This really pisses me off.
An author achieves success, then some lazy scammer decides to ride on that success by appropriating the name and reputation of a legitimate author in order to sell their crap under that legitimate author’s name. It’s a shame that these particular authors had to go through expensive litigation in order to get some manner of justice. I’m glad the authors won and I truly hope they collected their damages.
Something similar happened to best-selling indie author Jascinda Wilder a couple of years ago. A plagiarizing thief on Wattpad copied one of Ms. Wilder’s e-books, the first of a series, word for word and passed it off as their own. Fortunately Ms. Wilder employs a service that constantly monitors possible intellectual theft and issues the appropriate cease and desist notices. It was estimated that during the time the e-book had been on Wattpad, Ms. Wilder had lost a six figure sum in royalties. This is clearly theft, and no different than someone breaking into your home and stealing your HD television. Wattpad, upon notification of the theft, suspended the thief’s account. Big deal. But what of the thousands of dollars in potential royalties that were lost? Ms. Wilder will never collect a penny from the thief, sadly.
Plagiarism and author impersonation == theft. Period.
