Stath MIA on 16/5/2009 at 19:31
As long as you're not hurting anyone's profits you're fine.
greypatch3 on 17/5/2009 at 02:58
Quote Posted by Stath MIA
As long as you're not hurting anyone's profits you're fine.
Most of the time...there are a few extenuating circumstances where even 'not-for-profit' ventures can be a risk. This is why 'fair-use' exists. There are times when someone's IP may be used for the purposes of review or parody that involve somebody using that IP verbatim in their works (it's hard to review a movie unless you talk about things in the movie, for example). But this only applies to small, select parts of the work, not the whole thing in general. This is why, although Mystery Science Theater 3000 would make fun of old movies (i.e., parody), to do so properly meant they had to make fun of the film in its entirety, not just select parts, so they had to obtain rights in order to parody and broadcast their parody over the airwaves. This is also why the box sets of the shows are only four episodes; not only are they 90 minute shows, but it's a huge pain in the butt to obtain the rights. Now, granted, I'm not clear as to the how and why of the whole thing, but I have volunteered at the local public access station, and they spent a long time talking about how you have to be very careful about what you air and for how long you air it. The point is, if you are going to use something clearly an IP, you'd better either have permission to use it, or you'd better be making fun of it for as little time as you need.
But yes, if your ideas are overall original and things you came up with on your own, you should run into no problems. Think of it this way: Across the United States there are several grocery store chains: Kroger, Meijer, Safeway, PathMark, Marsh, Food Lion, Piggly Wiggly, and so on and so on. They cannot sue each other for selling food products; there is no copyright on foods. However, if Kroger were to actually take Meijer products of their shelves and slap their own label on top, that would be a problem, as would sneaking into Meijer, stealing their top-secret Dr. Pepper rip-off recipe, and selling it as their own brand. The only time you should worry about plagiarism is if the ideas behind your work don't come from the mind or the heart.
Jah on 18/5/2009 at 08:26
Quote Posted by infinity
All of this Jargon is only important if one profits (ie sells) the story. Right? Isn't that what fan-fiction is?
(I can write a story about Garrett in The City, doing Thief things, but if I only post it on my site, and make no monetary gains, there's nothing wrong with it right?)
Technically, I believe the copyright holder could sue you even if you weren't making a profit. In practice, it's unlikely they'd want to go through the trouble unless they felt that you're damaging their intellectual property somehow.
Namdrol on 21/5/2009 at 18:24
Check out "The Difference Engine" by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling
Jarvis on 21/5/2009 at 23:08
I don't think this is as big a deal as you might think it is. The Thief world uses a lot of ancient and over-arching archetypes. A thief, a secret society, a fanatical religious order, a bunch of Pagans, and an ancient and forgotten society? Since the Catholic church didn't sue Looking Glass because of the Hammerites, then you'll be fine too so long as you don't call them Hammers. (You can call a group "Pagan" though... very old term there.)
You're at no risk here so long as you avoid copying exact names and story lines. If you have your thief steal for a pagan god in disguise only to be ultimately betrayed, then you'll end up with some problems. But if you write your own crime drama and have all of these common archetypes thrown in for the mix, you shouldn't have any trouble.
Now, bear in mind that prosecutable plagiarism and plagiarism in the eyes of the public are two different things. Your fantasy world might be lawsuit safe per say, but that doesn't mean the story will be received well. Honestly I urge you to stray as far from Thief building blocks as you can manage and still have the same basic story you were shooting for. Not for legal reasons, but because I think you'll enjoy the process a lot more if the story is purely yours.
Writing a book is no simple task, my friend. Good luck.
Mugla on 25/5/2009 at 22:59
The belittling arguments seem to revolve much around ignoring the sum of the parts that your setting seems to have, and give advice on singular pieces, like "dont call them Hammerites" etc.
How about you try to tie the thing up a bit, and see if you can make sense of your decisions. A good example is the pagans and the hammerites:
Hammerites represent technology and mdoernization, where pagans are the old, "conservative" and forgotten religion. A strong polarization makes for strong motivations and conflicts, and fuels logically the enmity between the two sects.
You could say, you couldnt have such a deep, meaningful, logical and *working* group like the hammers in your work *without* pagans, and vice versa. They define each other as much as a cathedral or a pagan poem does.
So you thus have a *reasoning* for having the setup; it couldnt work any other way. Now you can work within this reasoning to either absolve yourself of guilt, or maybe even changing your work without breaking the frames it imposes.
