If I were to have submitted finished work, which I believe substantively follows outline guidelines per a given contract, and then submit a dispute upon termination of such, which notes the potential for plagiarism of my work, barring clear evidence of plagiarism, what further recourse would I have to protect the work or warn about suspicious activity, besides copyrighting the work and its protection for legal recourse? The hypothetical goes as follows: the work in submission substantively follows all guidelines for a given contract, but is nevertheless terminated and payment withdrawn; legally, I have the rights to the work; nevertheless, and of clear import here, the client now has direct access to the finished work, and so there is the aforementioned question of further recourse to protect the writer's work or warn in advance of any potential for plagiarism of it, perhaps even that possibility in light of the specific situation with the client. Keep in mind that in this scenario, the dispute claim for the work only requests that Upwork consider releasing to me partial payment for effortful and dutiful service rendered in time, acted upon in good faith toward completionâspecifically not that Upwork completely reimburses me for the finished product itself (whereupon, if I were to request full reimbursement, I would lose rights to it; the contract is already terminated by the client and the creator possesses sole rights to it). Keep in mind that in this scenario, the work is of substantial length (10k+ words) and is completely original, so the stakes are moderate insofar as I am mainly worried for it being plagiarized and losing what I put into it. I would also only be worried in this scenario for alerting to or warning of this situation for either or both of two reasons: to protect the work in advance from plagiarism, somehow, and therefore learn more of the proper means or options in doing so (barring copyrighting at the outset); and/or in considering how to protect others from the furtherance of such a potential situation; or even in considering warning of or protecting against that particular client's specific past wrongdoing, as in the hypothetical, if I were to learn of my particular work having been plagiarised at some point in the future. Again, keep in mind, this situation is entirely hypothetical for these purposes. I'm hoping some deep thinkers have thoughts on how one could theoretically protect the work of oneself and others potentially from potential plagiarismâif there may be any ways to document such situations properly or reach out to particular agencies or representatives for help or advice. I thought of the potential for contacting the FTC, but again, the situation is only a potential scenario (excepting if the plagiarism actually occurs, per the hypothetical; and if then, is the FCC where I should go for help, or is there better recourse?). It's a bad spot to be in, getting your work out there and having it laid bare like that after working hard for a client. Hypothetically. It would seem like this could even be a long con scenario, but without disputable evidence and only potential for things to go wrongâalbeit very wrongâwhat is there substantially to it at all? What can be done? Thanks for any and all advice. I truly do appreciate everyone who replies to this, as it's a serious matter for me and I want to be able to better protect myself as a writer.
