An open letter to the person who stole my work and posted it as their own.

Follow up:

Dear Thief,

I do not know who you are, because the website that has posted your work goes out of its way to hide the identity of its writers. Not surprising, since it has been noted that a great many of the “original works” published there were stolen outright from other sources.

What purpose is there in being a writer if you cannot lay claim to your writing? Where is the satisfaction in that? What muse could survive on an appetite of poorly rewritten works and stolen inspiration?

Mine was not the only work stolen, as others have already discovered. I'm sure the website administrators will be hearing from more of us soon. We writers are funny about our work. We spend so long creating it; it becomes an important part of us. You would not understand that of course, because you are not a writer, you’re a plagiarizer and a thief.

I must admit, I’m strangely flattered you felt my idea was worth stealing, though that does little to appease my sense of violation at having my work and inspiration taken from me. I do feel slightly better after noting the website's claim to being one of PC Magazine’s Top 100 websites of 2008. That gave me a new inspiration, and I have emailed PC Magazine’s editor to let them know that your website's content is suspect, and suggested that perhaps in future they should investigate further before touting the site as one of the best on the web. You see what can come of original thinking? You should really try it sometime.

Capricia