When Copying Is Not A Form Of Flattery

In today’s article, I want to do something a little bit different. I usually like to write about style posts, trends, beauty, and even lifestyle articles. But today, I would like to talk about some recent things that have happened to me. That I find are completely disgusting and vial. Number one, I had this guy who runs a lifestyle/travel site. He even has fashion posts and more. What he did was inexcusable, he took one of my Spring articles, and he completely copied it from head to toe. He even used a similar title and so on. I have discussed this guy in one of my Instagram posts. I even brought the situation up in some Instagram Reels. He was not doing something similar, not interpreting an idea or anything like that. He was coping me which goes under plagiarism.

What makes me so angry about this situation is, it has happened to me before. I also shared this in one of my reels about this girl I was contributing articles to her website. At first, everything seemed legit she was posting my articles with my name and giving me credit. After a while, she started to put her name on my work. I stopped contributing to her site and just had nothing to do with her. Now, she had other contributors at the time. Who knows if she did something similar to them like what was done to me. Funny thing is she contacted me awhile later and gave me these insincere complements about my work. Asking me if I would love to contribute to her other site again? I told her I wasn’t interested in working for someone who is unethical and steals people’s work and says it’s there’s. 

Photo: Image Source 

I assumed that kind of behaviour wouldn’t happen again, but it did unfortunately. And this is the best part, besides this insecure creep of a guy who stole my article and title for his site. I had this so-called blogger who followed me and posted an outfit post. On her post she stole a title I had of articles I have written on my magazine website. She even wrote stuff that was a mirroring image of what I do. As outraged as I am, I know for a fact this kind of coping and stealing creators, influencers, and anyone else in this industry’s work is just wrong. And it is happening way to often for my comfort level. Now I know a trend might come out and as a blogger, YouTuber, writer, influencer, anyone gives their opinion or spin on the trend. The difference is they interpret it in a style they are well known for their “signature”, That is completely different from plagiarising someone’s hard work that they produce with their own ideas attached. What I have learned from this is when you ignore the situation or don’t speak up these losers, who can’t come up with their own original content win. Why? Because you don’t put a stop to all this from continuing.

By staying silent we are giving these rag bags permission to keep doing this to us and guess what, it isn’t ok from using the same title to copying word for word someone says in a video, or article post on a website. And if we don’t speak up this unethical behaviour just continues like a vicious cycle. I hope this article I have written here like an open-ended letter more less, has helped anyone who has experienced something similar and can inspire anyone out there maybe dealing with this, know that you are not alone, and we are all going to stand up and tell our stories with pride and bravery in knowing this kind of stuff is not alright.

I hope you have enjoyed reading my open letter and my honesty that I have kept since I started this website.

Written by Heather Noire (Instagram) 

Top Cover Image Source.