Are there rules republishing another authors work?

[BDSMGromit]

I have a saved copy of a story another author wrote; it was on the BDSM Library. Can I republish it and give the original author credit with my edits? The site is defunct, and I've been unable to locate the story anywhere else. The story is good; I think it is worth saving. It will require some editing, as it references sex with minors, but other than that, it's a good story.

Thought? I've been unable to locate the original author, so I do not have permission to republish it.

 

[dirk2024]

No.

 

[EmilyMiller]

No.

This

 

[SimonDoom]

No. The Site's official policy is that it respects the copyrights of the original authors. If you were to do what you proposed to do, you would be violating the author's copyright and violating site policy.

 

[MrPixel]

No.

Well, yes, if you are prepared to wait 95 years after it was published to do it.

Otherwise, still "no".

 

[BDSMGromit]

Too bad, I wonder how many other good stories have been lost to defunct sites.

 

[old_prof]

Too bad, I wonder how many other good stories have been lost to defunct sites.

Treasures for the archaeologists...

 

[dirk2024]

Too bad, I wonder how many other good stories have been lost to defunct sites.

It is a sad reality when a creative effort disappears.

But it's also a matter of respecting the originator of said creative piece, to honor their thoughts and intentions. If they are no longer around, then we don't know what they want. So we leave them, and their works, in peace.

 

[Cagivagurl]

Respect is a good choice of word...

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

'No' may be too restrictive.

As you wrote your post, probably not.

With more extensive editing to the point of a basic rewrite, maybe. Take the basic premise, fix it for Lit, change the character names and settings, re-word the scenes enough to make it more yours than theirs ....



LOTS of that kind of thing here.

 

[PennameWombat]

Treasures for the archaeologists...

Unfortunately, probably not.

There's a possibility that this era will leave rather large gaps of information, in that much won't actually be preserved. Most electronic storage media degrades unless electronically refreshed. Also, if the defunct website was using hosted storage, once it quit paying its bills, the physical disks would've been reassigned to other users. If they had in-house, then they likely were either sold off for parts and reused, or destroyed.

And anything on 'obsolete' media, like, oh, eight inch and three and a half inch floppy disks... just try to read those.

The paper that survives will have references to "online," and "social media," and "websites," and the cockroach archaeologists will simply shrug.

"They were mysterious beings, those humans. No wonder they destroyed themselves."

 

[Britva415]

"No," there are no rules, or, "no," don't you do this?

 

[ElectricBlue]

The paper that survives will have references to "online," and "social media," and "websites," and the cockroach archaeologists will simply shrug.

"They were mysterious beings, those humans. No wonder they destroyed themselves."

That's the premise of a classic post-apocalypse sci-fi novel, The Canticles of Leibowitz. A religious order sanctifies old and incredibly fragile blue-prints, and over the course of the novel we discover that they're circuit diagrams - a completely lost technology, and completely meaningless to the monks.

 

[StillStunned]

That's the premise of a classic post-apocalypse sci-fi novel, The Canticles of Leibowitz. A religious order sanctifies old and incredibly fragile blue-prints, and over the course of the novel we discover that they're circuit diagrams - a completely lost technology, and completely meaningless to the monks.

In "Hiero's Journey", a psionic/ranger priest is sent on a mission in a post-apocalyptic world to find a "computer" to help his people against their enemies. In the end he finds a set of books on "The Principles of Computer Design". By the end of the second book his people have built the computer and it's designed warships and canon for them.

It was written in 1973, so at the time it was presumably plausible that computers could do anything, while also be simple enough to build by a society that's essentially regressed to a Renaissance state.

 

[Bamagan]

Unfortunately, probably not.

There's a possibility that this era will leave rather large gaps of information, in that much won't actually be preserved. Most electronic storage media degrades unless electronically refreshed. Also, if the defunct website was using hosted storage, once it quit paying its bills, the physical disks would've been reassigned to other users. If they had in-house, then they likely were either sold off for parts and reused, or destroyed.

And anything on 'obsolete' media, like, oh, eight inch and three and a half inch floppy disks... just try to read those.

The paper that survives will have references to "online," and "social media," and "websites," and the cockroach archaeologists will simply shrug.

"They were mysterious beings, those humans. No wonder they destroyed themselves."

On the 'upside', they'll have a truly tremendous amount of buried garbage to puzzle over.