Plagiarism, credit etc.

[wantsunicorns.livejournal.com]

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. ♥

Comments

[deirdre-aithne.livejournal.com]

I think it depends a lot of what the idea is. Rewriting a whole fic without permission, bad idea, obviously. But if you read a fic and you see a spell, for one (as it's been stated by others before me already) you don't always know if the spell is canon, something a part of fanon, or that author's specific creation. There's also the problem that you read a fic, and it wasn't anything special for you, you didn't save the link, and you never think of it again, except one little spell or one theory from the fic stuck in your brain. And a year later, you're sitting down to write a fic and it comes back into your head, but without that "I think I saw this in a fic once" note attached, so you have to assume it is your own idea.

Then there's the fact that sometimes two people have the same idea. Sometimes fifteen people have the same idea. I have fic notes that I've jotted down over a year ago and have seen fics pop up since I wrote them down that fic my notes almost perfectly, and they're notes I've never discussed with anyone else. Spells, magical theory, etc. can work the same way. "I need a spell that lets me do 'x'." Well, if someone else writing a fic needs the same spell and you both decide that 'y' makes an appropriate name for the spell and/or translate the same word(s) for the name into Latin, odds are good two people come up with the same idea organically. So if person A posts their fic, which person B never reads, and a year later, person B posts theirs, how does anyone else know whether B took the idea from A or had it themselves? Well, they don't. But I'd lay odds someone will read both A and B's fics and decide B must have stolen it without credit.

If you know where you got something from, yeah, I think it's common courtesy to credit. If you don't, then what can you do? I know there's a bit of a possessive thing with fandom, but honestly? We don't own any of this. We are playing in someone else's sandbox, so do we really have a right to complain if someone else wants to play in ours? If someone comes in and nabs your entire fic and puts their name on it, yeah, I can understand being pissed, because that's flat out stealing your hard work. But when it comes to magical theory, spells, gadgets, and anything else, I think it's sort of fair game. Let's face it, pretty much everyone is inspired for new ideas by what they read, watch, listen to, etc. Just about anything we can think of has probably been done before, and what hasn't, well, it was probably inspired by something else that has.

[undrsomestairs.livejournal.com]

Just about anything we can think of has probably been done before, and what hasn't, well, it was probably inspired by something else that has.

This. Wonderfully stated.

[wantsunicorns.livejournal.com]

except one little spell or one theory from the fic stuck in your brain. And a year later, you're sitting down to write a fic and it comes back into your head, but without that "I think I saw this in a fic once" note attached, so you have to assume it is your own idea.

I do tend to know if something isn't my idea, but not all the time. If I do remember that I didn't come up with this, I'll try to point that out in the auhtor's notes and if I do remember who the idea is originally from, I'll credit the author specifically.

The idea that made me ask this question was sort of vague but essential to the fic it was in and I didn't want to offend the author, so I figured I should ask what "due process" is in a situation like that and what most people themselves would like people did with their ideas. I did end up asking the author and she said yes, so everything is fine. :)