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Monday, 9/20/04: To say that things have taken a turn to the more fantastic would be an understatement. Recently an entity, going by the name of Wolf (another Texas Aries alias), has decided to take up Texas Aries's plight of plagiarism under the guise of doing this as an assignment for her writing class. Wolf recently emailed eleven people that she considers to be of "high standings in the M7 community informing them of my findings so far" and "those who have placed the URLs stating that Texas Aries is a plagiarist on their website." (I feel compelled to note here that Wolf has not emailed me or any of her so-called accusers with any of this information and yet, I am the one who created this webpage with the intent of proving plagiarism and others have helped me gather the evidence. I do wonder why this is.)

The archivist from FHSA has kindly allowed me to use this email here, and as such it was forwarded to me. Because I have not received the okay from the other ten people involved, I have not named them here. The FHSA archivist also addresses Wolf on her Live Journal:
Entry 1: http://www.livejournal.com/users/drkcherry/371907.html
Entry 2 (the one with the Business english explanantion): http://www.livejournal.com/users/drkcherry/372081.html

Big thank you to our barrister Randy for helping to make the legalities layman friendly.

Date: Sun Sept 9 2004 08:27
To: drkcherry
From: wolf_report

Good Morning,

I have been come across this accusation of plagiarizing by the writer know as Texas Aries. I am currently taking a writing class that is talking about this very issue and through it would be perfect to investigate.

I have no communication with the writer known as Texas Aries through I have read all her fanfiction that I have come across in the 2 years since I have been reading M7 stories. I still considered my self unbias. Therefore I have decided to investigate her and her writing.

This is the result so far.

Since all of you, that I have included in this email, have some standing in the M7 community and/or has posted a link to this site that accuses her of plagiarizing you must also publish the links to my report in the interest of being fair and just. If you do not then I must concluded that you are part of this accusation and therefore bias as to the outcome. I will report this in my report of your refusal to do so giving the readers all the facts.

Also I must point out that if this goes any further than this fandom then it will cross over into the world of libel and might result in you and everyone associated with you being sued. So please keep an eye on your writers and keep them in line. I don't want to see anything like this happen so I'm warning you to protect you.

The link is here http://www.geocities.com/motherrati/wolfreport/index1.htm.

Wolf

This is a private email sent to you. Do not post any of this as I have never given you permission to do so.

After much discussion on whether or not it was even worth the effort to respond to this latest incident of ludricrous claims and maneuverings from Texas Aries/KMFWLA/Sugmanitu Hota/Wolf, it was decided that we would respond to show we aren't and won't be cowed. We aren't looking to bolster Texas Aries's continuing efforts to stir up trouble - we have no doubt all these sock puppet people are indeed figments of TA's making - but neither will we sit back and allow the threats and vitriolic behavior to continue unchecked.

With that thought in mind, we've decided to dissect this recent bit of threatening email and point to this author as being the same person who contacted the Death Dog's recently, one Sugmanitu Hota, her correspondence with Death Dog's is on the previous page. FYI, Sugmanitu Hota means Wolf Howl in Lakota. We'll begin with the email from Sugmanitu Hota and the email from Wolf to show the similarities between the two supposed people - we know they're all Texas Aries, just pretend that we might have a doubt:

  • Per Wolf:
    I am currently taking a writing class that is talking about this very issue and through it would be perfect to investigate.
    Per Sugmanitu Hota:
    I'm also an in the process of taking journalism.

    Still pretending for another moment that this isn't Texas Aries, in another desperate attempt to prove that she didn't plagiarize anything by creating another persona for herself, the similarities between the two people are too coincidental and it is now impossible for Wolf to be unbiased as she has already admitted to talking with Texas Aries about the plagiarism.

  • Per Wolf:
    I have no communication with the writer known as Texas Aries through I have read all her fanfiction that I have come across in the 2 years since I have been reading M7 stories. I still considered my self unbias. Therefore I have decided to investigate her and her writing.
    Per Sugmanitu Hota:
    I have asked her very pointly if she did this. Turns out that she didn't and gave a very believable reason of how this happen. She was also away to spend time with her father who is 80 and just diagnose with cancer. A friend that she left in charge of her stuff locked her out and didn't tell her anything of what was going on knowing what this time means for her.

    • Point made, we are dealing with Texas Aries. So now we'll answer TA's letter.

    Since all of you, that I have included in this email, have some standing in the M7 community and/or has posted a link to this site that accuses her of plagiarizing you must also publish the links to my report in the interest of being fair and just.

    Wolf insists that all the people who have linked to this plagiarism site MUST also link to the "Wolf Report" in the name of fairplay. Yet, many of whom she emailed do not have any links back to this site. If they don't have a link, is she saying that their standing in the M7 community (exactly who made the decision about who was of good standing and who wasn't?) makes them responsible to post her link? That's insane, she can't compell people by will alone to put anything they don't want on their private sites.

    If you do not then I must concluded that you are part of this accusation and therefore bias as to the outcome.

    Those in "good standing" automatically become part of the accusatory body and biased if they, who have done nothing but make informed decisions about their own sites, don't add the Wolf Report link? Her manner is definitely threatening and her logic makes no sense, especially in light of the fact that no one MUST do anything, standing in the fandom or not. Not even Texas Aries, but it's obvious she missed that point completely.

    I will report this in my report of your refusal to do so giving the readers all the facts.

    Exactly to whom is Wolf reporting to? What does she think is going to happen as a result of said report? More importantly, does she really think that threatening anyone online will do anything but piss people off?

    Also I must point out that if this goes any further than this fandom then it will cross over into the world of libel and might result in you and everyone associated with you being sued.

    Nothing on the plagiarism page can be construed as libel or libelous in nature. Truth is a complete defense to libel/slander. (slander being the nonwritten version.) In this case, the truth includes printing all the emails for all the personas and pointing out logical conclusions based on the facts, such as the manner in which they are written strongly indicates TA wrote them. If it goes into the "real" world, no one would know it was her unless her real name is Texas Aries. Since her own website is on a public internet site, she's already put the issue before anyone with access to the internet. Having contributed to making this a public issue, she has no right to prevent rebuttal.

    So please keep an eye on your writers and keep them in line. I don't want to see anything like this happen so I'm warning you to protect you.

    That is not a warning, that is a threat, an empty threat, but still a threat. Pure and simple. What exactly is Wolf saying here? Does she want the archivists and people of "good standing" to keep an eye on all the writers in the M7 fandom so they don't discuss about Texas Aries or the fact that Texas Aries is guilty of plagiarism? Does she think that those people she has approached can really have any control over anyone? Are they gods? Or is Texas Aries once again showing her less than stellar grip to the real world in which we live?

    This is a private email sent to you. Do not post any of this as I have never given you permission to do so.

    First, this wasn't a private email, it was a group email and by sending it the way she did, she gave everyone she sent it to the email addies of the others and informed them of the involvement of the others in the issue. Because there was no real name on it, it should really be characterized as an anonymous letter. Second, we didn't publish the actual email address that's on her email, she can't accuse us of causing her any damage - even the annoyance of getting nasty emails. Third, there are no invasion of privacy issues here because Wolf (Texas Aries in the Wolf persona) is just as involved in keeping this alive, writing to lists with hundreds of subscribers, sending group emails, putting up a public website, etc. We aren't using her real name - just her series of aliases. We aren't using her emails for any profit making purpose nor are we damaging her opportunities to make any profit because no one can profit from fanfic (unless it becomes profic with permission of the holders of the copyright - and I'm sure that someone who writes in TA's special brand of "business English" will be one of the first they'd ask.)

    01/04/05 UPDATE:
     Well, wonders never cease, the WOLF REPORT has indeed been resurrected; http://www.lonetreecp.org/NFic/wolfreport/index1.htm . And some may have noticed that it continues to change URL destination. Why? We're not sure. After all the author of the Wolf Report insists that each site that is offering information about Texas Aries's plagiarism MUST include the link to her report and the report itself also states in section 1.2, under the heading Audience, that "This document will be available to all members of the Magnificent Seven fiction communities and to anyone else that has an interest." We've stated our interest to the webmistress that we'd like to link to the report, so we'll see if she continues to move it around. It's one more example of the unfailing hypocrisy that this group of individuals excells in, but we're determined and will keep updating the link.

    There was some intial thought to doing a rebuttal, but after reading this version of the report through it really is as we decided before, a moot point. The author not only contradicts herself for the majority of it, she also makes the weirdest, wildly unfounded claims we've ever seen. She didn't leave anything for us to call her on, she did a good enough job herself. But please, please, don't take our word for it. Go have a good laugh...oh, we mean read...go have a good read, and remember there is a contact email link for comments about this newest inception of the Wolf Report.

    10/02/04 - UPDATE:
     A recent visit to the "Wolf Report" site revealed it is no longer in existence - at least on the tripod site. There is still a copy of it on the geocities site, but it was the old one on which she stated everything would be put on the tripod site, and it does not have any updates on it.

    We are going to keep a watch out for it resurfacing elsewhere, but somehow it seems unlikely that it would. Hopefully it will not. It's a surprising development but one than cannot be denied as something of a relief.

    Because the rebuttal we'd been planning was in direct answer to the "Wolf Report," pursuing such at this point seems moot and unnecessarily provocative. We have no need to fall into the role of instigator and we certainly aren't looking to goad Texas Aries/etc. So unless anything new comes to light or the "Wolf Report" is reestablished elsewhere, we think it's for the best that plans for a rebuttal are withdrawn and we simply let things lie.

    We want to thank everyone for their thoughts, input and willingness to offer their emails, private information and opinions for the planned rebuttal. Just having a group of level-headed people to hash this out with and offer support during these continuing Texas Aries related issues has been a great help. All of it is well appreciated - that we could come together as a group and deal with a matter such as this in a cogent, decisive manner without meeting Texas Aries at her level was at least one positive outcome to the whole mess.

    Please feel free to share any further thoughts on this matter - anything at all - if you have something you would like to see added to the original plagiarism webpage, if you ever run into the "Wolf Report" or have ideas about its disappearance, just want to vent a final time before letting go... just let us know. We're happy to hear it all. rowan_writes@yahoo.com

    Hopefully this marks the end of the trail for this particular episode. Thanks again, everyone.

    Best regards,

    Row and cobalt