I've been off the forum for a few days, and expected to see a huge discussion about the report in the Washington Post yesterday (Nov. 13, 2015) where a well-established gay author (35 books to his name) began stealing entire MF romance stories, changing minor words to make the stories work while leaving over 98% of the stories the same. Since there's so few cross-overs in audiences, he apparently thought he was safe. However, he screwed up because a lot of woman read both romance and MM fiction (for the same reasons).
The author who reported it online (asking other authors for the name of a decent copyright lawyer) found another one he'd copied almost completely. The (gay) author claims immediately admitted what he'd done, claiming those were the only one's he'd cheated on, but as you can guess, no one really believes what cheaters say after they've been caught!
Another reason why you should always do periodic copyright searched on your stories. There's no always much you can do about it, but it's best staying informed, at the very least.
