What to do when author doesn't reply to anyone's mails and I want to continue the story ?

[lovecraft68]

I haven't received any e-mails from you, but then again, all of my stories are finished before publishing them.

Did I miss where they said they were trying to contact you?

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

Happens all the time. It's called "fan fiction" and at least in the USA it falls under 'Fair use'.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_issues_with_fan_fiction

I've run into this in my real-world career and the meat of it is fan fiction is typically acceptable when:

1. It is an original work that is either a derivative of the copyrighted material or it is an homage to the copyrighted material.

2. The author of the fan fiction must not make a financial gain from the work.

After that the courts will decide on whatever they want. But these are the two main issues that define fan fiction.

Also, a copyrighted work in the US must also have a copyright notice:

https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ03.pdf

Anything without that copyright notice is public domain...such as is the case with most works posted here.

©2025 Baztrachian & Assignees

As soon as an original work is produced in a tangible form, digital or paper, it becomes copyrighted to the creator. Not an IP attorney, but I have done extensive research into this specific issue on more than one occasion.

EDIT: it is a good idea to officially copyright your work as it makes it easier to protect and prove ownership. And so you know, I’m pretty sure you can submit up to ten separate works under one submission. Series, as they are predominantly seem here, would count as a single work.

US copyright. YMMV, by locality.

 

[Voboy]

Yeah, pretty serious plot twist there. I had to rush off and pop some pop corn.

Butter and salt, please. Thanks!

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Huh, is it only me who understood the #11 as tongue in cheek? Without any desire to fire up a politics discussion, it feels as if this person is actually calling out the Israelis for the shit they are pulling in Gaza.
Maybe that's just me.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

Happens all the time. It's called "fan fiction" and at least in the USA it falls under 'Fair use'.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_issues_with_fan_fiction

I've run into this in my real-world career and the meat of it is fan fiction is typically acceptable when:

1. It is an original work that is either a derivative of the copyrighted material or it is an homage to the copyrighted material.

2. The author of the fan fiction must not make a financial gain from the work.

After that the courts will decide on whatever they want. But these are the two main issues that define fan fiction.

You have a point in there, but...

• You can't put Dante in the same importance level as St. Paul, or God. Context matters in this case. Which leads me to...
• Not every author, living or dead, is on board with others feeling entitled to carry on with their work. Their reasons may vary, but at the end of the day they have the right to say no; even the dead ones who may or may not have left someone in charge of their intellectual property state (is that what it is called?). One thing is pulling off a Dante and making a fan fic, yes, but another is pulling off a Dante with the intention to make it Word of St. Paul when God either said no or left you on seen.

Also, a copyrighted work in the US must also have a copyright notice:

https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ03.pdf

Anything without that copyright notice is public domain...such as is the case with most works posted here.

I read that PDF. In the first page alone it says twice that the copyright notice is optional for works created after March 1st of 1989. Third page keeps hammering on it. The first sentence on the second paragraph states that the copyright notice is optional for works published on or after March 1st of 1989. According to the home page of Literotica, the website has been on since 1998. That's nine years after March 1st of 1989.

Are you sure this was the PDF you meant to put here? Because that PDF shows the guidelines on how to make a copyright notice, and the advantages of putting one, but aside from encouraging you to use a copyright notice, it is not forcing you to do so.

 

[Voboy]

Huh, is it only me who understood the #11 as tongue in cheek? Without any desire to fire up a politics discussion, it feels as if this person is actually calling out the Israelis for the shit they are pulling in Gaza.
Maybe that's just me.

My curiosity stems from the @AwkwardMD post to which the OP replied. I'm not sure whether some reference was made there.

 

[Nynah]

Literotica has a couple of pages in their FAQ regarding copyright:

If I publish a story on Literotica, do I still own the copyright?​

Are stories and other works published on Literotica copyrighted?​

Looks like Lit is ready to enforce copyright on anything published here if needed, so the notion that most of the stories here are somehow in the public domain seems incorrect.

These have to do with unauthorized reposts of just original stories, so a continuation of an existing story by another author seems to be a gray area that the FAQ doesn't cover but I can't imagine the siterunners would want just anyone to be able to take someone else's work and spin it off into their own thing. Doesn't seem like a smart play when you want people to submit original fiction to your website.

 

[lovecraft68]

Huh, is it only me who understood the #11 as tongue in cheek? Without any desire to fire up a politics discussion, it feels as if this person is actually calling out the Israelis for the shit they are pulling in Gaza.
Maybe that's just me.

Yes, antisemitism is always tongue in cheek, isn't it. It's as funny as the engineering consent line.

 

[AwkwardMD]

My curiosity stems from the @AwkwardMD post to which the OP replied. I'm not sure whether some reference was made there.

I was not making an obscure reference to anything.

 

[MillieDynamite]

None of my works is copyrighted by Literotica. They are copyrighted by me or my publisher under my pen name. Fair use doesn't apply to written work. And fan fiction isn't legal, but is tolerated as long as it promotes the original work. This isn't a public domain site; it is a free site, which isn't the same thing. And since you're a guru, you should be aware of that.

Happens all the time. It's called "fan fiction" and at least in the USA it falls under 'Fair use'.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_issues_with_fan_fiction

I've run into this in my real-world career and the meat of it is fan fiction is typically acceptable when:

1. It is an original work that is either a derivative of the copyrighted material or it is an homage to the copyrighted material.

2. The author of the fan fiction must not make a financial gain from the work.

After that the courts will decide on whatever they want. But these are the two main issues that define fan fiction.

Also, a copyrighted work in the US must also have a copyright notice:

https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ03.pdf

Anything without that copyright notice is public domain...such as is the case with most works posted here.

©2025 Baztrachian & Assignees

 

[MelissaBaby]

Happens all the time. It's called "fan fiction" and at least in the USA it falls under 'Fair use'.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_issues_with_fan_fiction

I've run into this in my real-world career and the meat of it is fan fiction is typically acceptable when:

1. It is an original work that is either a derivative of the copyrighted material or it is an homage to the copyrighted material.

2. The author of the fan fiction must not make a financial gain from the work.

After that the courts will decide on whatever they want. But these are the two main issues that define fan fiction.

Also, a copyrighted work in the US must also have a copyright notice:

https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ03.pdf

Anything without that copyright notice is public domain...such as is the case with most works posted here.

©2025 Baztrachian & Assignees

Presumably the OP intended to not just write a continuation, which anyone could certainly do for their own amusement, but to publish it here. Otherwise, why ask here?

Site rules prohibit continuing another author's story, regardless of any legal technicality, even one stated correctly.

 

[MelissaBaby]

Okay

I love when you do that "okay" thing, except for that one time you did it to me.

 

[AwkwardMD]

I love when you do that "okay" thing, except for that one time you did it to me.

If it helps, it's unlikely to happen to you again.

 

[Voboy]

I was not making an obscure reference to anything.

I didn’t think so.

So? Popcorn it is.

 

[MelissaBaby]

If it helps, it's unlikely to happen to you again.

Aww. Well, I had it coming.

 

[alohadave]

Also, a copyrighted work in the US must also have a copyright notice:

https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ03.pdf

Anything without that copyright notice is public domain...such as is the case with most works posted here.

How the hell did you miss this?:

Notice is optional for
works created after March 1, 1989,

It's literally the second sentence.

If you really think that every work without a copyright notice is in the public domain, you need to never give advice on copyright ever again.

 

[Britva415]

Anything without that copyright notice is public domain

That isn't what your document says at all.

A notice of copyright is not the copyright itself. That document is about displaying a copyright notice. It isn't about whether a copyright exists or not, with or without a notice.

Besides:
If what you said were true, then, all anyone would need to do to rip off a copyrighted work would be to copy it, display it somewhere without a copyright notice, and then anyone anywhere could rip THAT off since it would be public domain due to not displaying a copyright notice.

It is beyond obvious that there is no such loophole. The original copyright remains intact, even when abused this way.

 

[MrPixel]

Anything without that copyright notice is public domain...such as is the case with most works posted here.

Guys, this is why I challenged @Baztrachian whether they were an intellectual properties attorney. That statement is rubbish. I'm not an IP attorney, but my sister is an IP litigator - she fights for copyrights and patent rights in court. We talk.

As several have mentioned, the mere act of publishing constitutes ownership of the creative property. Where it gets sticky is proving the precedence of ownership if somebody comes along and copies it, claiming it was theirs, even putting the magic ©MMXXV on the work in question. If there is evidence that the property existed in substantial form previous to the second party's publication, their claim is to be vacated. That evidence of "existed" can be a dated listing on LitE.

These kinds of claims are frequently in the news when a pop music artist releases a song that might be similar to a known or even unknown artist's earlier work, just as long as that earlier work was published/released. One that recently comes to mind is Ed Sheeran's Thinking Out Loud, which was challenged by Marvin Gaye's estate as a copy of Let's Get It On.

To the OP's query? Forget it. Move on. No response = no permission. The work has not been abandoned.

 

[JayHawnee]

Yeah, in the USA, a copyright-notice was only required til 1989 to have your work copyrighted.

There’s actually a famous case involving Debbie Does Dallas - an adult movie that is now considered to be in the public domain. This is because it was originally published before 1989, and some copies were distributed without a proper copyright notice, which at the time was a requirement for protection.

See e.g.: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debbie_Does_Dallas#Copyright

However, that doesn’t mean anyone could just publish a copy of a copyrighted work without a notice and thereby force it into public domain. The key point is or was that only the rights holder or someone authorized by them could legally publish the work in the first place. If an unauthorized party tried to publish it without a notice, they’d be infringing copyright - regardless of whether they included a notice or not. The missing notice only affected the rights holder's protection if they made that mistake.

Since 1989 this loophole has been closed.

 

[OddLove]

I'm not expert on creativity and writing, but I truly believe creativity is a muscle anyone with interest can strengthen. You can start writing your own stories. And definitely make sure you don't ever get close to plagiarizing someone, BUT let yourself be inspired by other people's work. Just write your own story, it's fun.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

Did I miss where they said they were trying to contact you?

They didn't say who they were trying to contact. Maybe it was even you?

 

[SimonDoom]

Happens all the time. It's called "fan fiction" and at least in the USA it falls under 'Fair use'.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_issues_with_fan_fiction

I've run into this in my real-world career and the meat of it is fan fiction is typically acceptable when:

1. It is an original work that is either a derivative of the copyrighted material or it is an homage to the copyrighted material.

2. The author of the fan fiction must not make a financial gain from the work.

After that the courts will decide on whatever they want. But these are the two main issues that define fan fiction.

Also, a copyrighted work in the US must also have a copyright notice:

https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ03.pdf

Anything without that copyright notice is public domain...such as is the case with most works posted here.

©2025 Baztrachian & Assignees

This is totally wrong as a matter of law and Literotica policy.

Fan fiction doesn't apply to pseudonymous literotca authors. The site has made it clear, as in the quoted statement above, that permission must be obtained.

Works published after 1989, which means every literotica work, do not fall into the public domain just because they lack a copyright notice. The copyright circular you cited says this clearly.

 

[SimonDoom]

If it helps, it's unlikely to happen to you again.

As long as you supply the drinks, you can say what you like.

I speak for myself only, of course.

 

[ChloeTzang]

I emailed the author many times and some other writers did too. The author never replies . So how can I ask for permission to continue the story? He left the story unfinished many years ago.

Forgettimg all the legalese, the accepted standard of behavior on Literotica is that without author permission, which you don't have and obviously won't get, you don't continue someone else's story.

What you can do is take the story, take the plot, and write your own version of it. Not that hard. I've done that a couple times and happily completed the stories. I know it's a huge temptation and there's a couple of stories I would love to finish like that, that someone else has written - and I've emailed and asked and had the same response- zero. Thing is, authors leave, the pass away, they loose interest and delete their Literotiva email address and just walk away for various reasons. We don't know and ethically, we have to accept that, however frustrated we are.

If it has you that keen, take it, copy it, rewrite it enough to make it original, put a comment at the top saying it's "inspired by: whoever and whatever" and have at it.

And this same question comes up regularly enough that there are a few different threads on it over the years I've been here so it's not new and the answer is the same every time - so it's not just to you, either. I even asked the same question myself, back when I first started here, so you're not alone amd you don't need to feel like anyone's getting at you. Everyone who asks get this same answer.

 

[alohadave]

There’s actually a famous case involving Debbie Does Dallas - an adult movie that is now considered to be in the public domain. This is because it was originally published before 1989, and some copies were distributed without a proper copyright notice, which at the time was a requirement for protection.

Same thing happened with Night of the Living Desd.

When the movie went to the printers (copies made for distribution to theaters), the copyright notice was mistakenly left off the title card and the movie entered the public domain.