Plagiarism

Imagine my surprise when I was laying in bed one November evening, in sunny El Paso, Texas, when  I stumbled upon a post from a local celebrity. Yes, it's true, a dancer for the Utah Jazz had posted my EXACT words onto her own page. She took my story about meeting my birth mother, and turned it into HER story about meeting her Biological Father. Pa HA! Caught ya! See below:

Her Post

My Post (2 Months Prior)

As you can see... almost word for word. I went from fuming, to trying to talk myself down "it's just Facebook.. just a post... at least she is happy! I'm glad it worked out for her.." and then right back to mad! I consulted my family, friends, old English teachers, most of whom told me to call her out! Set her straight! Tell her what's what!

Well I considered it. But I decided to talk to her privately first, you know, give her the benefit of the doubt. I asked her to simply cite me! You know, maybe put at the bottom, "excerpts by Lauren Loock." She was grateful I didn't call her out, or "publicly shame" her, if you will. She assured me it was already an emotional experience and that adding any amount of public shame would just be too much emotion for her and her thousands of FB friends to handle. She also assured me she didn't know it was mine... (? ok..) and that she found it on pinterest of sorts. Either way.

So yes, I am glad I didn't go straight for the "fighting dirty" tactic. I mean, I get it, we are all human. Maybe she really didn't know it was mine and was from a book, like she told me. Maybe she full on copied me and wouldn't admit it. However it went down, she has since changed the post to her own words (though it's already been seen by everyone as my words,) and we left it at that. Except, there was still that one part of me that needed...closure. 

Hence this blog post. Someone told me plagiarism is a form of flattery. So THANK YOU! Thanks for using my words as your own, because I truly did work hard to write them based on actual events, ha! Maaayyyybbeee just sign my name at the end next time. :)

Man. I gotta get some copyrights going, I suppose. I see now why citing was always so important going through school. All my teachers made such a big deal to give credit where credit was due. I get it! I really get it! Intellectual property is valuable -- It is my craft. Lesson. Learned.

PHEW! Glad to get that off my chest. Thanks, team! Carry on with your day! 

Lauren Loock COPYRIGHT!