Chapter 54: The Plagiarism Controversy
Despite what he’d said, Sophie Wexler felt that the musical instruments of the Galaxy were still a bit awkward for her to handle.
The sound they produced wasn’t great, either. ’Perhaps I just haven’t gotten the hang of them yet. I’ll learn how to use them properly later.’
Sophie Wexler: "Wait, let me switch."
But before she could do anything, she caught sight of the live comments out of the corner of her eye, and her expression froze.
Sometime, she wasn’t sure when, a horde of people had flooded into her stream, and the tone of the comments changed in an instant.
[Yo, so this is that new streamer who’s been getting popular lately? What’s her name, Sue Shiver? What kind of name is that?]
[Came over from Karina’s stream. I’m curious to see what’s so different about this platform’s new hotshot streamer.]
[I heard she can’t even play our simplest songs, let alone use our instruments. She just uses those so-called ancient instruments to get attention.]
[LMAO, the lyrics have the same meaning as our Karina’s and she dares to call her work original? I bet it’s plagiarism!]
[Our Karina sings way better than her. Everyone, go watch our Karina! Don’t waste your time here with this plagiarizing streamer.]
All of a sudden, a huge wave of people flooded the stream, completely taking over the live comments.
They were almost all taunts directed at Sophie Wexler.
Watching the dense barrage of comments, Sophie Wexler’s brow furrowed slightly.
The fans in Sophie Wexler’s stream were infuriated by this stunt and immediately fired back.
[Who the hell are you? Spewing crap the moment you open your mouth. Is that how your mother taught you to be a decent human being?!]
[LMAO, mocking our Sue? You dare mock us with that AI-generated stuff of yours?]
[How is this mocking? You guys clearly don’t know yet. It’s already all over StarNet—this streamer you’re hyping up is a copycat,] the newcomers posted with a sneer.
[Seriously, this streamer is just using the whole ’Healer-class soothing the Spiritual Sea’ thing as a gimmick. What even are these songs she sings? They’re nothing compared to our Karina.]
[She’s a copycat! She plagiarized our Karina’s song! Everyone, let’s boycott her!]
[But you’re all welcome to come to our Karina’s stream. Not only does our Karina sing beautifully, she’s also gorgeous. She’s infinitely better than this ugly streamer, Sue Shiver, who doesn’t even dare to show her face.]
Below it, there was even a link to another stream.
Sophie Wexler watched the comments flooding the screen, and her gaze turned completely cold.
Many viewers in her stream had only recently followed her. In a situation like this, it was easy for them to just follow the crowd. They hear a few rumors and start to believe them.
[Just saw the news on StarNet. Heard some new hotshot streamer plagiarized Karina’s song.]
[Yeah, yeah, that’s right! She copied our Karina! Everyone boycott this streamer and go watch our Karina instead.]
[Hey, number one fan! Get out of this stream! Our Karina would welcome you.]
Watching the comments, Sophie Wexler’s brows knitted together. She picked up her Light Brain from the side and opened StarNet.
Sure enough, the story about her plagiarizing someone else’s song was already number one on the trending list on StarNet.
[I knew it! How could that streamer write original songs so quickly? Turns out she was just copying them all along.]
[And this streamer just popped out of nowhere. There was no news about her before, and then she suddenly got famous right after releasing a song. Don’t you think that’s strange?]
[You can’t even find any information on her.]
[Everyone, look below. Here’s my comparison of their two songs.]
Sophie Wexler looked at the evidence presented by Karina’s fans.
They had placed Sophie Wexler’s songs and Karina’s side-by-side for comparison, pointing out many similarities in things like phrasing and melody.
Unlike Sophie Wexler, who was a new streamer, this Karina was a streamer with over a hundred million fans.
She was just on a different platform.
Her massive fanbase made the public opinion on StarNet completely one-sided.
Some people even started attacking Sophie Wexler without getting the full story.
The situation on StarNet looked grim.
Just then, the Entertainment District administrator sent Sophie Wexler a message.
[Entertainment District Admin: Miss Wexler, I’m not sure what’s going on, but a ton of news just broke on StarNet saying you plagiarized Karina’s songs.]
Sophie Wexler glanced at StarNet, then at her stream, which had descended into total chaos, and replied: [I saw. I didn’t do it.]
She didn’t know how the platform would handle this. After all, that Karina had a massive fanbase. Typically, when faced with such a disparity, platforms would choose to protect the one with more fans.
The next second, the administrator replied almost instantly: [I believe you, Miss Wexler!]
Her songs had such a strong personal style. Even when they were all slow-paced, she managed to give each one a unique character.
It wasn’t just him; their entire platform believed Sophie Wexler would not plagiarize.
[Entertainment District Admin: There’s no way you plagiarized!]
[Entertainment District Admin: That Karina is from a rival platform. They’ve always been at odds with us. This is probably a dirty trick because they saw we were starting to grow.]
Their entertainment section was doing better than ours, and it was all because of that Karina. She’s an A-level Healer-class.
The citizens of the Empire have a natural adoration for Healer-classes, so even though the Empire’s entertainment industry has been in a slump, their platform’s popularity has never been low, thanks to Karina.
They used to get mocked and ridiculed for it all the time.
Now they finally had Sophie Wexler, and just as her popularity was taking off, this happened.
When he saw the news on StarNet, he was about to explode with anger!
The other side had clearly come prepared. They had everything ready in advance. They even claimed Karina’s song was recorded a month ago and just hadn’t been released, providing a string of evidence and all sorts of PR campaigns to back it up.
Their whole posture was aimed at crushing Sophie Wexler—no, to be more precise, it was aimed at crushing their platform.
Even if it was all fake, the power of public opinion was terrifying. If enough people heard it and saw it, a lie could become the truth.
It would inevitably have an impact on Sophie Wexler and their platform.
[Entertainment District Admin: Don’t worry, Miss Wexler, we’ve already started our emergency PR response!]
But this PR effort clearly wasn’t having much effect. The direction of the comments below hadn’t changed, and it was the same in her stream.
Sophie Wexler’s expression faltered when she saw a particular comment.
[Oh look, your number one fan went over to our Karina’s stream. I bet he left because he found out you’re a copycat.]
[Looks like the number one fan still prefers our Karina, who has both beauty and talent.]
Sophie Wexler glanced up at the viewer list at the top of the stream. F, who had been sitting high at the top of the list, was gone.