Inspiration or Theft?

[TheeGoatPig]

Let's say that you read a comic on the internet that has very little text to it, and it inspires you to right a very similar story, but a story that goes in slightly different directions, with a lot more character development and a couple new story twists? Would you consider that to be inspiration, or theft?

Hmm, I should make this a Poll...

 

[sr71plt]

It can't be theft if you did something different to it and you didn't use anything that had been trademarked. Ideas can't be copyrighted.

It can certainly be inspiration, though, if you took off in a different direction. 99 9/10 percent of all inspiration comes from doing a takeoff from something else--an image, an overheard phrase, an idea that sets off another idea.

 

[slyc_willie]

Definitely inspiration. They're two different venues, after all, which further delineates them. One is visual art, the other written word.

 

[_Lynn_]

I agree that would be inspiration.

 

[TE999]

Inspiration. People have been getting story ideas from the works of Shakespeare, Twain, Kipling and many others for some time now.

 

[TheeGoatPig]

Of course, this is all assuming I write more than the title and the first sentence

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Stephen King's THE CELL is very similar to I AM LEGEND written by a guy named Matheson. I get many ideas from 19th Century journals of folklore and insanity. Even Dickens furnished an idea about pickled babies. But you cant write a tale about a motel operated by a weird guy and his mom, and a pretty lady who stays at the motel and is butchered in the shower. You must change the inspiration in material ways.

 

[sirhugs]

I voted "theft" assuming you use the comic characters. Though Lit rules crave out a third category for fan fic. Though parody is "fair use" under copyright law, most authors/rights groups would consider this a breach of copyright. The parody limits, as I understand it, are still being shaped - those darn judges, always making law, but so darned slowly....

 

[oggbashan]

It is inspiration if you acknowledge the source of the idea. (as I did with Christmas Fairy inspired by Piers Anthony's short story The Bridge)

It is plaigarism if you don't.

Theft is using the story virtually unaltered.

Og

 

[xssve]

Hahah, comix? It's an infamously incestuous medium. If it's so close that it makes you uncomfortable, allude to the original inspiration and call it an homage, lol.

It's often considered good form to contact the original creator, they may decide they could use the play, and you can sell it as a marketing thing, similar to a product placement - then again, a lot of people don't want to take that risk and alert the original creator to potential lawsuit material over real or imagined similarities.

In the end though, most of the rest of the posters are correct, some aspect of any creation becomes part of the cultural vocabulary, and in the public domain - you really can't (theoretically) copyright an idea, boy meets girl, etc., you can only copyright actual text and images - that how Warhol got away with his Campbells Soup posters - it wasn't the actual label, it was an abstract representation.

Changes in technology have blurred the line, starting in the Seventies and Eighties with Moog sampling actually, but the general rule of thumb is that if it's altered enough to constitute a unique work of art, i.e., it stands on its own merit, then it's acceptable, otherwise, everybody would be suing everybody else, because about 99% of everything is inspired by something else - especially in comix, it's practically expected; Superman clones abound, Batman is the Lone Ranger redux, etc.

Just don't mess with a Marvel property,and you should be fine - they even have a copyright on the word "Superhero", if you can believe that shit.

 

[sr71plt]

It is inspiration if you acknowledge the source of the idea. (as I did with Christmas Fairy inspired by Piers Anthony's short story The Bridge)

It is plaigarism if you don't.

Theft is using the story virtually unaltered.

Og

plaigarism is a legal concept. "Ideas" aren't covered by any law. Indeed, it would be almost impossible to track down the original "owner" of any idea.

The OP specified the story was altered, so it isn't theft.

 

[sr71plt]

It's often considered good form to contact the original creator

Again, good luck in tracking down the original creator of an idea. I'm willing to bet there is no comic on the Internet that originated an idea.

 

[TheeGoatPig]

Good luck on finding the particular comic or author. The site where I saw it last was taken down for whatever reason, and I don't think they gave the artist credit (maybe that was why it was taken down? ). The characters were barely named, and I don't remember them, so I can hardly steal that. It was more the situation that I am working from as a base.

And I don't care if stuff is incestuous or not. I have three incest stories that I enjoyed writing. Unlike a lot of people in the AH, it is my favorite category.

 

[penandpaper]

Inspiration.

On a side note, the comic series Y - The Last Man was a good read. I would recommend it. (First graphic novel I've read in 15 years, and I must say it was thoroughly enjoyable. )

 

[R. Richard]

It's simple. If you steal from one person, it's theft. If you steal from many people, it's research.