Hey everyone! I know this was a very short wait when it comes to waiting for more info on Neobook but it seems wasn't very clear in explaining things or maybe my last (and technically first) update was read wrong/misunderstood. Seeing as this misunderstanding happened in the first place, I'm willing to accept it as my fault due to how I write. As you all know by now since I literally said so in the last update; I have ADHD. 

Now those of you who have or know someone with ADHD know that once we ADHDer's start talking... well, it turns into rambles that go on and on. Especially if we or the person we know doesn't take medication to help... That's right, I've been raw dogging life with ADHD for years after a bad experience with aderal (probably didn't spell it right but what ever) when I was a midget so please bear with me, I know I write long paragraphs.

With that explaining why my last update was soo long, I wanted to take this moment to clear the air a bit and perhaps take a more direct (and hopefully short) approach in explaining my intentions before I continue writing this book. So... here I go...

The reason(s) and goals I wrote this book is because:

1) I want to identify what is true, and what is misinformation being spread that doesn't need to be spreading any more than it already has.

2) I wanted Wattpaders to feel safe or at the very least be aware if their work was truly at risk or not.  I as a Wattpader (and I know I'm not the only one) was very concerned after being asked about publishing on Neobook, getting NO RESPONSE, and then discovering the rumors going on about it afterwards, and found that information I did find did not ease my mind at all.  So, I chose to take a closer look at the app and give an analysis of what I found so far. 

Unfortunately, I must have worded something wrong or had a typo as I received a comment that soon vanished before I could respond (well, as you can see, I was responding but I decided to address this to anyone who reads this rather than one person.) 

I blocked out their username as I know that they must have commented it without having finished reading the chapter yet because it seems clear that they didn't see what I said at the end of the last Chapter (especially since hey deleted their comment, probably seeing what I said at the end after they commented) though I mostly blocked their username to not only protect them from other Wattpaders that may point fingers, but also to show that I'm not trying to bully them with my response.

And YES, the user that commenter is an actual Wattpad User, not a bot or an undercover agent of some kind trying trick us into giving in, I checked so no need to theorize. They had a book published from before these events an everything (It looked intriguing too, I might give it a read sometime soon)

In fact, if the Wattpader that commented this earlier is reading this I want to thank you as I realized my explanation may have been TOO LONG and was a lot of info to cram in one chapter, I also appreciate that you reached out politely and were also focusing on facts (facts that I'm going to assume you learn from either experience or observing at one point) I will not be going over EVERYTHING from my last chapter as I know I'll go right back to rambling, so I only plan on addressing what's brought up in the comment with maybe one or two things I covered in the last chapter. 

So, here's my response.

First I would like to address the first sentence. I will add what the comment for those who can't get the image to load.

1st sentence) Hi! Neobook removes plagiarism upon request of the author.

Yes, one thing I quickly took note of when scrolling through every, and I mean EVERY review was how responsive the customer support team was. There was very few reviews that didn't have a response from them (which is always a good sign)

This picture below is evidence I use in my last chapter. (The one about the User John accusing Neobook of actively and knowingly stealing other people's stories with no proof through a 1-star review)

I feel the Neobook service team responded beautifully and professionally (Yes, they were pretty direct but in business you have to be, that's rule one in any kind of business, plus imagine if this was your platform you worked hard to make and you were being accused with no proof) Not only did they tell the user that they take plagiarism very seriously but asked for proof of plagiarized book in a formal manner. To top off their response they did address the user's accusations by calming asking them not to spread misinformation of their app as they cannot control what third parties do outside of their app (people using bots to spam our message boards through Wattpad itself for example.) 

*please scroll past the picture for the rest of the response.*

2nd sentence) How are they supposed to know if it's plagiarism or not?

I 100% agree with you. As a fellow writer and Wattpad I can completely relate to the stress, after all it's not easy to know there's even a small chance that your work may be stolen.

HOWEVER, and I stress and massively emphasize when I say this you guys. Going to the app and leaving a bad review will do NOTHING if you do not have... you know what I'm going to say... EVIDENCE. It must be YOUR work your reporting being plagiarized. Why? Because even if a friend or creator in arms reports it for you, can they pull up all the evidence they need to prove it for you? NO, you have that info and they'll want a report from you. YOU, not someone else, MUST be able to provide proof the work is yours and yours alone. Otherwise, all you'll look like is a child who had their unlabeled toy taken by another kid and now the teacher is aggravated because you frustrated them to the point, they won't help you properly. Are you telling the truth that it's yours? Yes (Unless you're the one that stole but this is if your stuff really was taken) what will they do? They'll ask for proof... and guess what will happen if you don't have it. Whatever was taken from you will not be given back.

Yes, it isn't fair for your stuff to be stolen, especially by a dishonest person that was never given permission to take/use it/them. BUT it also isn't fair for you to take your stuff back without proof it is/they are yours (which the person who stole your stuff will use as an excuse against you. Don't doubt it, yes there are still good people but there's still a lot of disgraceful ones out there.)

This is one reason why I am heavily doubting the (very few) bad reviews left on the app and the books I did find accusing or theorizing Neobook of purposely stealing books... Because there's NO actual solid evidence to prove they are. Which brings me to the sentence of my response.

3rd Sentence) No platform is immune from this, including Wattpad.

YES! Yes! Thank you! Someone finally wrote it (and beat me to it too!)

Neobook is a writing app, Wattpad is a writing app, Fanfiction.net is a writing website, and the list goes on but what do all of them have in common? Stories, stories that they have to protect from plagiarism or risk facing their users wrath.

 Now tell me, who's usually the one plagiarizing? The owner of the app? Rarely but usually no since their supposed to prevent it (which would damage their company/app/website and in turn their income, especially if they have charges pressed against them which is the VERT LAST thing they want)

 Is it you? (that depends if your one of the disgraces, but let's say in this scenario you reported your work being stolen and told the truth) well obviously no, otherwise there'd be nothing to report if your stuff wasn't stolen. 

A bot maybe? Well with how their developing Ai it wouldn't be surprising if it happened soon since their programmed by us, but Ai is usually programmed to alter many things to avoid plagiarizing (with the exception of image generating I guess but that also depends on I think).

 So, who could be stealing our stuff? Well, who else? Other users or as companies like to call them THIRD-PARTIES who can either program bots to steal our works or steal it themselves!

Now if your work has been stolen, you need to figure out who stole it. Don't just go to the app/website and leave a review of you whining "You plagiarized a book, you're a horrible app/website for stealing other people's work!" You gave no info making it impossible to help you or others.

1) You didn't provide the title of the book and the description of it (books can have the same name but be about a different story)

2) You didn't tell them the user that plagiarized it (which means that if you didn't provide at least a description it will take them longer to fix the issue, you want your work back fast right?)

3) Finally, and most importantly, you gave no indication to them that you even own the work you're claiming to be plagiarized if you word it that way. When you tell a teacher in elementary that another kid stole a pencil that you brought to school what would you say?

a) They stole the pencil I was using and won't give it back! (No, because your words imply the pencil was among the items the teacher provides you and other, making it theirs, not yours.)

b) They stole that other kid's pencil and won't give it back! (No, because then the pencil now belongs to that kid based off of what you said, and unless they're in on trying to help you get it back and pretends to be scarfed or too timid to get it back the teacher won't make a fuss unless that kid does unless it's as important as lunch money or stealing homework)

c) They stole my pencil and won't give it back! (C as in correct. You made it clear it was your pencil, they may ask if you brought it with you, you'd obviously say yes if you did, it would be best if you had your name on the pencil as evidence but if you're lucky, they'll notice you habits.)

I say this because when I was a little kid, I had a girl take my pencil and I told the teacher, when she asked the girl said I was lying. The teacher asked to look at the pencil, and it didn't have my name on it, nothing marking it as mine, but all it took was a quick glance over and the teacher handed it to me saying it was mine, when the girl argued the teacher pointed out how we handled our pencils differently. She pointed out that I erased with the end completely flat, and since I drew a lot of doodles, I had a habit of keep the pencil sharp, and there were no bite marks on mine pencils ever (apparently, I was the only one in my class that kept my pencils like this), whereas she and the other kids was the exact opposite. With all that pointed out and the pencil back in my hands, you can imagine the fit she threw a massive fit which only ended in her getting her parents called.

I know kids arguing over a pencil isn't the best example to use here but I used this one because it happened to me, and while the pencil being given back to me was purely due to the teacher's keen eyes... that doesn't change the fact she was able to tell it was mine just by looking at the condition of the pencil. In her eyes the way I used the pencil must have acted as a signature in some kind of way. It's a lot like famous artist who use a technique either they created or mixed with another that others can't replicate, making the painting easy to identify as theirs in the eyes of an expert.

When you claim a story is stolen it must be yours, you have to have proof that its yours. I like to document the date and time when I first write a story vs. the date and time I publish it (I do this with all my chapters, but I always, ALWAYS do this for the first and last chapter that way I know when I started it, when I published it, and when I finished the story. Doing this and getting your stories legally copy righted will always ensure you keep your works safe.

It won't stop people from trying to claim your work as theirs, but it will prevent them from keeping it, on top of that if they earn profit from it, they'll be forced to compensate you but only if you have it legally copyrighted and it's completely an original work too (it can't be fanfiction based off of your favorite show, game, etc though. So if you have mainly books that fit this criteria I'm afraid you won't have any luck as the only law protecting your work is the Fair Use law which only shields you from the original creator, which even then it's not guaranteed to protect your work if the original creator doesn't want any kind of fanfiction of their work and is willing to take it to court.)  the easiest way to do it is either online or at your local courthouse. 

With all that being explained (hopefully more thoroughly this time) Here is what I HAVE confirmed, and what still needs to be confirmed (I also included this in the description too just in case, and I will update accordingly.)

Only confirmed fact(s) so far:

           1) The messages on our message board are from Bots (Third Party)

           2) No one has reported to have THEIR OWN work being stolen.

           3) Neobook has shown to not support plagiarized work (As they should)

Things that have yet to be confirmed:

          1) Stories being stolen directly from other sites/apps. (Wattpad for example)

          2) Who on Neobook is stealing work.