Worth Repeating

How to Detect Fraud I'm going to gamble that there is still old work out there waiting to be exposed as fraud when I rewrite it here, so I'm going to talk about obvious signs of fraud. Chronology: Whomever shared the work first is the author. If I had access to that original blog, I could sue because the dates would show that I wrote it all first. But isn't the human memory capable of remembering who shared the work first without any visual aid? I hope so. Disputes: Individuals versus Groups It is unlikely that someone would steal his work from hundreds of others. Furthermore, it is unlikely that hundreds of others would all share the same copyright dispute with just one person. If their work was good enough to steal, it would have been stolen by many others, not just the same guy every time. Disputes: Amateurs versus Professionals Professionals are under pressure to produce new material, while amateurs may work at their own pace. Professionals need new material to stay employed, but amateurs work for free. Therefore, in disputes between professionals and amateurs over copyright ownership, the professional is more likely to be the violator. With respect to my personal situation, I am unemployed and use my writing and music to stay active. Stealing my work from others would only reduce my activity. Disputes: Volume of Work 'He wrote those hundred and fifty songs but he stole this from me!'? Don't let them insult your intelligence. Disputes: Coveting An artist doesn't covet his own work. A song featured proudly on the front of a fraud's web page might be buried deep and gathering dust in the author's collection. People steal songs to show off with them. Disputes: Individual Experience An original artist's work is usually descriptive of his individual experience. It's a sure way of guaranteeing originality. What kind of lives did the performers have? Did their material match up with their individual experiences? For people who've used my work, were they lonely and isolated? Were they depressed and suicidal? Were they poor and rejected? Did they have to work in menial jobs? Prior Convictions: People caught committing fraud can no longer be trusted, no matter how popular they were. New Work: An artist is usually consistent in style and quality. If anyone doubts that I am the author of my old work, they should compare it to my new work. I think they'll find that any new laughs I've produced are as effective as anything I wrote in the past and that my new songs compare favourably with my old songs. But look at what happened to Saturday Night Live in mid 2010 when they couldn't help themselves to my writing any more. I don't watch the show but a woman walked by me at the time and said 'Their show sucks without you.' I gather what she meant. And I think I may have already heard what that band from last year sounded like in 2010 without my songs. (Did they use those tiny solid state amps?) Absolutely atrocious. Labour Hours: Creating original work is time consuming. If someone has a lot of material, he should be spending a lot of time working. Otherwise, he's probably a fraud.
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