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

[heartofoshun.livejournal.com]

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.

[wantsunicorns.livejournal.com]

Yup, but just like with fic it happens and as I said, I didn't make the art or the photos, but I did take the time to make an icon mostly for myself in the first place and then have someone take something I made, hotlink and parade them around as their own, that was just not on.

Yeah some of them really are. If I know who made it, I'll credit and if I don't I usually put "sorry, I don't know who made this" and if I see the icon around somewhere again, I'll just see whether that person knows and then credit. Sometimes artists make their own icons as well, which is of course the easiest, because you can credit both in one go XD

I understand, it can be a bit overwhelming, but I've found some icon makers whom I really like both considering the icons they make and what style they are in, as well as in their personality! *Squishes*