Plagiarism alert! "Forever Red" by elle1975 (also known as Call_Me_Elle and elle_grey)
The short version:
"Forever Red" by elle1975 (as she calls herself on Fanfiction.net) / by Call_Me_Elle (as she calls herself on AO3, previously elle_grey) plagiarises multiple stories by multiple authors, most significantly my Black Widow origin story "Fearless".
Please support the original authors, rather than this plagiarised work! Your readership, comments and kudos deserve to go to the original authors who actually wrote the words and came up with the ideas, not this thief who just copied and pasted them into her story.
The original stories and authors who have been plagiarised are:
Fearless by elle1991
In The Afterlight a novel by @alexandrabracken, published by Hachette Children's Group
Red by @foolondahill17
The Wyvern by @emmagnetised
The plagiariser's modus operandi seems to be to "bookmark" the stories that she later goes on to plagiarise, so beware if your stories appear in her bookmark list.
Evidence of around 50 instances of plagiarism in "Forever Red" have been collated and can be found here.
The long version:
A while ago, I noticed that someone called elle1975 had left kudos on my Black Widow origin story "Fearless" on AO3. My username on AO3 is elle1991, so my interest was naturally piqued by this person with a very similar username, so on a whim I decided to check out their profile, just for fun.
What I found was... pretty creepy. Instead of it being an innocent coincidence as I had assumed, it looked like this person had deliberately copied my username and also the way I'd written my bio. What the hell?! I thought. This is super weird. Is this person obsessed with me or something? Why are they copying me?
I decided to check their stories and noticed they were posting a Black Widow origin story. Already feeling suspicious since this person had seen fit to copy my literal name and bio, I decided to give it a read.
Immediately, I recognised certain paragraphs and plot points as being very familiar - because I had written them! I felt sick. This was a story that I had spent a significant amount of time, love and energy writing, and this copycat had just lazily copied and pasted whole sections into her own story. Multiple people have told me, over the years, how much my story Fearless has helped them through difficult times in their lives. It is a story that means a lot to me and the people who it has helped, so it felt gross and distasteful that someone would seek to pretend they had thought of my ideas and take credit for my words.
As I was reading, certain other sentences jumped out as being extremely well-written. On a hunch, I copied and pasted these sentences into Google and what came up was sadly not a surprise. These sentences had also been copied and pasted from other people's stories. So far, using plagiarism detection technology, I've been able to identify four stories which have been plagiarised and incorporated into "Forever Red":
In The Afterlight a novel by Alexandra Bracken
Fearless by elle1991
Red by foolondahill17
The Wyvern by emmagnetised
However, plagiarism detection technology is not perfect and will always result in an underestimate of plagiarism, since it does not pick up on all instances of plagiarism (because it relies on the original stories having been indexed by the search engines, which is not always the case). Therefore, there may well be other stories and authors whose hard work has been stolen by elle1975/Call_Me_Elle.
Here are just a few side-by-side comparisons showcasing examples of the plagiarism. In total, I was able to find 50 separate examples of plagiarism, which is far too many to post here, but if you would like to see them all, you can find them all collated here in this Google document.
As well as the above examples where she literally copies people's words, she has also copied multiple plot points and ideas from my Black Widow origin story Fearless, which were entirely original to my story and which I thought of using my own brain (because that's what real writers do). Original ideas that she copied from me include:
A mission to dress up as a sweet little girl with ribbons in her hair at an opulent mansion and deliver a letter on behalf of the KGB (to a Soviet politician in Fearless, to a German politician in Forever Red).
An original character best friend at the Red Room Academy named Elena (in Fearless)/Yelena (in Forever Red).
Madame B hurting Natasha to teach her that "pain is only temporary".
The premise of the entire chapter "Lessons in Seduction". Once the Red Room Academy girls reach the age of 16, Madame B tells them that they must learn how to use âseductionâ as a skill to add to their arsenal. They must do this by watching pornographic films, and then they are made to have sex with a male KGB agent.
Elena/Yelena being killed in order to make Natasha more focused on her studies at the Red Room Academy.
Burning down a maternity hospital full of babies, and then her rival classmate (named Katerina in Fearless, Evgenia in Forever Red) tries to kill her on that mission, and then Natasha kills her.
Killing an MI6 agent by stabbing them in both eyes, and then carving a message into their chest with a knife to warn MI6 to stop snooping.
The Sao Paulo mission is to break into a heavily-guarded compound surrounded by a five metre(in Fearless) / five foot (in Forever Red) tall wall, in order to steal documents. The villain (named Ernesto Silva in Fearless, Pedro Pereira in Forever Red) knows in advance that she's coming and says he is "excited" to meet her.
Natasha wanting to be a ballerina when she grows up, Elena/Yelena wanting to be a writer when she grows up, Elena/Yelena wanting to go to the beach.
Pretending to be a supernatural being (an angel in Fearless, a witch in Forever Red) in order to kidnap the two children of a diplomat/politician.
Kidnapping the two young children of a diplomat (in Fearless) / politician (in Forever Red) and holding them in a secure location so that the KGB could use them as a negotiating tactic.
Breaking into the Kremlin to deliver a message to President Gorbachev, which brings about the fall of the Soviet Union.
When Natasha finally confronts Madame B as an adult, Madame B taunts her with the name she was born with (âNataliaâ) and Natasha has a strong emotional reaction to this taunt, telling Madame B that that is no longer her name.
Madame B locking the Red Room Academy girls alone in a room with only a dead body and their thoughts for company, in order to teach the girls not to be afraid of corpses.
What has been elle1975/Call_Me_Elle's response?
When I originally noticed she was plagiarising my work, I left her a comment on Fanfiction.net asking her to remove or edit the plagiarised sections. She deleted my comment, contacted me privately and claimed to feel "awful". However, she did not apologise and did not accept any responsibility for her actions.
Instead, she gave the worst excuse ever: she claims to have a "photographic memory" and that she therefore remembers stories perfectly and "accidentally" writes them into her work because she thinks they're her own words. Which is complete rubbish, obviously, because if she really did have a photographic memory, she would be able to remember (in perfect, photographic detail) that she read it in another person's story and then copied and pasted it into her own work!
Nevertheless, if this is the position she's going to stand by, then the only solution for writers seems to be to ask her not to read your stories, so that your words don't end up in her "photographic" memory of texts that she then conveniently forgets were written by someone else.
If you want to contact her to tell her she is not welcome to read/plagiarise your work, you can find her on AO3 (currently Call_Me_Elle), Fanfiction.net (currently elle1975), Pinterest (currently elenasfakianopo), and email (available on request, DM me).
What can you do to help?
Spread awareness by sharing this post. People deserve to know who the original authors are, so that they can read the original works and give comments/kudos to the original authors, if they wish. People also deserve to know that elle1975/Call_Me_Elle is a repeat plagiariser and that anything you read of hers may not actually be written by her.
Report her story(s) to AO3 and Fanfiction.net, if you find that she has plagiarised your work. The more reports the websites receive, the more likely they are to take action to take down the plagiarised works.
Be aware that her modus operandi is to bookmark stories that she later goes on to plagiarise from. If your works have been bookmarked by her, you may want to keep an eye on her works to see if she starts plagiarising from you. You could also try reaching out to her directly to ask her not to plagiarise from you, to unbookmark your work, or to tell her that she is not welcome to read your works.
