Not so Funny - Plagarism in fanfiction (opinion)

So, here's the common scenario….Someone writes a piece of fiction that they cannot make a profit on, for the pleasure of writing and sharing their work with others interested in that fandom. Then someone else steals the work and re-publishes the piece under their name, also unable to make a profit on the stolen work and they then publish in the same fandom where they are almost guaranteed to be discovered because most fanfiction groups are small enough that everyone is reading all work available. Why do some people plagiarize fandoms? The reason escapes me. No one can make a profit on fanfiction. Fanfiction readers are voracious - they'll read almost everything in their fandom so a plagiarized work is pretty much guaranteed to be discovered sooner or later. Fanfiction members are also very vocal and getting a reputation of plagiarizing among a group of writers is pretty much guaranteed to get you (this is a generic you, if you please) ostracized.I haven't had a piece plagiarized yet (that I know of) but the concept of plagiarizing an amateur work in a venue that doesn't bring you any profit but can still give you a sour reputation that will last for years (the Internet never forgets) strikes me as so odd that I have to comment.Are people unclear on what plagiarism is? Plagiarism is taking another person's work, written, spoken or drawn/painted and claiming that you are the creator of that work. Plagiarism includes extensive 'quoting' from another person's work and 'forgetting' to footnote or endnote the source. During the long dark years of junior high, learning how to properly footnote work was one of the challenges of my English classes.I wonder sometimes, with the proliferation of Internet term paper mills out there, that students nowadays don't realize what it means when they pay their $20 bucks to a mill then turn the paper in for a grade. That's plagiarism. When I was a student, plagiarism was grounds for failure of the entire class. It was the one thing, of all the crap students pulled in school that was never tolerated.I seem to recall a story (that may be apocryphal) about a teacher who had no less than six students in his class turn in the identical essay bought from a term paper mill. As he'd stated at the beginning of the course, plagiarism was grounds for failure in the class. When he failed the students, the parents pressured the school to reinstate all the kids and remove the failed grade. Perhaps examples like that are the reasons why some people plagiarize. It doesn't seem like the big deal it was when I was a kid.Do plagiarists really think they won't be discovered?Well, like I said - all fandoms are relatively small. Sooner or later someone is going to notice. Is it worth it?This is pure, non-profit entertainment! All any author in fanfiction gets is praise and notoriety. Really, is there enough satisfaction in getting praise for a piece of stolen work to make the risk of discovery and humiliation worthwhile? Is it worth making other authors hesitate before posting their work for fear if it being stolen?Plagiarism in fanfiction strikes me as one of the most ugly of 'harmless' crimes. There's no good for anyone in it. No matter how terrible your own writing is, it's certainly better than being branded a plagiarist.There are relatively few resources out there for fanfiction - you can't hire a lawyer to sue someone who plagiarizes work that is illegal in the first place. There is an overworked group of volunteers:Plagiarism Police Patrol (anime only)AndPlagiarism Police Patrol 2 (non-anime)They will investigate to the best of their ability and publicize their findings - either naming the guilty party or clearing someone who has been wrongfully accused.