Well, remaking has become completely out of hand in Whyville lately. Some see no problem with it, as it is "just Whyville" and they're "just pixels". Well, let's see how you feel after reading this article.
Ducky464 is one of Whyville's greatest, in my opinion. You may have heard of her because she is Whyville's senator, or you may know her just because of her designs. Well, believe it or not, she has stopped designing because of remakers using Autodot to copy her designs, and passing them off as her own.
Many other great designers have had their designs remade. Some quit designing because of these remakers stealing their designs, and reaping the profit from them.
Now, we're going to put this in perspective for those of you who haven't been in Whyville's designs. We're going to start with the part of the crowd that has written for the Whyville Times.
Say you've written the greatest series you could ever write. You've got the perfect amount of suspense, action, drama, comedy, everything. You send the whole story to your friend Jim (that's right, we're going all the way back to the Chat Test), and ask him if he likes it. Oh, Jim likes it alright. Jim takes your story and sends in the first chapter before you do, because you're waiting for his review. And he says, "Oh, I love it!".
You send in your story, and then the Editor doesn't like it because you plagiarized the story Jim supposedly wrote. You get punished for it, and he gets off without even a warning.
We also have scenario two. Say you send Jim your story. It's so good, Jim sends it in and then responds, all of that jazz. Well, imagine this: "Jim's" writing is so good, someone takes him to a publisher with it. Jim's story becomes the next "Twilight," and Jim didn't even write it. Wouldn't this upset you greatly? Because as a writer, I'd get pretty ticked if someone decided they liked my story and they stole it from me. Especially if I confided in them during the drafting stages and they took it before I could stake my claim on it on the Internet.
Now for the rest of you. You all go to school, right? You do your homework, you write your essays, etc. Well, let's say you just had the biggest final of your life. This is the big cheese, the cream of the crop. Say you sit next to Jim, and Jim copies all of your answers. Jim turns his paper in while you check over yours, and you decide that you wouldn't change a thing. You turn your paper in to the proctor. Well, we're going to say they grade the papers by the order they were turned in, and they noticed your paper and Jim's look exactly the same. Jim's was turned in first, so they assume you copied off of him. Say Jim got 98%, an A. Since you copied Jim, they tear yours up and you take a 0. An F. The biggest test of the year and Jim screwed you over, and he's getting all of the credit you deserve.
You cannot tell me that in either situation, you wouldn't be upset. That is how some of these designers feel when someone steals their work.
I feel as though there should be a rule set in place for remakers in Whyville. I think if we can get in trouble for plagiarizing in the Times, we should get the same exact consequences we get for remaking parts. If you're unfamiliar with the rules the Editor has set in place, here they are:
1st time: You will be suspended from the Times for 2 weeks.
2nd time: You will be suspended from the Times for a month and stripped of any titles (such as Times Writer, Columnist, etc.).
3rd time: You will be permanently suspended from the Times (you will never be allowed to write for the Times again).
If you would like the full article I retrieved these from, look at Article ID 9827.
Here's hoping for a new rule in Whyville,
Monet1616
