Expert Reports filed with the court
Click each link to view the expert reports for this case:
“These striking similarities go far beyond genre conventions or tropes, and would not be expected to occur in works that were independently created. Given the myriad ways characters can be created and story and plotlines can unfold, it is my opinion that the similarities are so striking as to preclude the possibility of independent creation. I believe it is far more likely that Wolff appropriated them from Freeman’s work.”
“Quantitative and computational analysis indicates that there are similarities between the Crave novels and the 2011 manuscript for Blue Moon Rising, and that these similarities are unlikely to have arisen by chance. Based on the evidence described in this report, I consider it to be more likely than not that these works have a common origin.”
“I considered over 700 examples of 6-words-in-a-row exact matches between the Tracy Wolff (“TW”) documents and the Lynne Freeman “LF”) manuscripts. Since the consensus in forensic linguistics is that 6-words-in-a-row indicates textual borrowing, these 700 examples are evidence of copy-paste plagiarism, the least sophisticated method of taking material from a source. Based on these empirical results using standard procedures for detecting plagiarism, I conclude that it is extremely likely that the TW Crave series plagiarize the Freeman Manuscripts. The plagiarism takes place at the three levels of plagiarism: copy-paste, mosaic and conceptual, and has been found using standard methods of plagiarism detection. Statistically speaking, it is virtually impossible that the two works could have been independently created in light of my findings above.”
Marlene Stringer - Expert Report
“As a fiduciary for her clients, including with respect to the work entrusted to her by a former client, Kim can reasonably be expected to avoid self-dealing and the feeding of one client's story to another client. It appears that she did that here, turning Tracy Wolff into an amanuensis rather than a creator, and if that is what happened then Kim failed in her ongoing fiduciary duty to former client, Freeman, as well as to her current client, Wolff.”
Christine Witthohn - Expert Report
“Before the Crave series, Wolff’s sales show a failure to launch in both her YA and erotic titles. There is downward trajectory in both sales and publishers (in terms on hierarchy and offerings). It appears Wolff was struggling with her writing career and had Kim actively looking for WFH projects for her. It also appears Wolff had contracts canceled because she was unable to meet her delivery dates.”
“My overall opinion is that Emily Sylvan Kim and Prospect Agency LLC owed a fiduciary duty to Lynne Freeman, and, assuming they gave access to Lynne Freeman’s manuscript and related material to Tracy Wolff for the purpose of copying the material, they breached that duty.”