Plagiarism is a banning offense. It is very important that all members of this site understand this. If you are found to be intentionally plagiarizing the work of others, it is extremely likely that you will be permanently banned from this site. Your first offense will probably be your last, so be sure to read this entire page and fully understand it before submitting anything to .moon's Library or Gallery. That being said, let's explore what plagiarism is and isn't.

Plagiarism:

Plagiarism is the act of presenting someone else's work as your own. Most often, this occurs in the form of someone copying the text of a person's story and putting their own name on it as the author. Sometimes the plagiarist will change the names and setting of a stolen story to take place in another fandom, or will only steal certain sections of text. No matter how large or small the lifted section is, taking someone else's words and saying you thought them up yourself is plagiarism. The same principles apply to the theft of artwork, by putting your name on someone else's art or tracing over portions of someone else's design.

For the most part, taking someone else's ideas is not plagiarism. Since the beginning of the written word, writers have borrowed ideas and concepts from each other in all forms of literature. It is what you do with a particular idea that makes your writing unique and therefore protected. Even if you are the first person to write about a particular event, attitude, or pairing, other people are completely within their rights to write about the same thing. Copying and pasting "Usagi's skirt rustled in the breeze as she stood on the forsaken island" into your story is literary theft. Writing a story about Usagi being trapped on an island is not. The same goes for creating artwork based on someone else's concept.

When it comes to stories, MSTs and continuations are a gray area. Technically, if credit is given to the author of the source material, quoting someone else's text is not plagiarism. Nor is writing a continuation of someone else's story. However, using someone else's work without the author's permission is considered extremely rude and is frowned upon in the fanfiction community.

Consequences:

As mentioned above, members who intentionally submit work they have plagiarized will be permanently banned. There would have to be extreme extenuating circumstances for this not to happen, and at this time I am unable to think of a situation in which the offender would not be banned. In the case of unintentional plagiarism, however, the offending works may simply be removed from the site. The plagiarist must plead their case to the administration and prove the theft was unintentional for this to happen. In the case of false accusations, hopefully the moderators will determine that the report is false before any action is taken. Ideally, there will be no consequences in the event of a false accusation.

If you think you have been plagiarized:

1) On another site:
Unfortunately there is nothing .moon can do to help if your work has been stolen and posted on another website. Feel free to point to your work on .moon as evidence of your ownership, if it is posted here, or to ask for support from the community at large. Beyond that, there is not much the administration here can do for you.

2) On this site:
If you are a member of .moon, and another member has plagiarized your work, the best thing to do is use the Report This function to report the offending story or artwork to the staff. If you are logged in, there will be a "Report This" link on the summary page of every story and artwork in .moon's collection. Do not cause drama by attacking the plagiarist directly on the forums or in their reviews or critiques. Plagiarism is a painful thing, but please rest assured the staff here will fairly investigate the accusations and take appropriate action. There is no need to cause a flame war by bringing the whole community into the situation.

If you are not a member of .moon, you can ask a member to report the story or artwork for you, or if you do not know any members of the community, you can report the violation directly to the administration by using the "Contact Us" link on the main page of the site. Again, there is no need to raise an army and wage war against the offender on the forums. We are fair people, and fellow writers and artists, and we take plagiarism very seriously. Upon validation of the report, the plagiarized material will be removed and the offender will most likely be banned from the site.

Please be patient. Even if it's undeniably obvious that your work has indeed been plagiarized, the stolen item will probably not be removed right away. Every report of plagiarism must be fairly investigated and confirmed by our moderators before any action will be taken. Although .moon is committed to punishing plagiarists, we are just as committed to protecting our members from false accusations. Please understand that for justice to be served, a fair investigation is required in each and every case. It may take a few days for the offending story or artwork to be identified and removed.