?Chapter 43: Episode 43 Zero Tolerance for Plagiarism 5 Chapter 43: Episode 43 Zero Tolerance for Plagiarism 5 “No, I need to figure out why we were accused of plagiarism…” Jixiang couldn’t sit still any longer, got up, and prepared to go downstairs to buy a few issues of Fashion Xinrui to study.
“Could it have something to do with the style I designed?” Yao Shanshan doubted herself, “I just designed it according to the usual magazine and newspaper layouts…”
“It’s not your fault, some people just look for trouble, they can always find something to complain about…” Kang Siyin comforted the somewhat depressed Yao Shanshan.
“Come on, let’s eat something first…” Zhou Xueyin brought over 4 bowls of instant noodles to the work area on a tray, “Eh? Where’s Jixiang?”
“She went downstairs to buy a magazine, she wants to see exactly what we supposedly copied from them.” Kang Siyin pointed towards the door.
“Meow~~ Meow~~~” The three cats smelled the aroma of the instant noodles and ran down from the attic.
“I’ve been so busy with the forum this morning, I forgot to feed the cats…” Zhou Xueyin slapped her forehead and opened a can of cat food for the three kittens. Sear?h the N?velFire.nёt website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.
“Yinyin! Be more economical! If you pamper their tastes, they’ll really be too expensive to keep!” Kang Siyin tried to stop her, but it was too late, the can had already been poured into the food bowl.
“Consider it their compensation… Walnut, Kuro, Little Chicken were hungry all morning… right~~” Zhou Xueyin petted the three kittens meowing as they ate the cat food.
The three kittens were indeed starving, they meowed hungrily while they ate, making them all the more adorable.
The tense atmosphere of the early morning was completely eased by these three…
“Oh man, it’s almost September and it’s still hot as a steamer outside…” Jixiang came back holding three magazines, pushing the door open, “Yinyin, I’ve got the magazines. Remember to reimburse me!”
“No problem! Come eat, the noodles are getting soggy.” Zhou Xueyin called out to Jixiang, who was changing shoes.
“Great! On the way back I glanced through the magazines! It’s clearly them who copied us! Nearly half a book’s content, utterly shameless! They should just shut down the publication already!” Jixiang cursed the magazine as she washed her hands.
“Eat up! We’ll talk after eating!” Zhou Xueyin was the first to finish eating and started flipping through the magazines.
This magazine itself was somewhat known to her; previously, because it featured down-to-earth apparel matching, it had been quite popular among young people.
However, whether it was a change in the top management or something else, the content suddenly shifted direction, aiming for high-end luxury, trying to compete with those magazines that had always targeted upmarket audiences. Not only did it fail to capture the market, but it also lost its original audience.
Now, although the magazine wasn’t exactly unsolicited, its popularity had waned, and not many people were buying it anymore.
Zhou Xueyin looked at the August issue and the latest September issue, and her first thought was: These must be made by two different sets of creators!
“You guys come over and compare these two magazines, see what differences there are!” Zhou Xueyin called over Kang Siyin and Yao Shanshan to start analyzing both magazines together.
The August issue’s layout looked more Westernized, while the September issue had completely overturned it, using exactly the layout designed by Yao Shanshan and the color palette was also more akin to the Jap-Korean style.
In terms of content, the August issue featured luxury brand items, runway photos, and serialized reports on international fashion shows.
But in the September issue, the supposedly serialized fashion events had completely disappeared. Instead, there were fashion and makeup tips written by Zhou Xueyin and her team, and even some blurry street snaps…
“This magazine really dares to gamble, falling straight from global trendsetter to street vendor level. One in the sky, one on the ground!” Jixiang slurped her noodles, speaking indistinctly.
“Exactly! They really dared to gamble with this magazine. It was already struggling with sales, now I bet no one’s buying it,” Zhou Xueyin said mockingly, “It serves them right if no one buys it, who told them to steal our ideas!”
“However, if you look at the ads they publish, they’re all high-end brands for perfumes, jewelry, and stuff… It really doesn’t fit the overall vibe of the entire book…” Yao Shanshan also complained.
“Shanbao… if you put it that way, are you suggesting our current positioning is cheap…” Zhou Xueyin glanced at her sideways.
“Ah, that, Yinyin, I didn’t mean that… We’re just starting out, it’s different from them!” Yao Shanshan quickly explained.
“Yes, starting out, first taking the populist route, then gradually adding high-end content…” Zhou Xueyin said moodily, “Just worried that we’ll get stuck with the populist image like this Fashion Xinrui and won’t be able to go high-end…”
“Don’t worry, it won’t happen; forum formats can be diversified. High-end brands for appreciating, low-end for purchasing, no conflicts, no conflicts!” Li Jiniang hurriedly reassured her.
“That’s Yinyin… the editors for the last two issues were different!” While everyone was discussing, Kang Siyin was seriously comparing two magazines and finally noted a detail that others had overlooked.
“Oh? So that’s it, no wonder the style changed, they changed the editor…” Zhou Xueyin suddenly realized, “I remember there was a major change in their style previously too, was it also because they changed the editor? Or was it something else?”
“I wouldn’t know about that, as you all know, I have no clue about fashion…” Kang Siyin said with an awkward smile.
“Yinyin, Yinyin! There’s another major finding!” Yao Shanshan pointed at the table of contents of the book, “This company’s office is in Beijing!”
“Really?” Zhou Xueyin grabbed the magazine, “Beijing, Deboty Road…”
“Yinyin… these lunatics are starting to mess things up again…” Kang Siyin said listlessly.
“Uh… Truly! Lunatics!” Zhou Xueyin ground her teeth as she spoke.
Now wasn’t the time to study the magazine; they needed to quickly think of a way to protect the forum!
“Beep beep beep beep beep…” At this moment, Curly Cat sent a link in the management group, it was from Little Sky Blue’s forum.
‘This is bad! This is bad! Some netizens are saying our forum’s posts are plagiarized from the magazine!’
‘Crazy, crazy, crazy… What a bunch of mad dogs! It’s clearly them who plagiarized the content from our forum, yet now they are distorting the truth, twisting right and wrong! Who planned this? Aren’t they afraid of tripping and falling into a ditch at night!’ Zhou Xueyin angrily complained to Curly Cat.
Their own forum was being marred, they could still delete posts and ban IDs, IPs.
But on someone else’s forum, they were being subtly attacked, and there was really nothing they could do about it. She didn’t even know who was behind this, it was extremely despicable!
If left unchecked, she feared it would affect the forum’s reputation later on.
But if they really confronted it, they were on their own…
No way! Being alone didn’t matter. They were on the side of justice, they were the ones plagiarized! Even if it came to an online war of words, anyone with eyes would know who to support!
No fear, bring it on! Who’s scared?
Zhou Xueyin immediately picked up a camera, photographed the September issue of the magazine that plagiarized their content, then screenshot the specific timings of the postings, and uploaded it under the post on Little Sky Blue vilifying 51buy for plagiarism. She also included the forum link.
She had thought that some clear-sighted people would speak up for them, but shockingly, someone made a big deal out of the clarification post, claiming they were all adept at Photoshop, and those images had been altered.