http://wantsunicorns.livejournal.com/ ([identity profile] wantsunicorns.livejournal.com) wrote in [community profile] hd_writers2012-01-29 01:00 pm
Entry tags:

Plagiarism, credit etc.

I've asked if it's okay to post this and got the okay, so here goes:

I know we all get inspired by the things we read or watch or listen to, be it books, films or songs. How do you deal with that, if you get inspired by other people's fic?

As an author:
  • Do you think it's alright if other people reuse an idea you had?
    (like a spell, a gadget, a magical ability, magical theory etc.)
  • Do you think it's necessary to be credited in the author's notes, if they used your idea?
    (as in, the part where "..." got inspired by "so and so")
  • Would you like to be asked, before someone uses something of yours?
    (like, send a pm, or email asking whether it's alright, e.g. detailing what want to use it for)


What are your thoughts on this?

I personally am a bit undecided. I would love it, if people asked me permission, simply because I think it would be lovely to know that someone else got inspired by something I created. I would however not hold people to this. What I think would be common curtesy though would be to credit the creator of a work in the author's notes with something like "the idea for "..." comes from "author's name"" or something similar, if one was so inclined one could also link to the fic the idea was inspired/taken from.

I'm fairly new to stuff like this, so I don't know what's considered the right approach to this, so I figured I might as well ask my go-to-people in such matters, i.e. ALL OF YOU BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE! ♥

PS: I'm sorry mods, I don't know how to tag this.

ETA: Thank you so much for everyone who has shared their opinion on this with me. I've definitely received some food for thought. ♥

[identity profile] heartofoshun.livejournal.com 2012-01-29 12:53 pm (UTC)(link)
I always try to credit an author for anything I steal, unless I did not realize it was not canon. That could happen. Also, seems polite to ask since we do speak (usually--some do not respond to reviews), but it seems rude if the author refuses permission since we are all using Rowling's work without explicit approval, but we do give credit.

While we are on that subject, icon makers are the absolute most precious and entitled people in fandom. They demand credit for their icons like they had just painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and then do not credit their source--that is some weird kind of thinking going on. I make a lot of icons, and give credit for my sources unless I cannot find them, but I do not demand credit for use of my icons. It's flattering enough for me that someone chose to copy them. Credit would be nice, but hey they are not really mine and are really, really tiny and not Fabrege eggs either; I am already using someone else's work--whether a screen cap or original art.

Icon above mine! Made it from my own screen cap! Help yourself and follow your heart on crediting!
tryslora: photo of my red hair right after highlighting (Default)

[personal profile] tryslora 2012-01-29 01:33 pm (UTC)(link)
The only reason I ask credit on icons is so that if folks like it, they can find more of them at my account... it's more like a bread crumb than artistic credit.

[identity profile] tariana.livejournal.com 2012-01-29 02:12 pm (UTC)(link)
This makes sense to me; I've often gone to a maker's journal and gotten other icons because I really liked one they made that I saw somewhere else!

[identity profile] heartofoshun.livejournal.com 2012-02-02 10:51 pm (UTC)(link)
I make icons myself and it annoys me when other people take them and claim them to be their own.

That is just wrong to claim your work as their own.

What I find off-putting is the hyper-sensitivity of some icon makers about their own work and no crediting of original artists. I know more artists better than I know icon-makers, so I am sure that influences me. I know a few artists who do not want their work cropped. It's like mutilating their baby to them.

I only recently began to occasionally use other people's icons (and I do credit). I found the makers terrifying and they rarely credit artists.

I have a few non-credited sources of original art on my own icons. But after encountering such complicated rules over people's screen caps that I though it would be better to do my own.