A lot has been said of the Richard Ridyard fiasco in the past few days, and said a lot more eloquently than I ever could, so I’m not going to get bogged down in the subject. The guy is quite clearly a major durbrain as my eight year old would say.
The sad thing about this whole episode is that it was inevitable and, most likely, will happen (and is happening right now) time and time again.
Assuming his bio is to be believed, he’s a law student from The Wirral in sunny old England. Now, I happen to work in a University in sunny old England and there are times that our law students have a certain reputation.
It’s a reputation for ‘in the field experimentation’ and it wouldn’t surprise me one little bit if that’s what Mr Ridyard was up to when he thought it would be a good idea to plagiarise the work of other writers.
Is there anyone out who is really dumb enough to submit a blatant King rip-off to a publication such as Shock Totem? (Thinking about it, there probably is and that’s scary in itself).
I’m pretty sure the guy wanted to be rumbled, especially as he’d already duped a lot of unsuspecting online zines into publishing ‘his work’.
I’m also pretty sure that the series of events is making its way into in an essay or dissertation regarding the dangers of online copyright issues.
Does that forgive him? Hell no.
Does that mean he deserves any more of our attention? Hell no, other than to say he’s still a major durbrain.
4 comments:
Wow. Don't law students have to have some ethics? I kind of wondered the same myself, 'cause "Ridyard" had to have some motive, some benefit for doing such a silly thing.
'In the field experimentation' huh?, a curious and crass way to plump a dissertation. Now if this clown spends his/her career throwing the book at those who plagiarize, maybe just maybe . . . .
This plagiarism deal pisses me off. However, and I am NOT defending this jerk, but I catch myself all the time ALMOST ripping off ideas. The short story I was trying to write for The Beast Within 2 somehow ended up totally mimicking the plot to Robery McCammon's "Stinger."
The saddest part of all is that I really hated that book...
Aaron – I could be way off the mark, but it all seems a little suspicious to me. The guy gets a fair amount published in FTL zines over a short period and then hits Shock Totem with a King story? Something’s not right there…
Becca – Curious and crass; he’s a Brit through and through.
Barry – If you’ll forgive the pun, that’s the nature of the beast I guess. After all, there are only so many stories to tell, but it’s how we tell them that makes them our own.
I’ve never read ‘Stinger’, but ‘Swan Song’ is pretty high up on my list of favourite books.
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