[ OT ] Someone stole my story

So, in high school, I was encouraged to submit to a student publication. 
 
 The instructor was *very* demanding. I guess she wanted to push us. I submitted a lot of stuff that was shot down before I got something she found worthy. 
 
 I'm preening my feathers about finally making the cut, get my volume, and discover the cover art is a gorgeous picture of a dragon seen from the cockpit of a fighter jet. 
 
 That had been entirely ripped from ***Dragon*** magazine, the D & D enthusiasts' broadsheet. 
 
 And it's a shitty trace, too. Not even sightly altered. The little shit even copied a panel inside the cockpit that apparently had contained some classified instrument, and the original artist had turned the panel into a black box with the words, `` useless wasted space'' on it in a rather clever move. 
 
 And this kid had lettered that in, as well. 
 
 I am *highly* annoyed. I bust my ass to make the cut, and the cover is a rip? 
 
 I bring the original into the teacher. Show her the trace. How this kid did n't even appropriate. Just stole. 
 
 `` Well, Johnny is talented. I do n't want to discourage him.'' 
 
 
 It's worth noting that this same instructor made us write short fic, and then peer review, and when I got dinged because someone decided my ghost fantasy story was stupid because that kind of thing `` ai n't real'', and I got irascible and shredded another student's work because `` Sally klimed the fence and it was relly high and then she made it and errybody said yay! the end'' Was n't exactly Hemingway, I got taken to task for discouraging the poor simpleton from contributing. 
 
 When a post I made went front page, and I started getting congrats orangereds, I did an Ego Search to find it, and the first hits I got were from reposting blogs. With paid ads. I could n't be entirely mad, since it was attributed, and for a moment I was all, `` Worldwide, bitches!'' but then I went back to eating my ramen and making my thirty day meds last forty five days for financial reasons. 
 
 I feel there is a new culture of anything goes, and while I suppose it's one thing to play Wonderwall on your acoustic and tell Sally Shortbread you wrote it just for her, there have to be consequences when you misrepresent yourself for personal gain. And if Sally learns you're aping Oasis to get in her drawers, I'm sure Hell will follow after.
