The Plagiarst's Defense Strategy, Part Four of Four- I'm a Victim

"All I Did Was Steal a Silly Little Story"

(insert poem, novel, etc.)

How does a guilty plagiarist defend themself?  Well, in the "Book of Boyer," a short work I'm compiling subtitled "Conversations with a Serial Plagiarist," I discuss the four key tactics plagiarists use to try to skate prosecution.  Plagiarists, already embarassed by their own writing, lack of self-image and hygiene habits, are still more embarassed by having to use the first three tactics.  They're not comfortable with them, most likely because it appears to put them on the defense.  Only the fourth makes them feel like they can wear big-boy pants again.

First the famous Boyerism, "This is a private matter."  Yes, dear readers, the plagiarist actually tries to convince the victim that the professional way to handle the crime he or she has committed is to keep it secret so they don't get punished and so they can continue to steal from other people.

The second Boyerism is to attempt to diminish the victim, calling them names, saying they are lucky he stole from them and how dare they be so unprofessional as to question he or she.  Plagiairsts are better than their victims.  Frequently the plagiarists, lacking originality even in their defense tactics, will begin questioning their victim's sanity, sometimes calling them sociopaths, stalkers, and/or whatever other psychology terms they can steal from the web or their local library.

In the "Book of Boyer, Conversations with a Serial Plagiarist," I present the third plagiarist strategy which I call the "Attack of the Capital Letters."  After being in martial arts for over thirty years, I struggled to find a similar defense strategy in "The Book of Five Rings," by Myamoto Musashi or "The Art of War," by Sun Tzu.  The closest I can find is the use of shouting like a maniac being bitten on the ankles by a rabid pig in the lost works of a man known only as the Swordsman's Foot Washer.  I believe I have the only remaining copy of this work.  Boyer and other plagiarists seize on the concept of capitalizing entire words in their correspondence with their victims as though this will frighten the person they are writing to.  I asked the gang- banger down the street what this tactic meant, and he said, "The man can't get it on."  After my friend was cuffed and taken away, I realized I had completely forgotten to ask him what it meant when a plagiarist made excessive use of underlining.

But it is their fourth and final defense, which I explore in great detail in the "Book of Boyer, Conversations with a Serial Plagiarist," that they feel most comfortable employing.  Here it is.  Are you ready?

"I'm the Victim!"

Don't laugh.  Seriously, cut that out.  It's not funny.  Well, it is, sort of.  Too lazy to work when they can steal our stuff, claim our identities and run with the money?  Yeah, that's funny ha ha but not funny for real.  Plagiarists like to claim they are being stalked, harassed, persecuted.  They are just innocents being run down by an angry mob.  And their victims put the mob on them.  That's it.  The plagiarists are innocent and the victims are guilty.

Now you know the Fourth Defense.  Plagiarist as victim, victim as the guilty party.  Do they think we're stupid or what? 

The Street Psychology of a Plagiarist, Part Three of Four- An Inconvenient Broom

Trying to Clean Up

When they're exposed, a plagiarist immediately tries to blame the victim and sweep their tracks clean so no one can prove anything.  If the Internet is involved, they try to delete all the evidence.  Too bad they can't.  The "Delete" button is just an inconvenient broom. 

Take Boyer, please.

We have screenshots of everything he said he never did.  B Thoughtful is doing a wonderful job of chronicling them.  Many more to come.

For some reason Boyer thinks that the various publishers he's used, including Lulu et al don't keep records.  In his mind, if he deletes web postings, the publisher's records can't be subpoened.

That's the key element in a plagiarist's street psychology- the compulsion to ignore reality and re-make it so they seem to be the victim.  And that nothing really happened. 

But the Internet can't be swept clean. 

The Street Psychology of a Plagiarist, Part Two of Four- His Female Self?

Are David Boyer's New Online Identities Female?

It might be true.  Most plagiarists lie constantly.  They can't seem to help themselves.  For example, I was told by one writer that Boyer once claimed to be a gay man living at home taking care of his parents (I have this in black and white), and yet on other sites he loudly proclaims himself to be heterosexual. None of those he's plagiarized really care about his sexual preferences, of course.  It's none of our business.  We'd just like him to go away.  So he seems to- but does he really?

Cons like Boyer are addicted to hiding behind new identities.  Why not pose as someone of the opposite sex?  To a plagiarist, one identity is as good as the next.  Why not pretend to be a woman.  Who would ever guess it was them?  Or as a police friend told me, "Oh yeah, pretend to be a woman.  That's original."

You see, the street psychology of con men including editors and publishers like Boyer who don't pay promised royalties, print things without the permission of the authors and blatantly plagiarize other writer's work is that they think they're above the law.  They think they're above the law because they're smarter than we are.  As an example, cons often think that by a simple change of identities that no one can find them.  Like kids who hide under a blanket and don't think they can be found.

The world of the internet bolsters their psychological addiction to taking what isn't theirs because they think it is an unaccountable wasteland across which no one's identity can be tracked.  They think if they create a new email they're home free.  A new freeweb site and who could guess it's them?  Then a new name for a new magazine or publishing house and bingo- they're in business again.  Right?  No one can figure out it's them.

Why, maybe they can even post the new magazine at Duotrope under the new name and they're in business again.  Like David Boyer did with his Leo Wolf identity.

Like most patients, plagiarists like Boyer aren't aware that they have a problem.  They're perfectly normal.  How dare we question them.  We're the ones who are out of control.  If you've read any of Boyer's postings around the web, you'll know what I mean.

He thinks it's perfectly normal to make up new identities and hide behind them.  He's being persecuted, you see.  He's not trying to avoid accountability.  Why no- he's a rebel publisher and we're all demanding he quit plagiarizing us because we're jealous of his talent.

Boyer and his ilk can't stop themselves.  They are a victim of their own psychology. 

Hide, deny.  Make a new email.  Another freeweb.  A new magazine.  Try to suck in new authors. Another email address.  Sound angry if people question you. Hide, deny. Repeat as long as necessary.

With that kind of psychological imperative, could David Boyer have created a female identity to hide behind at his latest magazine?

You tell me- but let's all investigate thoroughly before we decide.  I'll give you the name of the magazine(s) in question next week.

The Street Psychology of a Plagiarist, Part One of Four

A Plagiarist's Brain

(with apologies to Homer Simpson)

What drives an individual to steal the work of someone else and claim it as their own?  Particularly someone in a position of trust, like David Boyer who writers for years thought was a legitimate publisher until his sordid underside was exposed.  He solicited manuscripts from writers, all the while concealing from the fact that he steals writer's manuscripts and claims them as his own.  Worse, he is now going after young writers.  What in the world goes through his mind?  Is he evil or mentally ill?

The answers to these questions are important to us as a writing community, because to a considerable extent it should govern how we deal with such a problem.

But before we get to that, there is something cognitively uncomfortable about a fifty year old plagiarist and scam artist soliciting young writers (for manuscripts, that is).  This seems to be a common tendency of swindlers, scam artists, thieves and con men.  When in trouble, look for "marks" that are more gullible.

This is to some degree a practical necessity for David Boyer because his reputation as a plagiarist and someone who does not pay royalties is spreading around the genre community (not limited to just horror anymore).  And since several large writing organizations have broadcast that he has stolen other writers works, and that complaints have been filed to the Attorney General of Indiana, where else can he get more people to con than eager young writers who perhaps have not had the money or confidence to join the SFWA or the HWA.

Boyer and other con men (plagiarists, deliberate copyright violators and other intellectual crooks) frequently operate under multiple identities.  There is a practical element in this behavior as well, as it somewhat makes it easier for them to operate incognito, but it also places a logistics burden on the plagiarist who is thereby required maintain those identities.  This makes them prone to mistakes.  Many people misinterpret this as a desire to get caught, but in too many cases it is a reflection of the con's lack of organizational skill.  It is true that their deficient organizational skills are sometimes rooted in a con's weak sense of credible identity.  Long distance it's difficult to ascertain which of these applies most accurately to Boyer.  Perhaps both.

In part II, we'll discuss which of Boyer's behavioral mechanism can shed light on his psychology or moral vacuity.

I'm open to new ideas on this topic and would really appreciate your opinion as we continue.