Is this plagiarism?

[WitchofWestmoreland]

So I'm working on my first story for the Halloween story contest and it's going well but I've run into one question that's bugging me. It doesn't really have to do with the overall story and I think I already know the answer which is why I'm posting this, but I'd just like clarification to make sure.

This was going to be a little poem/chant that would preface the story:

"Blood flows in the veins of animals and men. We consume it when we eat them. It flows when a girl becomes a maiden, and when her maidenhood is taken. It throbs in the manhood which takes it. In blood we are all born. In blood many die. It burns in the sky. It makes the rain flow. It makes the seed grow. And blood is the food of the gods below."

But I was clearly very "inspired" by this line from the 2004 movie Alexander:

"Blood makes the world rise. Blood makes the rain fall. Blood makes the earth grow. And in blood, all men are born and die. Blood is the food of the gods below."

I didn't even know where I got the line from originally but it sounded familiar and I Googled it, and the more I think about it it seems too close to the original, and I can't think of any good way to change it enough without ruining it. Throwing most of it away won't hurt the story aside from losing a little flavor but I'm just wondering. Once I have a firm answer on this I'll be able to judge similar cases better in the future.

 

[SyleusSnow]

Not a lawyer, but I think there's more than enough difference for it not to be plagiarism.

Maybe google around to see if it's actually from another source. More than once I've written something clever only to find later it was something I'd read years before. And who knows... maybe they pulled that line in Alexander from something else and is long out of copyright.

Even if it is a direct quote, in the US there's the concept of fair use that might apply https://www.copyright.gov/fair-use/more-info.html Other countries have similar exceptions for copyright.

If you're really worried, consider just not using the line. Find something similar that's clearly out of copyright or drop it completely. Pithy quotes add flair to a story, but are they really essential to the tale?

 

[KeithD]

Nope, not plagiarism.

 

[SimonDoom]

Ask yourself two questions.

Number 1, could you have written this passage without knowing the first one? The answer clearly is no, because there are enough similarities that it is not believable that you could have written this passage independently. In particular, the last line is a virtual copy. So it is clear that, whatever the changes, you "took" the original passage to write your own. This weighs in favor of finding that it's copyright infringement or plagiarism (note: in fiction, the issue is copyright infringement, not plagiarism. Plagiarism is more of an issue in academic writing).

Number 2, are there enough changes from the original to yours to say that it's not "substantially similar" (the test for copyright infringement)? This is a very subjective test. My own sense is yes, until I hit the last line. If I were you I'd change that line, and then I think you'd be home free.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Different enough, in my view, except as Simon says. Both are very poetic constructs, and I'd be willing to bet you'd find many, many more passages with a very similar tone and construction.

Of course, bringing it here draws attention to it. But I would not add an editorial note - if you start doing that, we'd all have to do it. "Warning. Some words and phrases in this story might bear a fleeting resemblance to something you've read or seen before."

Just get rid of the blatant ones, or deny you've ever seen the movie. It's probably not screamingly original, either.

 

[Bramblethorn]

"Blood flows in the veins of animals and men. We consume it when we eat them. It flows when a girl becomes a maiden, and when her maidenhood is taken. It throbs in the manhood which takes it. In blood we are all born. In blood many die. It burns in the sky. It makes the rain flow. It makes the seed grow. And blood is the food of the gods below."

But I was clearly very "inspired" by this line from the 2004 movie Alexander:

"Blood makes the world rise. Blood makes the rain fall. Blood makes the earth grow. And in blood, all men are born and die. Blood is the food of the gods below."

A few years back I posted a story that mentions a real-life medical phenomenon. Somebody accused me of plagiarising Wiki because there were some similarities to how I'd described it and how Wiki describes it. I laughed that off: of course they're similar, because we're talking about the same thing and there are only so many ways to give a brief description of it.

Some of your example falls into that category. "In blood we are all born, in blood many die": these are simply well-known truths described literally in simple language, and I wouldn't worry about that part.

The ending is more problematic:

"It makes the rain flow. It makes the seed grow. And blood is the food of the gods below."

vs.

"Blood makes the rain fall. Blood makes the earth grow... Blood is the food of the gods below."

Here the original is not simply describing known truths. Blood doesn't make the rain fall. It can be used as fertiliser but it's not essential for making seed grow - plenty of other things will do the trick.

As for "the food of the gods below", by my understanding, the usual Greek belief was that the gods' food was ambrosia, a different substance. Blood was part of offerings to underworld deities but not their food per se. Maybe there's some nuance of Macedonian-Greek theology that I've missed, but otherwise, this isn't a literal description of what they believed.

So this material appears to be original to "Alexander" in a way that the other parts aren't. You're reproducing it almost verbatim. If it were me I'd be looking to replace those parts or, failing that, attribute the source - not for copyright reasons, attribution doesn't offer any benefits there, but as a matter of honesty and not claiming credit for somebody else's creation.

(Also, you have my sympathies, this kind of unconscious plagiarism is a bugbear of mine - so easy to do, so hard to be sure I've caught it all.)

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Nope, not plagiarism. An exact copy would be, but no what you wrote is not.

 

[WitchofWestmoreland]

Thanks everyone

Thanks for the feedback, everyone!

I think I will just take this out completely because it just makes me feel better to not have to worry about it.