Plagiarism?

[RepresentingCaution]

No ideas are truly original. We build off each other.

 

[VictorDLopez]

Taking another's idea without giving credit is plagiarism--and it does not need to be a word-for-word ripoff. It is also copyright infringement which can carry both civil and criminal penalties even if the plagiarist does not profit from the plagiarized work with some exceptions such as fair use or parody.

Most people are unaware that fan fiction is a violation of copyright unless the copyright holder allows it. I cannot write a Star Trek novel and publish it without Paramount's blessing even if I want to give it away and never make a dime from it. Copyright protection prevents others from making derivative works from copyrighted works which is precisely what fan fiction is. If Shakespeare's copyrights had not expired, Movies and plays made as "updated" versions of, for example, King Lear, Hamlet or Romeo and Juliet would all be infringing works--as would, arguably, West Side Story (which is clearly a modern, re-imagined retelling of Romeo and Juliet). And Jaws would arguably (thoigh less clearly) be an infringement of Melville's Moby Dick.

Most people who are not lawyers or academics are unaware that one can be guilty of plagiarism even for failing to credit one's own prior published work--even if only a few pages of, say, an article are used by the author in anotehr article or scholarly book, unless it is appropriately credited in a footnote or citation. Unlike copyright infringement, self-plagiarism is nota crime--but I know of faculty members who were sanctioned and some who lost their jobs over it.

You may ignore plagiarism and copyright infringement with impunity--until you get caught. And "I did not know I could not do that" is not a defense.

 

[Missivist]

Sure, the words are different but the plot is the same.

By this point, almost everything you can possibly think of, someone else has already thought of and written.

No ideas are truly original. We build off each other.

"The Hero with a Thousand Faces (first published in 1949) is a work of comparative mythology by Joseph Campbell, in which the author discusses his theory of the mythological structure of the journey of the archetypal hero found in world myths... Campbell explores the theory that mythological narratives frequently share a fundamental structure."

So, how do you make your work different, when everybody starts from more-or-less the same plot structure? Learn to write well. The paragraphs, the sentences, the words: make them good! Tell your story well enough, and nobody will care if it's just like every other epic story. Because of course it is.

 

[VictorDLopez]

"The Hero with a Thousand Faces (first published in 1949) is a work of comparative mythology by Joseph Campbell, in which the author discusses his theory of the mythological structure of the journey of the archetypal hero found in world myths... Campbell explores the theory that mythological narratives frequently share a fundamental structure."

So, how do you make your work different, when everybody starts from more-or-less the same plot structure? Learn to write well. The paragraphs, the sentences, the words: make them good! Tell your story well enough, and nobody will care if it's just like every other epic story. Because of course it is.

Plot lines are basic "ideas" which are not copyrightable. The expression of an idea, however, is precisely what copyright protects. The idea of a galactic empire or a federation of planets is just that--an idea. Anyone can create a story about a galactic empire or a federation of planets. But when an author or copyright owner expresses that idea in a particular way and peoples the universe they create with recognizable characters, others cannot play in that universe without permission. A story involving the crew of the USS Enterprise (and all its spinoffs) or involving Clingons, Vulcans or Romulans however unique is an infringing derivative work. So is a story about Superman or any copyrighted superhero. Those are easy examples of clear infringement. But even in much less clear cases, none of us wants to be on the receiving end of an infringement lawsuit. The average cost of defending a straightforward civil suit in the U.S, is North of $25,000 -- and that's just the costs of mounting a legal defense--civil judgments and potential jail time (when willful infringement is involved) are another matter entirely. And if found guilty of willful infringement you could be ordered to pay the plaintiff's legal fees on top of your own and any civil or criminal penalties.

There are dozens of common stereotypical story lines everyone can use. The way we make them different is by the worlds we create (earthly or otherwise) for the characters in our stories to inhabit--and the characters themselves. Of course, when the copyright expires, the work becomes public domain and anyone can use it and abuse it at will. 70 years after George RR Martin dies (assuming he still holds the copyright) anyone can make a better ending to the (for me) disappointing HBO ending of Game of Thrones, continue the story, or turn it into a Broadway play, board game or musical. But not until then without the copyright owner's consent (or his estate's after death for the statutorily defined period).