It's a terrible state of affairs - but as Frank Sinatra and I'm sure many other said..'That's life...'

Thought you'd know better'n that, Wordy. Frank Sinatra stole the line from Tony Bennett. Then Sinatra did an album on the theme of flight, including 'Fly Me To The Moon' and the lesser known 'I Left My Bag In San Francisco'.

Bennett's revenge is well documented.

Rx

A 'friend' of mine once stole my notes at college for an essay we were doing on Frankenstein. He got an 'A', I got a 'B' and also accused of copying him, which is just something I would never do.

Another 'friend' ripped off one of the stories I wrote in the early nineties. It wasn't that great, but he handed it into his english teacher as his own, and got an 'A'.

Recently, I let a 'friend' read the first part of my novel. Two weeks later, she showed me a few notes and a synopsis for the novel she was about to start on. The themes were almost identical, right down to the protagonist being gay.

I trust the people here. As writers, we know there is nothing in the world more soul destroying that someone who steals ideas wholesale. But Hollywood's been doing it for years, and plagiarism is out there. The theme of my new thriller I'm a quarter way into.

I trust the people here, and I want them to trust me, but I only ever upload for WW members now, because they are the ones who seem serious about the art and what we're trying to do here.

If I catch anyone ripping off my work, I will hunt you down and kill you like a dog

Ok, rant over. WW rules.

James x



<Added>

LOl. Bennetts revenge! That's my surname too, and in light of what I just wrote, I find the coincidence hilarious (not that I'm comparing myself to Tony Bennett, of course).

I've just begun to upload work on this site, and before I did, I thought long and hard. I'm glad I did. I've never come across such a talented group of people with such a huge capacity for encouragement. You (we, me) enjoy one another's work and delight in their achievements without envy. Hat's off. As far as copywright is concerned, the very act of posting on this site with the date attached,and a bunch of witnesses, is proof, in law, of your ownership - of that work.
By the way, it's almost impossible to own an idea, just its physical manifestation. Unless you go for patent.

Best
Sion