Apparently some people find it easier to copy-paste text from other sources, including Wikipedia or the creator's original site, instead of coming up with their own text.
However, this could get the website in a ton of legal trouble for plagiarism and/or copyright violations. (Not to mention it's lazy writing to boot.) Since stopping that problem is a very high priority, and I've observed multiple cases of this problem as of late, let's give this its own dedicated clean-up thread. If you see any work, character, or recap descriptions that copy another source word-for-word, bring them up here if you're not sure how to immediately fix them.
Moderator notice: If you cannot immediately rewrite plagiarized text, remove it and put in a placeholder note. A sample follows:
[This description was copied in violation of our [[Administrivia/AboutImagesAndCopyright Plagiarism]] policy. Please replace it with original writing.]
Below is a list of currently known pages that suffer from this problem, and the source they copy from. (This list can be updated by mods or by me, Totemic Hero.) The ideal goal is to have these pages fixed within a week or two of finding out about the copy-paste. If we can't manage to come up with a fix in that time frame, then we'll probably have to outright Cut List said pages, because the site can't risk legal issues.
Currently known pages with copied text
Characters.Overwatch - Character descriptions partially copied from Blizzard's official siteRecap.American Horror Story - Recap descriptions mostly copied from the show's wiki
Recap.Charmed - A number of recap descriptions are copied from the show's wiki
Characters.Smite - Character descriptions transcribed from the character videos
Literature.Repairman Jack - Parts of work description copied from Wikipedia
Characters.Infinite Crisis - Parts copied from old version of official website (needs checking to see if still there)
WesternAnimation.Happy Ness The Secret Of The Loch - Description copied from VHS tape box
ComicBook.Alpha Gods - Part of work description copied from official website
Music.Among The Living - Part of description copied from Wikipedia
Creator.Kurt Sutter - Part of description copied from Wikipedia
Fanfic.Past Sins - Work description copied from host site
TabletopGame.Beyond The Supernatural - Work description copied from Wikipedia
Creator.Van Beuren Studios - Description apparently copied from a blog
Main.Footnote Fever - Text of a number of examples copied from Wikipedia
WesternAnimation.Camberwick Green - Part of description copied from Wikipedia
Series.Weinerville - Part of description copied from official website
Film.Yamashita The Tigers Treasure - Description copied from Wikipedia
Creator.David Lowery - Description copied from Wikipedia
Creator.Raphael Bob Waksberg - Description copied from Wikipedia
Creator.Kazuki Takahashi - Majority of description copied from Wikipedia
VideoGame.Action Taimanin - Many examples copied from the AllTheTropes wiki, including on subpages
Edited by MacronNotes on Mar 25th 2023 at 5:26:38 AM
Like reflections in the glass!
I think we need to investigate Characters.Fate Extella The Umbral Star. There is some text in quote format which had me suspecting that the text is lifted from either the game itself or material related to the game.
No longer a forum herald
Normally, short quotes from the game/game manual are okay as a supplement to our description. But yeah, those are a little long for that, and them being stuck in the middle of said description instead of on top like a typical quote definitely isn't cool.
On a potentially related side note, the descriptions themselves also seem a little stilted (possibly a sign of a troper with English as a second language). I'd say that page needs some cleanup work - more than is on-topic for this thread.
Expergiscēre cras, medior quam hodie. (Awaken tomorrow, better than today.)
The Unknown
Yo, TH, please add Characters.Fire Emblem to your OP. I found some more text and remembered that there was a c/p issue for the Fates pages a while back. Maybe have it say this:
edited 25th Mar '17 11:55:14 PM by Karxrida
If a tree falls in the forest and nobody remembers it, who else will you have ice cream with?
Like reflections in the glass!
In any case. Would it be possible to Characters.Fate Extella The Umbral Star to the OP (under a list of suspected pages at least?)
No longer a forum herald
I kind of can't do anything without knowing where the copy-pasted text is from (so I can see what changes have to be made). In the case of ![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
, I'll need a link to this fan wiki, and I'm not putting "suspicions" on the list.
Also, The Butter Battle Book is now copy-paste free, so that's one less item on the list.
Expergiscēre cras, medior quam hodie. (Awaken tomorrow, better than today.)
The Unknown
This wiki. http://fireemblem.wikia.com/wiki/
Took a whack at fixing Lita Ford. Is it kosher now?
No longer a forum herald
I don't see any problems with copy-paste now, although her discography list needs cleanup. (Yakety Yak, Take It Back and Trash Talk are just one-off music videos, not full albums. I'm also not sure if they need to stay italicized or be put in quotemarks.)
I'm pulling it from the list.
Expergiscēre cras, medior quam hodie. (Awaken tomorrow, better than today.)
You're welcome 
And yeah, those are just your basic Totally Radical Anvilicious Edutainment MTV specials. I'd keep them in italics, but take them out of her discography and refer to them somehow in the description (if they're even worth keeping at all). And it looks like I was right to take out the "actress" part of the description as well, because it looks like those are her only credits.
edited 27th Mar '17 9:15:32 PM by Theatre_Maven_3695
Sorry for the double post, but I like to keep different issues separate. I've just finished cleaning out the c/p from Girlschool, as well as adding some escape markup to erase some accidental red links created by the parser mistaking the surname "McAuliffe" for a legitimate Wiki Word. Off to take a look at Angel Witch. EDIT: That was quick. Another two down.
edited 27th Mar '17 9:49:55 PM by Theatre_Maven_3695
When We Were Animals work page description appears to be have taken from Amazon Description.
No longer a forum herald
Gonna pop that one on this list, and gonna note that the mods can bonk the guy who did it, since the page was made last December.
Also, thanks for the help, Theatre_Maven.
Expergiscēre cras, medior quam hodie. (Awaken tomorrow, better than today.)
Hi, I'm the "guy that did it" for the When We Were Animals page. I actually forgot I made it, and had kept that as a placeholder (if you look, you'll notice in the edit history that the page hadn't been touched from the day it was made until yesterday.) It's been changed and rewritten.
EDIT: formatting and expansion.
edited 29th Mar '17 10:35:53 AM by sydhighwind
No longer a forum herald
I'm pretty sure descriptions shouldn't have "placeholder" text on the live wiki, copy-paste or otherwise. Keep that in mind in the future, okay?
Expergiscēre cras, medior quam hodie. (Awaken tomorrow, better than today.)
Already talked to the mods, got it loud and clear. ![[tup]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Thumbs_up_emoticon_3268.png "[thumb up]"){kind=small}
Webcomic.Stand Still Stay Silent copies its description from the comic's About page.
Also, Past Sins isn't on the list? Well, it is part of a larger issue for online content with their own descriptions...
Disambig Needed: Help with those issues! tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13324299140A37493800&page=24#comment-576
Blapper of Water
I took a whack at Stand Still Stay Silent.
Look at all that shiny stuff ain't they pretty
No longer a forum herald
Looks like Past Sins fell between the cracks, my bad. Adding it.
Expergiscēre cras, medior quam hodie. (Awaken tomorrow, better than today.)
The description of Beyond the Supernatural copies text from Wikipedia, though it seems whoever wrote it included a link to the Wikipedia page it copies from.
No longer a forum herald
Bonus points for the editor in question 1) being the only one to edit that game's page, and 2) doing nothing but adding edits related to this game to the wiki. 
Going up on the list.
Expergiscēre cras, medior quam hodie. (Awaken tomorrow, better than today.)
Ace Gamer
Can Creator.Van Beuren Studios be added to the list? I don't know enough about the topic to fix the description.
edited 3rd Apr '17 9:00:37 PM by MissMokushiroku
No longer a forum herald
Not that we could technically prove it, since the link to the website it was taken from promptly tried to do shady stuff to my connection (meaning I had to cut it immediately).
Added to the list.
Expergiscēre cras, medior quam hodie. (Awaken tomorrow, better than today.)
Well, it could also come from here: https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:HujGK9GSFBAJ:https://www.thecartoonclassics.com/toonerville-picnic-1936+&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ca
We might actually be the only source for the content, on Google, I think, from a quick Verbatim Search. ![[lol]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lol2v12_4863.png "[lol]"){kind=small}
edited 4th Apr '17 12:35:21 PM by Malady
Disambig Needed: Help with those issues! tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13324299140A37493800&page=24#comment-576
I noticed some text on Characters.Fire Emblem was taken directly from a fan wiki. I was already editing the page and unknowingly removed the offending material before I discovered this, but I thought it was prudent to post here in case this was present on other Fire Emblem pages.
edited 19th Mar '17 8:16:56 PM by Karxrida
If a tree falls in the forest and nobody remembers it, who else will you have ice cream with?