Plagiarism!

I found a 50SOG lookalike novel in the spare books section at work so I ... emmm ... "rescued" it and brought it home. So far it seems much better than 50SOG but I was mortified when I discovered that the plot line matched one of my stories, namely single young woman goes to catsit for elderly relative in new town and falls in with kinksters! Slight difference in that the woman in the novel ends up looking after one cat in an elegant Mayfair apartment whereas my heroine has to look after five in a smelly terraced house in Preston, and she has a romantic tryst with a wealthy businessman whereas my heroine ends up in a cheap budget spanko porn film. So I should be all right.

Now, I ask you...what book is NOT better than 50SOG?

Your story sounds interesting. What is the name of it? I will go put it on my reading list.

I've seen that a few times in stories on the web before I found the LSF. There are so many writers in the world today that one can only imagine that somewhere along the line a plot/premise or whatever you want to call it looks the same. Only when sentences are printed out verbatim does it become Plagiarism!

Ideas, names, titles, plots are not copyrighted. You're fine. An author has to show exactly where you wrote word for word in the story.

Your story sounds interesting as FiBlue says.

Oh how true, bendover. It is really quite staggering to realize that there exists some sadly misguided and self-deluded individuals who think otherwise.

With the help of Messrs Google, cut and paste, there are students the world over who are accessing the same data to help with essays etc. It's the spin they put on that gives them the unique edge.

Your plot sounds much more interesting, Neil and I bet it's a damn sight more exciting the 50 shades of shite

Actually that isn't quite correct. Ideas and titles are not subject to copyright, yes. Character names can in some cases be trademarked, but this is limited to major commercial characters as a rule. A really unique character name might be subject to copyright protection, but this would be very unusual. Plots, however, are a different matter. A generic plot, or a general plot outline, something like "Boy meets girl" or "Top spanks brat" is common property, and anyone is free to use it. However a detailed and original plot can be protected by copyright, and a work imitating it in detail, not just in general outline, but in point-by-point detail, can be found to be a copyright infringement. There have been cases so holding. But it has to be a similarity so great that no one could plausibly have invented the plot independently -- a similarity of basic concept is fine, and happens all the time.

I understand that mobile_carrot was mostly joking above about the similarity, but the idea bendover stated is incorrect. If one were to take an existing story and paraphrase it sentence by sentence, or even paragraph by paragraph, so that no words are copied verbatim but the new work is clearly a direct copy of the old, it would be a copyright violation. The more original and unique the plot, the more strongly this would be true. (Note that a translation into a different language without permission is also a copyright violation, even though no words may remain unchanged.)

As a practical matter no one is likely to sue over a spanking story, even in a clear-cut case of cut&paste plagiarism, and accidentally similar plots are not going to expose one to a charge, even with works commercially published. So bendover is correct in advising "don't worry", but his reasons are incorrect.

Actually you're right there, Don. However, it works this way so everyone understands, and then I drop this subject as far as I go.

Quote:

The University of Cambridge defines plagiarism as: "submitting as one's own work, irrespective of intent to deceive, that which derives in part or in its entirety from the work of others without due acknowledgement.

Because plagiarism can occur without an intention to deceive, concerns should focus on educating the editor and cleaning up the article.

Unquote

However, I don't know why a good author would even attempt to make it look like it was unintentional. Everyone has an imagination, and it's surely seen in the LSF with all these authors.

That was a good catch, Don. I have a good book: Kirsche's Handbook On Publishing Law. I even yellowed that with a marker.

Flopsy, thanks for your input, too.

Pat

There's copyright, then there's trademark.

Do you know who Harry Potter is? Of course you do. He's a minor character in "Spell of Catastrophe" (book one of the Dance of the Gods series). A book that came out long before JK ever set pen to paper. Seriously, it was published in 1989 and is a good read.

Now if anyone were to use the name Harry Potter for a particularly hirsute potter (maker of pots) in a story, I doubt there's publisher who would touch it. The name "Harry Potter" has been trademarked in respect to so many things and is so tightly linked to one series of novels that the name is practically off limits for other authors to use. It's now too distracting to be the name of a throw away, minor character (like it was in "Spell of Catastrophe") and could only work as someone goes through life saying things:
"No, it's my real name. My parents hadn't read the books when they name me - the books only really took off two years after I was born. I'm named for my Grandfather Harold and I'm not a wizard and will you please check me in now?" to hotel clerks.

Trademarks are different in that they apply to the word only as it is being used in a particular way. For example, until iTunes was released, Apple (the computer company) and Apple Records (the Beatle's recording company) were both called Apple, but since they weren't competing there was no confusion over the name.

A name like Harry Potter has been trademarked in almost every conceivable way, making it hard to use in any none JK enterprise.

That name confusion bit has me thinking of a seed for a story. Something like:
Abigale paused. She had finally secured the struggling boy over her lap, his bared bottom now in the perfect spanking position, but she felt that she had to give him one last chance.
"For the last time, what is your name?" Abigale demanded, resting her palm on his backside.
"It's Harry Gerald Potter!" The nameless lad insisted. "I was named after my grandfather, not the kid from the movies! Honest!"
Sighing, Abigale raised her spanking hand and started to get down to business. The lad was doomed to have a red bottom, that was a given, but how red depended on how soon he gave her his real name.

--
But of course it would have be expanded to be a story.

Goodgulf

Writing a story that reuses a well-known erotica plot is not "plagiarism." I'd be more ashamed of myself for being interested in a 50SoG lookalike than I would be for writing your story.

Oh dear...am i the only person in the world that actually quite enjoyed reading 50SOG ?

Am the only person on site who has taken all day to realise what 50SOG stood for

This angel needs more sleep

Ps read worse, read better...