The interview with the entity has the entity's text taken almost entirely from System Shock 2 quotes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pp5xGLj1RME
Edit: I changed the thread description. This post refers to the Lovecraftian Locket.
Military Consultant, SCP Wiki
I gave him the go ahead to just purge it from the article. The interview really didn't add anything anyway, past the rather generic "WE ARE MANY" bit above.
From the chat discussing the original issue:
<@Echo> SCP-008's symptom descriptions are word for word rips from The Zombie Survival Guide
Can someone find this section of the book and verify? I've got Dexanote rewriting the symptom descriptions at the moment.
On a side note, this seems to have been alright when the site was mostly just a silly, 4Chan thing (where copyrights don't matter!), but now, we need to be taking this much, much more seriously. If anyone knows of direct plagiarism of this sort, please alert an administrator immediately. This is the sort of crap that could get us shut down.
Thanks.
"WELL FOUNDATION. YOU MADE IT SO EASY. SO VERY VERY EASY." - dimensionpotato
I just finished reading my copy, specifically pages 2-4, where Max Brooks describes the virus he uses to cause zombie-ism. There are some similarities (flu-like symptoms, coma prior to death/reanimation, viscous blood, contagiousness/lethality), but in my opinion, these are almost standard zombie tropes nowadays. There are also significant differences, first of which is that, technically speaking, 008 victims don't actually die. Go ahead, read it: they don't die/reanimate, they just transform.
Additionally, the Solanum virus only affects the brain; everything else that happens to the pre-zombie is a result of brain tissue changes and cellular death. Plus, it reanimates dead tissue essentially by magic and doesn't actually explain how, whereas 008 at least tries to explain it somewhat.
Overall, my opinion is that this may have been inspired by Zombie Survival Guide & World War Z, but I wouldn't consider it plagiarism. It does NOT use identical language, and most of what's similar between the two are pretty standard tropes of the zombie genre.
Giving bearhugs to the unsuspecting since 1872.
For easy perusal:
http://ompldr.org/vYms5cA/zombiesurvival.pdf
I will quote the section in question:
1. SOURCE
Unfortunately, extensive research has yet to find an isolated example of Solanum in nature. Water, air, and soil in all ecosystems, from all parts of the world, have turned up negative, as have their accompanying flora and fauna. At the time of this writing, the search continues.
2. SYMPTOMS
The timetable below outlines the process of an infected human (give or take several hours, depending on the individual).
Hour 1: Pain and discoloration (brown-purple) of the infected area. Immediate clotting of the wound (provided the infection came from a wound).
Hour 5: Fever (99–103 degrees F), chills, slight dementia, vomiting, acute pain in the joints.
Hour 8: Numbing of extremities and infected area, increased fever (103–106 degrees F), increased dementia, loss of muscular coordination.
Hour 11: Paralysis in the lower body, overall numbness, slowed heart rate.
Hour 16: Coma.
Hour 20: Heart stoppage. Zero brain activity.
Hour 23: Reanimation.
3. TRANSFERENCE
Solanum is 100 percent communicable and 100 percent fatal. Fortunately for the human race, the virus is neither waterborne nor airborne. Humans have never been known to contract the virus from elements in nature. Infection can occur only through direct fluidic contact. A zombie bite, although by far the most recognizable means of transference, is by no means the only one. Humans have been infected by brushing their open wounds against those of a zombie or by being splattered by its remains after an explosion.
Ingestion of infected flesh (provided the person has no open mouth sores), however, results in permanent death rather than infection. Infected flesh has proven to be highly toxic. No information—historical, experimental, or otherwise—has surfaced regarding the results of sexual relations with an undead specimen, but as previously noted, the nature of Solanum suggests a high danger of infection. Warning against such an act would be useless, as the only people deranged enough to try would be unconcerned for their own safety. Many have argued that, given the congealed nature of undead bodily fluids, the chances of infection from a non-bite contact should be low. However, it must be remembered that even one organism is enough to begin the cycle.
4. CROSS-SPECIES INFECTION
Solanum is fatal to all living creatures, regardless of size, species, or ecosystem. Reanimation, however, takes place only in humans. Studies have shown that Solanum infecting a non-human brain will die within hours of the death of its host, making the carcass safe to handle. Infected animals expire before the virus can replicate throughout their bodies. Infection from insect bites such as from mosquitoes can also be discounted. Experiments have proven that all parasitic insects can sense and will reject an infected host 100 percent of the time.
I think that's about as far as would be potentially applicable to the article in question, at least so far as Echo's claims of plagiarism are concerned.
Now for comparison here is the text from SCP-008:
Description: SCP-008 is a complex prion, samples of which are stored in each of the known G2 sites. Research into SCP-008 is highly classified and primarily aimed at preventing research which may lead to the synthesis of SCP-008 in the distant future. Traits of the SCP-008 prion include:
100% infectiousness.
100% lethality.
Transmission through exposed mucous membranes and all bodily fluids.
Not airborne or waterborne.
Symptoms of infection with SCP-008 manifest no more than three hours after exposure, and include:
Flu-like symptoms with high fever, plus severe dementia in later stages.
Coma onset approximately 20 hours after first symptoms appear and 12 hours after noticeable dementia. Coma onset will be considered onset of death.
A period of sporadic cellular necrosis occurs which comes to resemble gangrene. Surviving tissue assumes its original function and is highly resilient.
Red blood cells greatly increase oxygen storage capacity, resulting in slower blood flow and increased muscle endurance and strength.
Nervous and muscular systems are unaffected by total organ failure for several hours.
Metabolism may decrease to extremely low levels, allowing subject to survive for over 10 years without nutrition.
High blood viscosity results in negligible blood flow from gunshot, puncture, and slashing injuries.
Conditioned behavior, motor controls, and instinctive behavioral mechanisms are damaged, and cognitive abilities are severely retarded and erratic. Animals experience excessive brain necrosis and are inactive.
Subject can adapt to its damaged nervous systems but is limited to basic physical activities, including standing up, balancing on two legs, walking, biting, grabbing, and crawling. Subject will energetically move towards sights, sounds, and smells it associates with living humans. Subject will attempt to ingest living humans if physical contact is made.
Neutralizing fully-infected subjects requires significant cranial trauma.
There is strong evidence to suggest SCP-008 itself did not form naturally on Earth, since variants of similar complexity would have displaced much of the ecosystem. In 1959, a short collaborative effort with the USSR to locate G2 sites and eliminate SCP-008 was negotiated following their discovery. The status of SCP-008 in Russian custody since collaboration ended is unknown.
In particular, Echo has made claims on the timeline of Solanum vs that of SCP-008. So here is a point by point comparison.
Survival Guide:
Hour 1: Pain and discoloration (brown-purple) of the infected area. Immediate clotting of the wound (provided the infection came from a wound).
Hour 5: Fever (99–103 degrees F), chills, slight dementia, vomiting, acute pain in the joints.
Hour 8: Numbing of extremities and infected area, increased fever (103–106 degrees F), increased dementia, loss of muscular coordination.
Hour 11: Paralysis in the lower body, overall numbness, slowed heart rate.
Hour 16: Coma.
Hour 20: Heart stoppage. Zero brain activity.
Hour 23: Reanimation.
SCP-008:
Flu-like symptoms with high fever, plus severe dementia in later stages.
Coma onset approximately 20 hours after first symptoms appear and 12 hours after noticeable dementia. Coma onset will be considered onset of death.
A period of sporadic cellular necrosis occurs which comes to resemble gangrene.
Despite mentions in each of fever, dementia, and coma, I do not find this to be similar enough to be considered plagiarism as opposed to separate zombie materials. It is certainly not the word for word plagiarism Echo has claimed it to be.
I do not see a need for rewriting this article. If we really felt that it can be adjusted to be even better, then I would not normally be opposed. But as it does not seem to be plagiarized, is highly rated, and is one of our oldest articles, I question the need for altering even a single word of it.
