Copyright Question

[coreyc]

Good day,
I have a short question, that could have a long answer about copyrights.

I want to write a story in the Harry Potter world but doesn't have anything to do with the main characters, just events that happened before, durning and after the books.

-Can I use the name Hogwart?
-I want my MC to csst spells from the world.. ie accio.
-Reference events that happen in the world, Voldemort gather forces.

Thoughts?

 

[MrPixel]

Short answer? No. The Harry Potter series is an aggressively protected intellectual property. It's been a while since I've read the Literotica publishing guidelines and FAQs, but I think that HP as well as Disney properties are specifically mentioned as "don't go there."

I could stand to be corrected on this.

 

[onehitwanda]

From the Content Guidelines:

Copyrighted material for which the submitter is not the owner of the copyright, or for which the submitter does not have an explicit license from the copyright owner to publish the work at Literotica.

You might have some exemptions under fair use, but as @MrPixel says it's aggressively defended, so I'd imagine your story would be sent back for infringement.

 

[ronde]

Short answer? No. The Harry Potter series is an aggressively protected intellectual property. It's been a while since I've read the Literotica publishing guidelines and FAQs, but I think that HP as well as Disney properties are specifically mentioned as "don't go there."

I could stand to be corrected on this.

You are exactly correct. Until the expiration date for a copyright, no person or entity other than the owner of the copyright may copy or otherwise make use of the copyrighted material without the express permission of the owner. Once the copyright expires, the work moves into the public domain and can be copied or used by anybody. There is one exception to the "public domain" rule though. If there is a contract stating that royalties be paid to the copyright owner or his/her estate, the work does not enter into the public domain until the dissolution of said contract.

 

[IWroteThis]

Short answer? No. The Harry Potter series is an aggressively protected intellectual property. It's been a while since I've read the Literotica publishing guidelines and FAQs, but I think that HP as well as Disney properties are specifically mentioned as "don't go there."

I could stand to be corrected on this.

There is a ton of Harry Potter fanfiction out there on sites like RoyalRoad and ScribbleHub, not to mention Amazon. Maybe some has been taken down for legal reasons, but none that I'm aware of.

I'm not saying it's not on the Literotica no-no list, but it doesn't seem to involve much personal risk to write it.

 

[MrPixel]

There is a ton of Harry Potter fanfiction out there on sites like RoyalRoad and ScribbleHub, not to mention Amazon. Maybe some has been taken down for legal reasons, but none that I'm aware of.

I'm not saying it's not on the Literotica no-no list, but it doesn't seem to involve much personal risk to write it.

Good point, but it might just be a matter of visibility, and just how much of Rowling's product comes through in the fanfic.

My sister is an intellectual properties litigator - a lawyer who argues this stuff in court - and she bemoans how much stuff is locked-down these days. I kid her about the old joke of Microsoft patenting 1s and 0s, and her retort is that it's not that far off any more, "I can't believe the PTO issued on that piece of crap!" over something recent out of Silicon Valley.

 

[redgarters]

There is a ton of Harry Potter fanfiction out there on sites like RoyalRoad and ScribbleHub, not to mention Amazon. Maybe some has been taken down for legal reasons, but none that I'm aware of.

I'm not saying it's not on the Literotica no-no list, but it doesn't seem to involve much personal risk to write it.

Second that. There's a huge amount of Harry Potter fanfic out there. A 'Harry Potter' search on AO3 alone yields nearly 700.000 works of fiction (and there are no rules prohibiting content).
Literotica rules are more tight though.

 

[CalBishForNow]

There is a fan fiction section here, and there are very few stories in it about the Harry Potter characters or world. (A search for "harry potter" turns up over a thousand stories, but as far as I can tell they're all about the actors, events at the theme park, or in-universe references to the fictional characters.) But not zero. And then there's this series. There are also tons of stories about Disney characters.

Potterverse stories seem more common outside the Fan Fiction section than inside, and seem to use the main characters of the series less than side characters or original characters in that universe. It makes me think that there's a rule against it that's poorly enforced. So... OP, give it a try and see what happens, I don't think you'll get in trouble, but I think the odds are against it getting published.

 

[redgarters]

The main characters in HP will also fall under the 'no aging up' rule here. This has been discussed in other threads.

 

[coreyc]

Ok, thanks everyone..
Looks like it falls under "not worth going there"..
Well I will work on the outline and file it for another day.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Short answer? No. The Harry Potter series is an aggressively protected intellectual property. It's been a while since I've read the Literotica publishing guidelines and FAQs, but I think that HP as well as Disney properties are specifically mentioned as "don't go there."

I could stand to be corrected on this.

I believe you are correct. Lit has stated in several places, including the FAQs
and historical posts here in the AH, that it will not allow HP fan fiction, full stop, nor anything based on existing Disney characters. Content based on older fairytales which might have been Disneyfied over the last century are okay, provided you don't invoke the Disney portrayals.

 

[alohadave]

There is one exception to the "public domain" rule though. If there is a contract stating that royalties be paid to the copyright owner or his/her estate, the work does not enter into the public domain until the dissolution of said contract.

Can you cite this law and what country it applies to? Sounds like the special case of Peter Pan in the UK. I've never heard of anything else like this besides that.

 

[crookedletter]

For all that it has a lot of its own personality, the Harry Potter world is fairly derivative. It leans on a lot of genre tropes, which are infinitely reusable.

You can have witches and wizards, who cast spells with incantations and magic wands. You can have a school for them, just don't call it Hogwarts. You could probably even have something like "houses" within the school, just don't call them Gryffindor, etc. You can have a dark lord and his minions, just don't call him Voldemort and his minions death eaters. Etc. etc. etc.

It had all been done before Rowling came around. You can do it again, your own way, or even in a transparently derivative way.

If you can't write outright fan fiction -- I don't know all the rules on that, but I trust those above who say you can't -- you can probably get away with a good old fashioned generic ripoff.

 

[ronde]

Can you cite this law and what country it applies to? Sounds like the special case of Peter Pan in the UK. I've never heard of anything else like this besides that

I found this on Wikipedia, but no statute was identified. It could very well be that this applies only in the UK, but given how enamored with lawsuits the US has become, I would imagine that it's at least been litigated.

 

[Bramblethorn]

There is a fan fiction section here, and there are very few stories in it about the Harry Potter characters or world. (A search for "harry potter" turns up over a thousand stories, but as far as I can tell they're all about the actors, events at the theme park, or in-universe references to the fictional characters.) But not zero. And then there's this series. There are also tons of stories about Disney characters.

Potterverse stories seem more common outside the Fan Fiction section than inside, and seem to use the main characters of the series less than side characters or original characters in that universe. It makes me think that there's a rule against it that's poorly enforced.

Authors have previously mentioned getting a rejection that specifically states that Harry Potter, Simpsons, and Disney are forbidden. I know of other cases where stories have gotten through, in one case where the author was posting outside Fanfic/Celeb and Laurel didn't recognise their stories as Disney based. (And the "Disney" part seems to be interpret to mean Disney's flagship animation stuff, not everything owned by Disney.)

The first story you linked is very obviously Harry Potter fic and I'd be surprised if Laurel had missed that even on a cursory skim, but it was published in 2003, so it's possible that it got through before L&M decided to ban HP and aging-up. I wouldn't expect that story to get through today.

The second makes a half-hearted attempt to file off the names and serial numbers ("Mary Nutter" etc.) and I'm not sure where the line is drawn there.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I found this on Wikipedia, but no statute was identified. It could very well be that this applies only in the UK, but given how enamored with lawsuits the US has become, I would imagine that it's at least been litigated.

Do you recall where on Wikipedia you saw it? On a quick look, I couldn't find this mentioned in the main articles on public domain and copyright terms.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_term

 

[old_prof]

If there is a contract stating that royalties be paid to the copyright owner or his/her estate, the work does not enter into the public domain until the dissolution of said contract.

There is something roughly akin to this for patent law (someone can pay for rights to use the device before the invention enters the public domain. It is possible (and legally enforceable) for the payments to continue after the invention enters the public domain. My undergraduate physics department had a steady small stream of income because a physics professor more than a 100 years ago invented something that is still in use now. But new companies manufacturing elements that use that invention do not need to pay it (It's an invention used primarily in cars now and adds a penny to the cost of cars still under the patent agreement. Not a big competitive disadvantage.)

I'm pretty sure it's not the case in US for copyrights, where it would seem very odd.

 

[BeechLeaf]

It does sound odd. Steamboat Willy eventually dropped off the end of the conveyor belt after the US Congress gave up on the farce, and if anything was ever tied up in contracts, I bet Mickey Mouse's image was.

Royalties from Peter Pan go in perpetuity to the Great Ormond Street children's hospital, a unique extension in UK law, and of course only in the UK itself. I've never heard of anything else like this in copyright law (IANAL but I have proof-read a lot for them).

 

[crookedletter]

IANAL

New acronym for me. I might propose the "I" is superfluous/implied, and thus the acronym potentially much funnier.

 

[Britva415]

It is possible (and legally enforceable) for the payments to continue after the invention enters the public domain

100%

Someone who isn't a party to the contract can still have production and distribution rights, and public domain is one way to achieve those rights.

 

[ronde]

Do you recall where on Wikipedia you saw it? On a quick look, I couldn't find this mentioned in the main articles on public domain and copyright terms.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_term

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

It's in the section on Public Domain

 

[YmaOHyd]

Ok, thanks everyone..
Looks like it falls under "not worth going there"..
Well I will work on the outline and file it for another day.

Or just plan to publish elsewhere. AO3 has lots of highly-successful Potterverse stuff, including at least two or three that have become highly-successful novels.

 

[Cacatua_Galerita]

“Not worth going there” is probably best.

As background reading...

From the Wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_issues_with_fan_fiction

J. K. Rowling has also complained about sexually explicit Harry Potter fan fiction. However, lawyers on behalf of Ms. Rowling specifically noted that she has "no complaint about innocent fan fiction written by genuine Harry Potter fans" and she "is happy for spin-offs to be published online as long as the publications are not sold and it is made clear she was not involved in the stories", under the condition that they do not contain pornography or racism.

From https://jamiesonlaw.legal/resources/blog/the-chamber-of-trademarks/

For those Harry Potter fans out there, it’s important to know that “muggles” is trademarked by Warner Bros across loads of classes, along with various other words, themes, and even characters including “Dementor”, “Sirius Black”, “Hogsmeade”, and “Gryffindor”.

I'm sure “Hogwarts” is also trademarked, among other Harry Potter specific terms you'd need in a FanFic.

https://www.jkrowling.com/legal/

There are some ‘Fair Use’ exceptions for parody works, etc. but this site isn’t going to pay for a lawyer to defend your free story.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

Why would anyone promote anything from that 'author'? Best to completely be forgotten about.

 

[Britva415]

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

It's in the section on Public Domain

I don't see anything in there which says

There is one exception to the "public domain" rule though. If there is a contract stating that royalties be paid to the copyright owner or his/her estate, the work does not enter into the public domain until the dissolution of said contract.

There is reference to jurisdictions where "paying public domain" is a thing, such that royalties flow. But this doesn't have to do with contract with the copyright owner or their estate. In fact the royalty isn't paid to the author's estate at all. And the "paying public domain" laws don't prevent the work from entering the public domain. Royalties are paid ON public domain works.

These statements are according to the paying public domain article linked from the public domain section of the copyright article you cited.