Story based on existing intellectual property

[RelentlessOnanism]

Last Christmas I entered a story in the festive competition that was loosely based on a Christmas Carol. It was a modern update - but very much based on the Dickens' original. This didn't seem to break any rules.

I'd like to do a story based on an Alfred Hitchcock movie. It would be more faithful and it's a period piece. Is this allowed, or has Literotica got any rules prohibiting stuff like this?

 

[MelissaBaby]

Last Christmas I entered a story in the festive competition that was loosely based on a Christmas Carol. It was a modern update - but very much based on the Dickens' original. This didn't seem to break any rules.

I'd like to do a story based on an Alfred Hitchcock movie. It would be more faithful and it's a period piece. Is this allowed, or has Literotica got any rules prohibiting stuff like this?

Dickens is in the public domain, so it's fair use. Most of Hitchcock's films are presumably still under copyright.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

Well, they allow celeb and fanfic. (shrug) Can't see how this is any different.

Technically, you should ask the creator's permission, but I suppose that that is not terribly practical and you're not making any money off of it. So long as you credit anything relevant, I'd say it's good to go.

 

[OffNSFW]

I think the rule of thumb is, could your story be reasonably mistaken for an official product? If so, the answer is probably no. Otherwise, most companies probably wouldn't bother with you.

An example of this principle in action would be Star Trek. Paramount doesn't interfere with, and sometimes encourages, the creation of derivative works by fans. They understand that this is one way in which fans interact with their property and that it's a part of why Star Trek is so successful. But in instances when fans have mounted professional-grade productions of their own Star Trek shows or movies, Paramount puts a stop to it.

 

[RelentlessOnanism]

I think the rule of thumb is, could your story be reasonably mistaken for an official product? If so, the answer is probably no. Otherwise, most companies probably wouldn't bother with you.

An example of this principle in action would be Star Trek. Paramount doesn't interfere with, and sometimes encourages, the creation of derivative works by fans. They understand that this is one way in which fans interact with their property and that it's a part of why Star Trek is so successful. But in instances when fans have mounted professional-grade productions of their own Star Trek shows or movies, Paramount puts a stop to it.

I'm not really concerned about the film company coming after me. It was more a concern about whether Literotica allows it.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

I'm not really concerned about the film company coming after me. It was more a concern about whether Literotica allows it.

I would hope that you would still have some respect for the creators and at least credit them if you had used so much of their premise that copyright was a concern.

 

[mildlyaroused]

You won't face legal action or copyright from a major company on Lit, 99.999999% of the time.

As for Lit, they do allow such stories. If it's set in the world Hitchcock created, put it in Fan Fiction. But if it's just a new retelling of (or homage to) the original story, with new characters and changes to the plot, you can probably get away with it in a normal category. It sounds like yours is the latter. If your story is simply based on Hitchcock's, go right ahead and put it anywhere - and you honestly don't even need to credit him, if it's a new story you wrote. Up to you.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

I'm not really concerned about the film company coming after me. It was more a concern about whether Literotica allows it.

It does, but you have to put the story in Celebrities&Fan Fiction, which is a low-traffic category on Lit

 

[Voboy]

I think it probably depends on how derivative it is.

Retelling existing stories in the public domain is one thing, as an homage or with attribution. I've done it here myself. I don't think doing that to a Hitchcock film would be a problem from the site's perspective.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

I think it probably depends on how derivative it is.

Retelling existing stories in the public domain is one thing, as an homage or with attribution. I've done it here myself. I don't think doing that to a Hitchcock film would be a problem from the site's perspective.

Tons of original stories are based on other stories. How many movies use Casablanca as a template in some way? How many movies are based on Shakespeare or Goethe works? It happens all the time. This behavior is rampant in television episodes, when the writers need 24 stories in eight months.

But if one is using enough bits of a derivative idea that one is actually concerned about copyright, then one should credit such copyright.

 

[SimonDoom]

You need to be more specific about what you're doing to get an accurate/helpful answer.

Suppose you decide you want to create an erotic version of the movie Rear Window, which is a suspense thriller based on voyeurism, i.e., the main character spying on his neighbors all around him with his binoculars. Suppose you want to tell a similar story, but with the main character observing his neighbors engaging in lots of spicy sex.

You almost certainly will get away with it, in terms of getting it accepted by the Site. Unless you preface your story with the intro, "I'm ripping off Alfred Hitchcock!" the Site owner has no way of knowing that's what you're doing.

Probably, nobody will complain. Whoever still owns the copyright in Rear Window probably will never know, and if they found out they probably wouldn't care.

Depending upon how you wrote the story, it might legally constitute copyright infringement, if you care about such things. But you'll probably still get away with it.

If you want to ensure that you get by the very loose gatekeeping standards of this site AND you want to be comfortable that you are not infringing copyright, then change the names, settings, characters, and enough key plot points that nobody can accuse you of ripping off the details of Rear Window. Also, make sure you don't copy any of the specific dialogue. But this is more a matter of your conscience; it likely would never be a practical problem.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Last Christmas I entered a story in the festive competition that was loosely based on a Christmas Carol. It was a modern update - but very much based on the Dickens' original. This didn't seem to break any rules.

I'd like to do a story based on an Alfred Hitchcock movie. It would be more faithful and it's a period piece. Is this allowed, or has Literotica got any rules prohibiting stuff like this?

I'm with the other replies above - it depends.

How much would you be leveraging off reader knowledge of the Hitchcock movie (which would be a rapidly diminishing block of movie fans, I'd have thought) for your story to make sense? What does reader knowledge of the Hitchcock original bring to the story - why the need for the name-drop?