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But she can claim not understanding them which is pretty obvious.
Maybe they're busy writing? Just a thought.
What about some of the big name authors? Have they weighed in on it as well?
Bethany Walkers/Anfal Khaliq, serial plagiarist
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But she can claim not understanding them which is pretty obvious.
Maybe they're busy writing? Just a thought.
What about some of the big name authors? Have they weighed in on it as well?
Looking at the sheer stupidity of some of the blunders (such as 'copyright Google images'), and thinking one can get away with lifting from a song that was covered only three years ago by one of the largest singers in the UK makes me inclined to agree with you.
That certainly doesn't make any of it any less appalling - not by a long stretch - but IF she is that young, then the parents or whoever is in charge of her payments account would be liable as well. And certainly the schools should know. One thing I hated when I was a kid was when other kids would try to get me to do their work or cheat off my tests. I can't see a kid cheating in the adult world and not cheating in the academic one too.
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Ye gods!
I'm not sure they're all the kind of followers she'd like...
And I quite agree that her parents and school should know about this ASAP before she gets herself into any more trouble.
I'm not sure they're all the kind of followers she'd like...
And I quite agree that her parents and school should know about this ASAP before she gets herself into any more trouble.
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It's so cheap and easy to be a "published author" these days. Dump your unrevised, unedited work - or somebody else's work - into the CreateSpace template, find a nice cover picture on the internet - after all, the artist or photographer is unlikely to find it! - and stick it on Amazon. That book-shaped thing with your name on the cover is proof that you're a published author, just like Stephen King and J K Rowling. Most of your family and friends won't know the first thing about publishing so they can't tell the difference between CreateSpace and Penguin. Tell your local newspaper - they probably won't care either!
It's like a cargo cult. Your sad little volume bears as much resemblance to a real published book as a contraption made of bamboo and string bears to a real plane. No wonder that talented writers who genuinely self-publish are appalled by the online slush pile and feel tarred with the same brush.
I've noticed that in many of her books Anfal Khaliq thanks her English teachers. When I was at school - and I'm referring to the 60s and 70s - teachers encouraged students with an interest in writing to publish in the school magazine or have their stories mimeographed and bound in little collections. Thanks to the internet, teenagers (and pre-teens) can now leap into print before they're old enough to grasp why copyright theft and plagiarism are as serious as more tangible forms of crime. "I enjoy this author's work so I'll use it to pad out my book..."; "I love this image of children playing in an amusement park made of chocolate so I'll put it on the cover..."*; why not?
*The painting on the cover of Sanna Khaliq's The Chocolate Robbery was created as part of an advertising campaign for biscuits. Lovely work, Mr Nithin Rao Kumblekar!
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/149235726X/?tag=absowrit-21
It's like a cargo cult. Your sad little volume bears as much resemblance to a real published book as a contraption made of bamboo and string bears to a real plane. No wonder that talented writers who genuinely self-publish are appalled by the online slush pile and feel tarred with the same brush.
I've noticed that in many of her books Anfal Khaliq thanks her English teachers. When I was at school - and I'm referring to the 60s and 70s - teachers encouraged students with an interest in writing to publish in the school magazine or have their stories mimeographed and bound in little collections. Thanks to the internet, teenagers (and pre-teens) can now leap into print before they're old enough to grasp why copyright theft and plagiarism are as serious as more tangible forms of crime. "I enjoy this author's work so I'll use it to pad out my book..."; "I love this image of children playing in an amusement park made of chocolate so I'll put it on the cover..."*; why not?
*The painting on the cover of Sanna Khaliq's The Chocolate Robbery was created as part of an advertising campaign for biscuits. Lovely work, Mr Nithin Rao Kumblekar!
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/149235726X/?tag=absowrit-21
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This is a derail, please feel free to ditch it.
Hey, Alice -- I happened upon this thread after spending most of yesterday morning reading online about another plagiarist, in the US this time: http://rachelannnunes.blogspot.com/2014/08/standing-against-plagarism.html#comment-form
Also, I just wanted to add to anyone who thinks a 12-year-old may not be capable of doing this -- when I was 11, I started an underground newspaper, for which I wrote most of the content. I tricked the school secretary into mimeographing hundreds of copies and distributed them to the students at my school. At 10, I organized a boycott of a global children's charity, when I found out that only a tiny fraction of the donations they receive actually go directly to the children (most of their money at the time went to administrative salaries, etc.). At 12, I organized protest marches in my state's capitol (for various things -- Viet Nam war, to make 'pay only' public toilets illegal, etc.). I have known other kids who were pretty capable at an early age.
Hey, Alice -- I happened upon this thread after spending most of yesterday morning reading online about another plagiarist, in the US this time: http://rachelannnunes.blogspot.com/2014/08/standing-against-plagarism.html#comment-form
Also, I just wanted to add to anyone who thinks a 12-year-old may not be capable of doing this -- when I was 11, I started an underground newspaper, for which I wrote most of the content. I tricked the school secretary into mimeographing hundreds of copies and distributed them to the students at my school. At 10, I organized a boycott of a global children's charity, when I found out that only a tiny fraction of the donations they receive actually go directly to the children (most of their money at the time went to administrative salaries, etc.). At 12, I organized protest marches in my state's capitol (for various things -- Viet Nam war, to make 'pay only' public toilets illegal, etc.). I have known other kids who were pretty capable at an early age.
Karen, I think it's fairly obvious from the tone of her 2011 posts on that Lulu forum that even at the age of twelve Anfal knew that plagiarism/copyright infringement was wrong and was worried by the prospect of being found out. When nothing bad happened straight away I think she just got over-confident and took even bigger risks. "The producers of Ghajini didn't get to hear about my thinly-disguised Lulu novelization of the film, even though I used the characters' original names! Why don't I pad it out with chunks of Colleen Hoover's work and re-publish it through CreateSpace under a pen name?"
Let's not lose sight of the fact that although people like Anfal enjoy playing what Uncle Jim calls 'Published Author - the Role-Playing Game', in reality their books sell in tiny quantities and fly pretty much under the radar. I doubt if Anfal's books have made much money, but they've made her a very minor internet celeb as a teen author. The exposure of her alter-ego Bethany Walkers must have caused her some alarm, but she weathered the storm and it was really only by chance that I noticed the connection between Bethany and Anfal on Goodreads. I picked her book Three-Legged Madness at random, typed the first couple of sentences from the Amazon blurb in Google and hit pay dirt.
As has already been pointed out, the really maddening thing is that unless the plagiarized authors - and artists whose copyrighted work has been used without their consent - complain directly to Amazon, Goodreads etc there's very little that members of the public can do about the problem. I'm hoping that the Universal Music Publishing Group at least will flex its muscles and get the lyrics of Lovesong removed from Goodreads and the book Race, if it's still available.
Let's not lose sight of the fact that although people like Anfal enjoy playing what Uncle Jim calls 'Published Author - the Role-Playing Game', in reality their books sell in tiny quantities and fly pretty much under the radar. I doubt if Anfal's books have made much money, but they've made her a very minor internet celeb as a teen author. The exposure of her alter-ego Bethany Walkers must have caused her some alarm, but she weathered the storm and it was really only by chance that I noticed the connection between Bethany and Anfal on Goodreads. I picked her book Three-Legged Madness at random, typed the first couple of sentences from the Amazon blurb in Google and hit pay dirt.
As has already been pointed out, the really maddening thing is that unless the plagiarized authors - and artists whose copyrighted work has been used without their consent - complain directly to Amazon, Goodreads etc there's very little that members of the public can do about the problem. I'm hoping that the Universal Music Publishing Group at least will flex its muscles and get the lyrics of Lovesong removed from Goodreads and the book Race, if it's still available.
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I wonder if it would do any good to complain (not as the author, but as a member of the general public) to Amazon, Goodreads, etc?
If you take a look at this blog post on Smart Bitches Trashy Books, it tells of how they contacted Amazon and got some plagiarized material removed. Perhaps if you are willing to get in touch with them, they will do the same re: Anfal. http://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/blog/amazon-montlake-and-cassie-edwards-backlist
Let me know if there's anything I can do to help. I don't have a day job and I love to fight crime.
If you take a look at this blog post on Smart Bitches Trashy Books, it tells of how they contacted Amazon and got some plagiarized material removed. Perhaps if you are willing to get in touch with them, they will do the same re: Anfal. http://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/blog/amazon-montlake-and-cassie-edwards-backlist
Let me know if there's anything I can do to help. I don't have a day job and I love to fight crime.
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How does this gal find the time to study (if she really is a student)? Easy. She probably cheats her way through her classes too.
Plagiarism is an issue I've been wondering about re self publishing for quite some time. Sounds like a legitimate worry. It's not impossible for trade-published books to incorporate the intellectual property of others, but at least the gatekeepers to trade publishing are people who are well enough versed in popular fiction within their preferred genres that they're likely to catch blatant rip offs of recent or well-known older work.
With it being so easy to toss a novel up on smashwords or Amazon, it would be amazing if author's intellectual property weren't being stolen right, left and center. If it's something that's already trade published, I suppose it's easy enough to get a cease and desist order or something (even if suing the plagiarizer for lost revenue isn't always practical). But more worrisome is the stealing of other self published work (since the author won't have a trade publisher and their legal team behind them).
Plagiarism is an issue I've been wondering about re self publishing for quite some time. Sounds like a legitimate worry. It's not impossible for trade-published books to incorporate the intellectual property of others, but at least the gatekeepers to trade publishing are people who are well enough versed in popular fiction within their preferred genres that they're likely to catch blatant rip offs of recent or well-known older work.
With it being so easy to toss a novel up on smashwords or Amazon, it would be amazing if author's intellectual property weren't being stolen right, left and center. If it's something that's already trade published, I suppose it's easy enough to get a cease and desist order or something (even if suing the plagiarizer for lost revenue isn't always practical). But more worrisome is the stealing of other self published work (since the author won't have a trade publisher and their legal team behind them).
I'll follow this up, Karen, but I'm not all that hopeful. And I've sent the story to Smart Bitches anyway - they might be interested in using it as Colleen Hoover is a very popular romance novelist.
I managed to find an email address for artist Nithin Rao Kumblekar, whose painting Chocolate Land was stolen by Sanna Khaliq for the cover of her book The Chocolate Robbery. He's already been in touch with Amazon, so it will be interesting to see what happens.
Meanwhile, Anfal Khaliq continues to demonstrate that she has nerves of steel. Remember "mamakiladli", who created a spoof Twitter account as a multi-published teenager? Khaliq is disgusted!
You really, really couldn't make this up.
Arghghgh.
You know, sometimes I come across teens playing the Published Author RPG. I try to leave them alone, because I figure they'll grow out of it and it would be cruel to point out that they're not actually, well, published.
But they can be so doggone obnoxious about it.
Especially if they haven't even written their own books!
You know, sometimes I come across teens playing the Published Author RPG. I try to leave them alone, because I figure they'll grow out of it and it would be cruel to point out that they're not actually, well, published.
But they can be so doggone obnoxious about it.
Especially if they haven't even written their own books!
Surely it can't be legal to use copyrighted material in book trailers? Because Khaliq has twelve of them on YouTube, all of them cobbled together from films, TV and photographs. One of them is for her upcoming crime novel Cut Me Deeper:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlzbSu4wXM8&list=UUDXYSEWrgP4LOAszY_tuRLA
It opens with a lengthy clip from The Wolverine and includes an even lengthier clip from a futuristic thriller I don't recognise.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlzbSu4wXM8&list=UUDXYSEWrgP4LOAszY_tuRLA
It opens with a lengthy clip from The Wolverine and includes an even lengthier clip from a futuristic thriller I don't recognise.
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What appear to be snippets from Paranormal Activity feature in the trailer for Remember Me.
I see that footage of Australian police cars pop up in the trailers for Cut Me Deeper and Rose-May.
I'd imagine she's made these herself, although there are probably many people on Fiverr who will do them. (Btw, did you know there's an even cheaper website -- Fourerr?)
I see that footage of Australian police cars pop up in the trailers for Cut Me Deeper and Rose-May.
I'd imagine she's made these herself, although there are probably many people on Fiverr who will do them. (Btw, did you know there's an even cheaper website -- Fourerr?)
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Paranormal Activity! I knew those clips looked familiar but the title escaped me. And were my eyes deceiving me or did we also get a quick glimpse of Taylor Swift in that same video?
*is not really conversant with popular culture*
ETA: Mods, I don't think there can be any doubt that 'Bethany Walkers' and Anfal Khaliq are the same person. Could you possibly change the thread title to reflect this? Thanks!
*is not really conversant with popular culture*
ETA: Mods, I don't think there can be any doubt that 'Bethany Walkers' and Anfal Khaliq are the same person. Could you possibly change the thread title to reflect this? Thanks!
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I've had an email from Anfal Khaliq:
In my reply I asked her to explain why in 2011 an Anfal Khaliq of Greater Manchester posted on a Lulu forum about her book Enemies Always, a thinly-disguised adaptation of the film Ghajini, and in 2014 Bethany Walkers published Show No Mercy...also an adaptation of Ghajini, this time with new material stolen from the work of Colleen Hoover.
In my reply I asked her to explain why in 2011 an Anfal Khaliq of Greater Manchester posted on a Lulu forum about her book Enemies Always, a thinly-disguised adaptation of the film Ghajini, and in 2014 Bethany Walkers published Show No Mercy...also an adaptation of Ghajini, this time with new material stolen from the work of Colleen Hoover.
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You can just edit the thread title in the OP by clicking 'go advanced' in the lower-right corner beneath the text box. It's only when the thread is more than a few months old that you need a mod to change it.
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Can I also direct you to a comment on Bethany Walker's goodreads page you posted earlier? Message 1 from Christy.
Actually this is what gave me my first clue that Bethany and Anfal were the same person! I told Christy about my suspicions and she replied:
Aha! Bethany's Twitter account has now vanished into the ether but it's interesting to know that it was identical to Anfal's. It's seven hours since I emailed Anfal about the remarkable resemblance between her Enemies Always and Bethany's Show No Mercy but she hasn't responded yet.
Incidentally, a Google Images search for the covers of three of Anfal's books turned up some interesting results. The photo of the Runaway girl is all over the internet but I doubt that it's in the public domain, and I likewise doubt that models Frida Gustavsson and Lada Kravchenko gave their permission for their images to be used on the covers of Rose-May and Sapphire and Me respectively. And who's that I see on the cover of Anfal's CreateSpace Colouring Book For Kids? Yes, it's GARFIELD!
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Alice, this quote is so accurate I want to cite it on my blog:
"It's like a cargo cult. Your sad little volume bears as much resemblance to a real published book as a contraption made of bamboo and string bears to a real plane. No wonder that talented writers who genuinely self-publish are appalled by the online slush pile and feel tarred with the same brush."
"It's like a cargo cult. Your sad little volume bears as much resemblance to a real published book as a contraption made of bamboo and string bears to a real plane. No wonder that talented writers who genuinely self-publish are appalled by the online slush pile and feel tarred with the same brush."
Reading pre-coffee, and my jaw is all a-dangle. Plagiarists seem to be popping up like mushrooms at the moment, but I know that's just an illusion. I hope these girls parents are aware of what's happening because Disney will not approach use of those images with any sort of velevet glove.
You're welcome to do so...as long as you don't claim credit for it, of course!
*joke*
Would it be off-topic for me to ask what a cargo cult is? Wikipedia is directing me to some guy named John Frum, but I don't understand what it has to do with publishing.
It's the belief, originating amongst some Southwestern Pacific islanders at the end of World War II, that building imitation planes out of locally available materials would encourage the gods or spirits to send actual cargo planes carrying food and consumer goods. The fake plane is a magical representation of the real thing but has no intrinsic value, just as a bad vanity/self-pubbed book confers ego-boosting status upon the writer but doesn't mean anything in the world of real publishing.
Oh, and just in case Anfal decides to do a bit of deleting here are the opening paragraphs of her 2011 Lulu book Enemies Forever:
Compare and contrast with Show No Mercy by Bethany Walkers, published by CreateSpace in March 2014:
Let this serve as a lesson to would-be plagiarists in the internet era. Whatever you put online in your real name will be around for a long, long time and will be picked up by search engines.
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As such, the analogy is dead-on. It elevates ignorance and magical thinking at the expense of logic and actual research. The post-WWII islanders didn't have any way around it, because they were steeped in their own traditions and had little previous exposure to the wider world.
Self-published and vanity-pub authors don't have that excuse, with any access to libraries or the internet.
Self-published and vanity-pub authors don't have that excuse, with any access to libraries or the internet.
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