a copied work since mine was written earlier.

I always try to keep a screen shot of all my articles, this way, I can easily find out who has copied my work with the date and time of publication.

6 years ago

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burgosmichael24

burgosmichael24

I don't have that much knowledge about plagiarism. The only thing I know is that it will cost you trouble when it hits you and a lot more trouble to resolve it. Though it's a serious crime to be considered and a really important issue to be discussed, but i think this issue needs a long way to go to resolve every issue.

6 years ago

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amelia88

amelia88

One thing I was just thinking about was the cost of having to employ a lawyer to take legal action. I wonder how many people would think that it was worth suing someone, if the cost would outweigh the benefit.

6 years ago

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focusedwriter10

focusedwriter10

You are very correct. Plagiarism is illegal all over the world, but most writers are not in a position to afford the lawyer's fees. Hiring a lawyer can be very expensive, yet one is not sure if he or she will be compensated.
Basically, any writer who has plagiarized work should be sued. However, most writers just let it go because of the cost involved.

6 years ago

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jpk0007

jpk0007

Well, I think that it is always better to warn a person who is brazenly copying your content, if this person does not desist doing the same thing then it is very necessary to initiate some kind of action against such a person. you can launch a complaint with proof against this person to the site who publishes his work and request them to take action against that individual. If you intend to take legal action against that person then you will definitely have to invest some time and money to initiate it.

6 years ago

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stbrians

stbrians

In steemit there are bots like Cheetar who downvote and warn plagiarised. This is a very efficient way of dealing with plagiarised. Yet other malicious people came and began downvoting good content. They were removed from the site.

6 years ago

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esteban123

esteban123

I think it is very hard to to sue those writers that are copying some content since in my country there is no still clear rules and regulation about it that is why copying some content is very rampant nowadays. Some writers are even using anonymous details so that no one can track their writings which makes it more hard to deal with them. It is just sad that our government lack the necessary equipment and capabilities to detect those writers that are copying some content for their own benefits.

6 years ago

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MomoStarr16

MomoStarr16

Yes you can. Be careful on making reference of the others writers. They might don't like it then sue you for doing that.

6 years ago

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DenisP

DenisP

I’m no lawyer, and I’m not particularly educated with regards to a lot of legal material, but I’m pretty sure that a freelancer can be sued for both plagiarism and copyright infringement.

The reason I believe this is based on the fact that a lot of YouTubers have had to deal with legal issues as a result of using other people’s content. Reviewers and critics were faced with lawsuits on the grounds of copyright infringement simply because they featured someone else’s material in their work.

I believe the same rules would apply to a freelancer who straight up plagiarizes someone else’s content. Pretty much anything can be taken into civil court. People have sued each other over dumber things.

6 years ago

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Gandalf

Gandalf

Yes, you can sue them if you make money from the work and you have lost out. Many people don't sue because it's only worth it if the other person has any money. As it is civil, you must pay your own court costs so often that will be more than the damages awarded so one must weigh up whether it's worth pursuing.

6 years ago

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Martinsx1

Martinsx1

What ways can you follow and sue the people or writer who copied your work? It's just about saying that it's possible but what ways can you actually execute the sue.

I do have court cases but I haven't seen where freelance work case is treated before. It seems that there is no precedent on such cases.

6 years ago

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theresajane

theresajane

It's actually hard and costly. But, if it will benefit me, if the one who plagiarized would be penalized and there's a high possibility that he'd pay me big, I would not hesitate anymore

6 years ago

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Judas2018

Judas2018

If the victim of the theft is diligent and angry enough then, yes absolutely. But what's worse is think about what that will do to your business and reputation as a writer? Once a plagiarist, always a plagiarist. Your clients will see things the same way.

6 years ago

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hstinscdln

hstinscdln

I think yes. Anyone can be sued for plagiarism as long as they did not quote the author or did not put proper credits. There is a law about it but not all plagiarism gets noticed. Maybe if it was used in a large scale, the one who commit plagiarism gets sued because it'll probably get noticed by a critique.

6 years ago

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Judas2018

Judas2018

Most of it goes unnoticed because the person whose work was stolen is either unaware - or waiting for the right time to file suit.

6 years ago

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Kakashi2020

Kakashi2020

If you both live in the same country then it's a YES but if not then it's a NO. And even if you could sue, it wouldn't have a good ending because of the difference in the law governing such a crime.

6 years ago

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