In case you weren’t aware, I hate plagiarism. I’ve gone after plagiarism as hard as I know how to. Plagiarism pisses me off.
Unfortunately, there is no shortage of individuals on twitter and online who will steal content and claim it as their own. Many of these people are even profiting from the work of others. It’s unacceptable. We all need to be speaking out together condemning this, stating we are not ok with people who steal and monetize other people’s content. It’s wrong, we won’t support it, and further, we won't support brands and companies who contribute to a plagiarist’s pockets.
Perhaps because I believe so firmly that we all need to be raising our voices against these clear plagiarists, I’ve been getting more and more annoyed by a small opposite thread that I’ve seen specifically in the twitter comedy world, where anyone who has tweeted out a similar joke, similar wording, same pun, same idea, gets immediately accused of theft.
Similar wording of a particular phrase one time isn’t theft.
When individuals go after every random person who has done the same overdone old joke they have, or who has used a similar wording one time, they are fueling the people who believe things like “everyone steals” and “who cares where the joke came from.” Going after the wrong targets just gives those who want to dismiss plagiarism as a non-issue the ability to say, see, it’s the internet, everyone’s doing it, it doesn’t matter.
Plagiarism does matter. Plagiarism does exist. That person who creates constant original material but came up with similar wording to you in one joke once probably is NOT a plagiarist.
Comedy (some comedy, a lot of comedy, good comedy) is a reflection of its time. We on twitter are all existing concurrently, responding to a lot of the same events and stimuli. There is no question that we're going to have similar ideas and comedic thoughts sometimes. Calling someone a thief can not be judged by that. Theft is not a few isolated incidents of common thoughts or puns. Theft is not the same phraseology of a joke format. Theft is not the same obvious topical joke.
So what IS theft? Theft is usually one of two things: distinct copy and paste of a particularly original uniquely-worded tweet, or constant incidents of very similar wording where one or two small elements have been changed so as to make the thievery less searchable.
It's usually incredibly easy to tell the difference between similar ideas and theft, but not always. Perhaps you really felt your joke was unique, but maybe it wasn’t quite as special as you thought. If there's ANY question, in my opinion, we must err on the side of similar thought and reach out to the person under scrutiny. Their response is usually a clear indicator. Honest people say things like, “sorry!” or “oh weird!” or even “That’s strange, and hey, I don’t steal jokes.” Thieves know what they’re doing and their reactions are pretty straight forward: they get angry, they say “who cares” or “get a life” and they block you. I know this because I’ve confronted a LOT of thieves.
So what do you do if you think your joke has been stolen, how do you know if you’re dealing with a thief?
1. Look at the person who you think is stealing. Is there additional plagiarized material on their account? Thieves are usually incapable of coming up with their own jokes, thus their need to steal, so if they are plagiarizing, it’s likely they’re doing it constantly. If you’re only finding a small handful of jokes that are similar to other jokes and are NOT copy/paste theft, this person is probably not a plagiarist. Additionally, if you’re seeing that they have a lot of clearly original material and no copy/paste theft, this person is probably not a plagiarist.
2. @ reply them, or DM them if you can and prefer. If they have clearly copy/pasted a DISTINCT, UNIQUE joke, you can directly @ them to the original and ask they remove the theft. If the theft is not that clear, you can point out your original and see how they respond. However, understand that people who ARE making original content might be a bit defensive if you’re accusing them of theft. A non-groveling response is not an indication of any guilt, but you can still expect general politeness.
If you have uncovered a plagiarist and have several examples of clear theft, report them to @plagairismisbad, they keep a running list and are a valuable resource for all of us. If you’ve merely found someone who made a tweet similar to yours, you... found someone who made a tweet similar to yours. Maybe invite them over, order nachos because, hey, you guys at least have something in common.
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