For those wondering, we have e-mailed Lianne Spiderbaby asking for her to make some kind of statement.

These plagiarism things are never pleasant, but in this digital age where everything is searchable, it goes far beyond the old style of one author complaining about another. These days, digital fingerprints are everywhere. And the examples we have seen are truly unacceptable.

As a sidenote, nothing we have heard seems to impact Fright Byte's Rondo win for Best Multimedia Site, but as we told her, the allegations are obviously a concern.

For this to happen just as she was beginning to make a real impact -- articles at fear.net, in Famous Monsters, Fangoria, Video Watchdog and elsewhere -- is really sad, and we actually hope, as we do in most such cases, that she somehow gets through this, learns a deep life lesson, and moves forward.

We think the next move is Lianne's.  Obviously more to come.

david