Will David Boyer, the Vincennes, Indiana Plagiarist Help Fight Planet Tilt?

An anonymous souce inside the Global Climate Change Conference held last week inside Moscow Elementary School has told this reporter  new scientific evidence was unveiled which explains Catastrophic Climate Change and places the blame squarely on David Boyer, the Vincennes, Indiana Plagiarist.

Professor Fyodor Borovsky later confirmed this to myself and five scruffy streetside vendors in exchange for a signed photo of Elvis.

"It is bolshoi fact Citizen Boyer is totally respnsible," he explained.  "He has piled copies of his plagiarized stories on the edge of town and disguised them as a volcano.  This is too much weight- the accumulated mass of his plagiaries has tilted the axis of the earth."

"Is that possible?" I asked.

"But of course!" he said.  "Have you seen how many people he plagiarized?"

"Hmmm," I said.

It was a cold day in Moscow and I didn't want to be there, but stories like this are worth following to the ends of the earth.

"Yes, now you see, don't you?" he cackled.   

"No, but what can be done?"

He eyed me suspiciously, then leaned over and whispered, "We must work together to fight planet tilt.  Russia and China will do their part.  We can plagiarize millions, maybe billions of stories.  In ten or twenty years, maybe if all the Chinese work every hour of every day, we can plagiarize enough stories on this side of the ocean to tilt the planet back."

"Will it be in time to avert catastrophe?" I asked.

"I don't know," he said.  "What do you want?  I am no Rasputin."

"What can we in America do to help?"

"Good, good- you are excellent world citizen.  Speak to this Boyer.  Plead with him.  Ask him to begin walking his manuscripts east across your fine country to help tilt the planet our way.  It will take him 30 maybe 40,000 trips, but if he starts now, it may not be too late.  Appeal to his conscience to help save the planet."

"Your plan has a flaw," I said.

"It is Russian plan. It is bolshoi good, fuck you very much.  What could be wrong?"

"For starters," I pointed out, "he doesn't have a conscience."

Alien Police Close in on Boyer

At precisely eight o'clock this morning, David Boyer, the notorious Vincennes, Indiana plagiarist poured himself a cup of fresh coffee, put his tin foil hat on his head and turned the TV on as he sat down to compose a trial list of imaginary ailments to excuse his crimes.  He was in the middle of descibing his baffling allergy to Doritos as a medically documented cause of wanton plagiary, when a TV news flash caught his attention.

The astounding announcement that Gort, the most famous alien policeman of all time, was coming to Vincennes, Indiana to deliver to him an ultimatum so terrified the prevaricating plagiarist that he literally crawled across his kitchen table to get a closer look at the picture.  Fear squeezed Boyer's heart and slowed his pulse to near Yogi levels.

Dean Koontz, he thought.  Somebody must have told him that I ripped off Dean Koontz.  They love Dean Koontz.  Gort will lock me up in an asteroid until I turn into a mummy.

With his still nicotine stained fingers, Boyer turned up the volume.

"So," the announcer was asking the giant alien policeman, "is it true that you're walking to deliver a message to David Boyer on the first of April?"

"Gort, Klatu, Barada, Nikto, Boyer," said Gort.

"Is that all you know how to say?" asked the announcer.

The TV screen flashed bright red like a ruby on fire, and when the eerie radiance faded the announcer had disappeared and the visor that looked like Gort's alien eyebrows pulsed with a palpable anger as though it were ready to shoot out another terrible disintegration ray.

"Gort, Klatu, Barada, Nikto, Boyer," Gort said again.

Somebody must have told him I ripped off Clive Barker, too, thought Boyer.

Boyergate Flash- Teen-Aged Genetic Archaeologists Discover Plagiary Genes!

Plagiary Genes

Uncovered in Vincennes, Indiana

Last week, a group of teen-aged genetic archaelogists were shocked to discover what could be the genes that cause a bad writer posing as a publisher to plagiarize.  Authorities are searching for the owner of the genes.  "Somebody wore them," said an un-identified source in the Vincennes Police Department.  "Sooner or later they'll run out of identities to hide behind."

Marie Cruz, noted expert in posing as people she's not, said, "These kids should get a medal.  If they've located the precursor genetic strands that cause people to steal intellectual property and claim it as their own, we need to name something after them.  Like maybe a prison or something."

Names of the young scientists are not being released until they secure a media agent.

"This is the second major discovery of plagiary roots in the State of Indiana in the last seven or eight months," said Professor Steven Ricecakes.  "First that Caswell thing.  That was bad enough.  I thought we were going to have to change the name of the state it was so embarassing.  Then along comes David Boyer.  Ouch.  Now we really need to change the state name.  You think people in Indiana want the rest of the world to know they live in the same state as Caswell and David Boyer?"

In fact, investigators from the Human Genoming Project are thinking of sending water pollution experts to Vincennes, Indiana, to determine if contaminated water could be the "Patient Zero" of the recent outbreak of Plagiarizing Publishers that have humiliated the whole state.

Director Tanya Sterilize says it's dangerous work looking into stupidity.  "I tell my investigators not to drink the water when they're in off the grid little towns like Vincennes, Indiana or they could end up stealing stuff and selling it under an alias.  Maybe it's not a gene causing this thing but some kind of squirming little parasite in the water.  Think about it- you are what you  drink.  If you've got parasites in your water, you'll get parasites in your stomach and sooner or later in your head."

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. 

The Cooks Source Copyright Violation- A Video Commentary

I Believe This Says it All
video presentation courtesy of Nemspy