PublishAmerica author sues Stephen King for plagiarism

victoriastrauss

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Rod Marquardt, author of Keller's Den, is alleging that King's novel, Duma Key, contains infringing content. He's asking for an injunction, destruction of copies, damages, and restitution.

The complaint is here. The entire cause of action seems to be that Marquardt published his novel in 2002, and King published his in 2008. The list of allegedly infringing content makes for very sad reading.

- Victoria
 

DreamWeaver

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Oooh, maybe this suit will lead to a subpoena for PA to provide information on how many copies of the PA book were actually printed & sold, and to whom (bookstores, direct sales from the website, to the author, etc.). That would be interesting. Especially if PA's recordkeeping matches its ability to provide proper royalty accounting.
 

thothguard51

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So I guess we can not use the color yellow in a painting, or make statements like rescued by the cavalry, without Mr Rod Marquardt feeling like we are stealing his cliche's...

This is really sad, except for the lawyers...

I seriously doubt a journey is going to find judgement against Mr King in favor of a PA author.
 

Cyia

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The list of allegedly infringing content makes for very sad reading.

- Victoria


You mean like this:

Two secondary characters from each novel try to convince both
main characters to leave the house after a scary incident, but both
main characters stay alone at their house (
Which is pretty much standard practice in every thriller/horror ever written.


Or

Both novels use the word “cavalry” as being rescued from the
intruder when someone else shows up

Which is a 200 year-old cliche, at least.
 

thothguard51

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As far as PA opening their books, they are not party to the lawsuit that I can see.

Also, didn't PA claim some type of fire or water damage some years ago in which they lost records????
 

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There are some interesting comparisons. And there are some very far-fetched ones, too.

Of course you'd have to read the novels to really get a good idea. (And for that reason I feel sorry for any judge on this lawsuit - even from the snippet I got a feeling of purple prose).

He is asking for a JURY trial... Lucky judge...
 

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As far as PA opening their books, they are not party to the lawsuit that I can see.
No, but their records could be substantiating evidence, and therefore it seems possible one side or the other may ask for them.

I seem to recall that one of the reasons the lady who sued JK Rowling had her case thrown out of court was that the number of her books that were printed was miniscule and sales were restricted to such a tiny geographical area that those two facts made it unreasonable to believe that JK Rowling could ever have seen her book, much less read it and plagiarized it.

But I might be misremembering that, of course.

ETA: I know this isn't the only reason, or even a main one. There were lots of other, more important reasons. BUT, this is the one that could cause PA some...trouble, let's say. That's why I mentioned it, instead of all the other reasons that particular suit was idiotic.
 
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This review of Duma Key cites many instances in which King used ideas or characters in some of his earlier work.

The product description of Keller's Den on Amazon doesn't sound anything like the 800-page Duma Key. Keller's Den is only 254 pages. (ETA: Keller's Den is of course, "temporarily out of stock" on Amazon.)

Should be an interesting trial.
 
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I've looked at the excerpts in the brief, and Dumas Key.

He doesn't have a case; first of all, in the arena of themes and motifs, a quick check of the usual guides and indices, and my own head, provides me with fifteen prior literary works that pre-date both books, two of them from more than a hundred years ago, and one of them from the sixteenth century.

In terms of the actual phrases and languages of the passages cited, they are idiomatic or common phrases, all easily found within standard U.S. and U.K. linguistic and literary corpora, and in texts that pre-date both books.

No case.

This is a waste of time and money, and only the attorneys will profit.
 

DreamWeaver

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They misspell King's name several times.
On the other hand, I'll admit to being impressed that they spelled "cavalry" correctly, since it feels like I see it misspelled "calvary" 95% of the time.


As my old tactics professor used to say, "Cavalry is mounted soldiers. Calvary is a hill in Jerusalem".
 

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The complaint is here. The entire cause of action seems to be that Marquardt published his novel in 2002, and King published his in 2008. The list of allegedly infringing content makes for very sad reading.
- Victoria
I can't decide which is more pathetic, that list or the one on the old N. K. Stouffer site that claimed "similarities" between her self-published Muggles novel and the first Harry Potter book. It might be a toss-up.

There are similarities between both cases, however. Once again, we have a list of similarities that could come from thousands of other novels. Once again, we have authors of books no one was likely to have seen suing a big name author. And again, the books don't seem similar to the big name author's book. For example, the Stouffer site listed lots of alleged similarities, such as Keepers of the Key and mirrored lakes, but from what I have read, Stouffer's novel doesn't sound like the Harry Potter books at all. More like post-apocalyptic Smurfs wrapped around the story of Moses.

Stouffer lost her case, big time, but is still at it:
http://www.realmuggles.com. I wonder if this author will end up wasting his life updating a site like that, dreaming that someday, he will win his case. Even though he doesn't have one. And another similarity... There is a PDF on the Stouffer site with dubious claims (some of which can be punctured with a few minutes on Google) and some awful spelling errors.
 

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So I guess we can not use the color yellow in a painting, or make statements like rescued by the cavalry, without Mr Rod Marquardt feeling like we are stealing his cliche's...

This is really sad, except for the lawyers...

I seriously doubt a journey is going to find judgement against Mr King in favor of a PA author.
Well, there goes my novel about a telepathic artist who's rescued by the calvary cavalry before she drowns in a bathtub...
 

Stacia Kane

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No, but their records could be substantiating evidence, and therefore it seems possible one side or the other may ask for them.

I seem to recall that one of the reasons the lady who sued JK Rowling had her case thrown out of court was that the number of her books that were printed was miniscule and sales were restricted to such a tiny geographical area that those two facts made it unreasonable to believe that JK Rowling could ever have seen her book, much less read it and plagiarized it.

But I might be misremembering that, of course.


You're not really, but there was a lot more to it than that. Stouffer manufactured evidence and outright lied; she forged sales records and documents. (She was ordered to pay $50k, too.)

But yeah, *part* of it, near the end, lol, was that the idea that Rowling--in Scotland--saw a self-published book printed in America, which Stouffer claimed was sold in one or two stores in New England but had no proof of sales, was pretty far-fetched and ridiculous.

The full court document/ruling is here; it's fascinating.


I can't decide which is more pathetic, that list or the one on the old N. K. Stouffer site that claimed "similarities" between her self-published Muggles novel and the first Harry Potter book. It might be a toss-up.

There are similarities between both cases, however. Once again, we have a list of similarities that could come from thousands of other novels. Once again, we have authors of books no one was likely to have seen suing a big name author. And again, the books don't seem similar to the big name author's book. For example, the Stouffer site listed lots of alleged similarities, such as Keepers of the Key and mirrored lakes, but from what I have read, Stouffer's novel doesn't sound like the Harry Potter books at all. More like post-apocalyptic Smurfs wrapped around the story of Moses.

Stouffer lost her case, big time, but is still at it:
http://www.realmuggles.com. I wonder if this author will end up wasting his life updating a site like that, dreaming that someday, he will win his case. Even though he doesn't have one. And another similarity... There is a PDF on the Stouffer site with dubious claims (some of which can be punctured with a few minutes on Google) and some awful spelling errors.


The whole thing would be hilarious if it wasn't so pitiful.

I was going to run to register to vote so I can be on a jury, but they'd disqualify me. That kinda sucks.
 

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I seem to recall that one of the reasons the lady who sued JK Rowling had her case thrown out of court was that the number of her books that were printed was miniscule and sales were restricted to such a tiny geographical area that those two facts made it unreasonable to believe that JK Rowling could ever have seen her book, much less read it and plagiarized it.

Perhaps, but the big reason was that it was proved in open court that she had fabricated evidence.
 

Sheryl Nantus

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It's a very sad, sad situation.

Obviously the PA author thinks he has a case - and is going to spend months or has spent months fretting and gnashing his teeth over this when he could be either improving his craft/getting away from PA/writing another novel.

How sad.

:(
 

CheyElizabeth

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Right, because King isn't original or smart enough to write his own story, so he has to go looking around the masterpieces from PA's authors to steal story ideas.
 

CheyElizabeth

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And now that I've gone and read through the PDF, there are definitely some eerie similarities between the two books. But still.