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Do you need permission if you are inspired by something?


  • JessicaMadden
    Aug 12 2:05 AM
    Reply
    If you are inspired by a movie, do you need permission? I was inspired by a movie. Some people says it's like the movie and some say they are nothing a like.

  • KodyBoye
    August 12 ↑
    Reply
    Unless you're copying the storyline/pieces of it piece by piece, than no. If that were the case, everything would have pages upon pages of copyright information. <.>

  • Valkyrie
    August 12 ↑
    Reply
    There's a difference between "based on" and "inspired by". Movies that say "based on the book by Author X" can usually be expected to have a lot to do with the book's plot, setting, characters, etc. There's a bit of leeway. Harry Potter movies deviate a little from the books. The movie "Lawnmower Man" was supposedly "based on" a short story by Stephen King, but they changed so much of it in the movie version that King pulled his name off of it. To me, that's entering the territory of "inspired by", if the author's walking away.

    I get inspired by a lot of stuff, too, but as long as you're not directly copying stuff, you should be fine. Unless you're Dan Brown, and you just wrote a massive bestseller, and you get sued for copyright infringement or whatever by someone whose book is very similar and yet much less popular. Ahh the pitfalls of fame.

    • JessicaMadden
      August 13 ↑
      Reply
      Would I have to say it's inspired when I publish it?

      • Bitter Irony
        August 13 ↑
        Reply
        Again, it depends what you mean. If you wrote a novelization of the movie, you'd better get some big-time permission. If you just watched the movie and were like, hey, that gives me an idea for a story, than of course you don't need to mention where you got the idea.

  • Keyirna Raineheart
    September 5 ↑
    Reply
    I'm working a vampire novel now, I was inspired by the Twilight series, both books and the movie, however the story is slightly similar in execution it is nothing like the novels by Ms. Meyer in theme. As long as you aren't taking a story line, and working it to your own whims you should be alright.
    There is a differance between taking a story and changing hte names of the charater, and taking a story and saying 'that was really cool, I think I'll write something like that.' After all that's the differacne between fan-fiction and regular fiction.

  • Lost Soul 12
    October 8 ↑
    Reply
    I think if you are 'inspired' by a movie, but you take exactly what the movie is, or change it A LITTLE, that it is plagurism.

    I do believe if your watching a movie about a sick girl with cancer that, sure, you can do a story about a sick girl with cancer, just don't do the same exact thing in your story. Like, if in the movie, the mother kills herself, don't make the mother kill yourself in the book.

    If you honestly believe in your heart that it is like the movie, then no, don't publish it. But if you really do know you didn't copy that movie word for word, then sure, go on ahead and publish it!

  • Valkyrie
    October 8 ↑
    Reply
    I just watched the entirety of Battlestar Galactica in about 10 days, and its long-term themes really impressed me. I'm using part of one of them in my NaNo story this year as an inspiration, but it's stripped of all BSG-related content, and stuck on a fantasy planet far far away. If I hadn't said this, I doubt you could tell.

    • Tiger-Lily
      October 12 ↑
      Reply
      I heard something about Dan Brown's legal issues. What happened?
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