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pv
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Post A question about plagiarism
on: July 26, 2005 08:24
This is a question regarding plagiarism. If a writer has an original plot and characters, but borrows situations from another story, would that be plagiarism? When I talk about situations, I mean a paticular type of conversation (eg. one character is upset & another one responds in a specific way) or a particular type of fight (eg. a character responds to an attack in a specific way.)

Thanks!
PV



Edited for thread title

[Edited on 13/1/2006 by Elioclya]
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LinweSingollo
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Post RE: A question about plagiarism
on: July 27, 2005 06:28
I'm struggling with a similar issue. To me, plagarism meant copying someone's work word for word. But I think you can get into some grey areas here.

I came up with an idea for a plot, then stumbled on a story that had almost exactly same idea and, incredibly, the authors had even chosen the exact same name for their OC that I had!
Guess I'm not that original. :rolleyes:

Now I'm not sure what to do. (I did change the last name of my character) --- I badly want to stick to my plan and write the story, but I have to constantly be wary of copying too many ideas from the other writers.

I have borrowed situations from the other story but I think my writing style is different enough and enough changes were made that it shouldn't be seen as plagarism. I also changed the style of some of the characters' speech and came up with a few new ideas of my own.

I almost wish I hadn't read this authors' story (it was excellent, by the way) because their ideas keep intruding on mine!

I didn't exactly answer your question, pv, but I'm very interested in hearing from other people on this topic. It's a good one!

"To the Hobbits. May they outlast the Sarumans and see spring again in the trees." J.R.R. Tolkien
9digithobbit
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Post RE: A question about plagiarism
on: July 27, 2005 03:51
Well, pv, I don't think what you're talking about could be considered plagiarism- it isn't possible to copyright ideas, or else there are a bunch of great writers who would be getting royalties from most of the writers who came after them.

LinweS, if you can read your story and it is IDENTICAL to the other story, not just in wording but conceptually, I mean if you could more or less just replace the names and change the phrasing and it would be the EXACT same story then you might have to worry, and you can certainly come up with some way to make yours original. If you're really worried and can't change a thing, then just make an A/N that it is a theme/concept that has been done before, but you have tried to put your own spin on it.

There's nothing wrong with using ideas from other writers, as long as you are adding something to it, or using it in a new way, and giving credit where necessary. Remember; steal from one writer, it's called plagiarism. Steal from a dozen, it's called research.

This is just my understanding of how plagiarism works. I'm not an expert.
LinweSingollo
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Post RE: A question about plagiarism
on: July 27, 2005 04:29
Yes, it's true what you said about "research."

The basic concept of my story; i.e. Frodo returns to the Shire, falls in love and ends up staying in the Shire and finding happiness rather than leaving is very similar to the other writers of this story I have read and possibly dozens of others out there, but I think I can put a very different spin on it.

It certainly isn't identical. I absolutely don't want it to be. Already I've written about 8 chapters and have veered off in a different direction. I wasn't really surprised to find that this idea had been used --- I can't be the only writer out there wanting to write a happy ending for Frodo! So I won't be taking credit for the main plot even though I did think of it before reading anyone else's.

Since writers of LOTR fics are using the same settings and basically the same body of characters, it's very difficult not to have similar ideas --- especially if you want to keep them in character.
"To the Hobbits. May they outlast the Sarumans and see spring again in the trees." J.R.R. Tolkien
pv
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Post RE: A question about plagiarism
on: July 29, 2005 07:15
You're right, there are a lot of grey areas here. But what usually happens to me is that I find my dialogue being very, very closely paraphrased and used in someone else's story - the words spoken by different characters in a different plot would be almost exactly my words. I'm not sure how to react to this...
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Meltintalle
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Post RE: A question about plagiarism
on: July 30, 2005 05:38
Maybe just talk to the other author? Mention that you noticed it sounded a lot like your dialogue...suggest they add a credit in the disclaimer... It's possible they don't realise that they're doing it. And then there are snippits of dialogue that just beg to be reused--I've seen some myself (usually Louis L'Amour when someone is trying to pick a fight with the hero or a clever play on words "How is the prodigy doing?" "Prodigiously"... ) I would imagine how much of your dialouge they use should be taken into account as well.
pv
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Post RE: A question about plagiarism
on: July 30, 2005 06:29
You're right - maybe I should talk to them. But as you say, it might have been unconsciously done. Thank you for the advice!
PV
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