Following up someone elses story

claud137

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An alternate reality was created by another author here and has blown my mind. I would like to see if it is OK to post my own stories based on his. With notice of credit of course. No characters or situations will be used from the original author. http://www.literotica.com/s/the-fountain-of-youth by dave_jones_50 has inspired me to write a couple of stories so far. Is this OK?
 
Using someone else's story as inspiration:

Can be viewed by the original author either as a compliment (I would); or as a form of plagiarism - it really depends on the author. I would ask the author, Dave_Jones_50 in this case, for permission. It's simple enough to do and who knows?
Mark Twain said 'If you borrow from one author it's plagiarism; if you borrow from many, it's research.'
 
I'd contact the writer first and seek permission. It could be viewed as fanfic, but it could also really piss the original author off. Some people are touchy about that stuff.
 
Who cares if it pisses the original author off? What are they going to do-- sue for loss of imaginary income?

A million billion stories have been written, and almost every one of them can share huge swaths of stuff-- material, plot points, character's names, universe concepts-- with some or many or most of all the others. That's not plagiarism.

Plagiarism is using the original author's words, in the exact same way, to provide the same effect as the original author. Nowadays, plagiarism has been expanded to include several things that weren't an issue back in the day, like visual material and corporate property.

But being inspired by a universe and writing an alternate story within that universe-- that's well within anyone's rights. yeah, some authors might throw a wobbly over it, but they have no legal standing, and hardly any moral standing to do so-- it's just a byproduct of authorial swollenego(a very common malady amongst pros and amateurs alike)

The basis of most science fiction since the 1940's has been borrowing universes and concepts and building on them. Frank Herbert could have been sued for plagiarism by A.E. Van Vogt, who wrote about a desert world where water was the most important substance, and who went into detail about the water-reclaiming suits the natives wore-- years before Herbert.

In the case of Dave's story, men have been inventing reasons for women to thank them gratefully for the privilege of sucking dick since... well, since forever. Nothing new or original there. I don't see how anyone could accuse you of borrowing anything. :rolleyes:
 
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Not sure anyone was making a legal argument. I think it's just the polite thing to do. If you're borrowing specific elements from someone else's universe, not just generic story concepts, then yeah, that's stealing. But it's like any other fanfic. As long as you're not looking to profit from it, and you're respectful, there's no real harm done. All I'm saying is that since we're dealing with people and not large, soulless corporations like Lucasfilm, it would be nice to ask before writing in someone else's universe. But if you're a troll who doesn't care about borrowing from someone else's work without even the courtesy of asking, then go for it.
 
Who cares if it pisses the original author off? What are they going to do-- sue for loss of imaginary income?

A million billion stories have been written, and almost every one of them can share huge swaths of stuff-- material, plot points, character's names, universe concepts-- with some or many or most of all the others. That's not plagiarism.

Plagiarism is using the original author's words, in the exact same way, to provide the same effect as the original author. Nowadays, plagiarism has been expanded to include several things that weren't an issue back in the day, like visual material and corporate property.

But being inspired by a universe and writing an alternate story within that universe-- that's well within anyone's rights. yeah, some authors might throw a wobbly over it, but they have no legal standing, and hardly any moral standing to do so-- it's just a byproduct of authorial swollenego(a very common malady amongst pros and amateurs alike)

The basis of most science fiction since the 1940's has been borrowing universes and concepts and building on them. Frank Herbert could have been sued for plagiarism by A.E. Van Vogt, who wrote about a desert world where water was the most important substance, and who went into detail about the water-reclaiming suits the natives wore-- years before Herbert.

In the case of Dave's story, men have been inventing reasons for women to thank them gratefully for the privilege of sucking dick since... well, since forever. Nothing new or original there. I don't see how anyone could accuse you of borrowing anything. :rolleyes:

I get your point, and you're right, there is nothing original about the stories concept or ideas. But if the author wants to continue with the exact characters as the previous author I don't feel that is right, without permission.

When I finally finished my SWB series I had someone contact me and mention a scenario he was hoping I would have used at the end. He e-mailed again, and wanted to know if I was ever going to revisit the series with that type of scenario and I said no.

Three weeks ago he e-mailed and asked if he could write it. He was going to take my two characters and put them in a place he wanted them to be. I told him no.

If someone wants to write something so badly then come up with different names, and scenarios. Another words write your own damn story. For someone like Lovecraft it worked in spades. He let everyone who asked use and expound upon his mythos , and they are still doing it decades later. But for a porn story? To me its not flattery its unoriginality.
 
OP was quite specific:

:)

I misread something somewhere. My bad. So ummm, okay what the hell is the question? He wants to use the setting? Well that more likely than not would be up for grabs then. I thought they were speaking of specifics.
 
I misread something somewhere. My bad. So ummm, okay what the hell is the question? He wants to use the setting? Well that more likely than not would be up for grabs then. I thought they were speaking of specifics.
the post is right there. You can re-read it, if you want. The question is pretty clear.

I find that when I re-read posts before I start pontificating, I seem wiser than when I start spouting off on the completely wrong impression-- just ask some of the old timers here how often I've dragged my foot out of my mouth in the past.

Just saying.

;)
 
I thought it was just good manners to ask permission to do a follow-on when I wrote "The Round-Up . . . Is Over!" The original author said it was okay by him and it got well-received by, of all people, the LW crowd. I figure I got lucky once. I haven't tried it again. :eek:
 
If you identify it as a continuation or anything like that to somebody else's story, you are starting down the path of using them and limiting their future expansions. I don't see why you wouldn't just give background from the original as background to your entirely new story using new names and settings.

That said, there are a lot of unauthorized takeoffs of existing works that don't get shot down in court, so it's mostly a matter of whatever respect you want to show to the original author.
 
I used the form on dave_jones_50 's contact page and asked him. I have not heard back yet. The story was posted Dec 2010 and it is possible that he may plan a follow-up to it so I hope to get an OK from him. Thank you all for your input regarding this matter.
 
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