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

[undrsomestairs.livejournal.com]

You don't have to credit whoever's idea it was to first write veela fic or mpreg fic, you don't have to credit whoever's idea it was to first write Harry Potter fanfiction, J.K. didn't have to credit whoever's idea it was to write lore about wizards - and isn't there a saying about how every basic story idea has already been written somewhere? Specific things I see crediting for, like spells or potions if they're really creative and developed. For example, I made up a spell that checks for pregnancy and called it Gravidus, because gravida is latin for pregnant. If I saw that somewhere else I wouldn't for a second think of it as plagiarism, because it's really obvious and easy to come up with. Good chance it had been done before me, even. If someone really went out of their way to construct this intricate spell or potion that played into their plot, though, I'm sure they'd appreciate getting credit for it. Eventually, though, if it was popular enough, it would probably just become a part of fanon and down the line people wouldn't even know who to credit anyway.

Complicated question. Obviously don't full-on steal someone else's work or read a story and then write one that totally mirrors it with just the wording switched around a bit, but other than that I'd say give credit when we can, and not get too worked up about little things.

[wantsunicorns.livejournal.com]

Complicated question. Obviously don't full-on steal someone else's work or read a story and then write one that totally mirrors it with just the wording switched around a bit, but other than that I'd say give credit when we can, and not get too worked up about little things.

Isn't it just?

Yes, I figured the same thing. I credit when I remember where it's from or mention that "so and so" wasn't my idea, and in the case that made me ask this question, I actually asked the author and got a positive response so that's all solved, but in general I suppose a course of action will have to be carefully considered, but the leas tone can do is give credit where it's due.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts with me!