I have noticed here and there on the Net that Cinnaberyl (A name, and character in a series of novels I've written which was made up by me) has been taken and used as some peoples RP character names.


This upsets me for two reasons:


First, a completely selfish reason. Cinnaberyl was a name I made up, and a 'person' who belongs to me. It's been on of my 'handles' online for almost seven years and it upsets me that someone saw it and used it thinking it was 'neat'. (And yes, this is what I assume, wrong or right of me, usally this is how someone finds a name. Becides, what's the chances of someone copying that name with the exact spelling?)


Second, Cinnaberyl is a character in novels I hope to have published someday, and it frustrates me as a writer to know someones snagging not only her name, but alot of her personality types and using them without permission from me. On some hands I could care less, but when things start getting very simmalar to the point that you know that what is being used was taking from a work you did, it gets frustrating. Plus, this can (and has for other authors) cause problems for me down the road with publishers. Some publishers feel that things published online, or things that have been 'borrowed' or posted someplace are already published (or may violate copyright laws on some level) and will be hesitant to pick up anything. I don't expect this to happen, and it would be really extreme if it did. But we all know how my life goes, and it would just figure.


Problems are bad! BAD!


It's just frustrating because alot of work goes into thinking up names and personalities of my characters and then knowing nobody else out there has used it for over half a decade and then to stumble on someone who just plucked it from something they've seen and used it irks me.


It's sort of like someone stealing my graphics and using them, but insted it's my words.


Ok, I'm done whining now.