03-26-2015, 02:55 PM
(03-26-2015, 12:39 PM)Elkhound Wrote: There's the Marion Zimmer Bradley case of the Darkover fan accusing her of ripping off a fanfic she had written for one of the canon novels. (The fanwriter had written a something exploring, from canon hints, the backstory of some of the characters. Later, Bradley wrote a novel concerning the backstory of those characters, and it turns out that the fan's extrapolation was on the money. The fan insisted that Bradley had known about her story and ripped it off; Bradley says that the fan had just gotten lucky in deducing from the hints in canon. [This may not be quite accurate; I'm going from memory.] The unfortunate part is that Bradley had encouraged fanwriters to write in the Darkover universe, and had even published 'Friends of Darkover' anthologies, which practice ceased.)
I would like to know who won the case. But most of the time it has to be more than right on the money to win. It has to be nearly word for word. And if the person was writing from the clues that were present in the work then I would tell the fan you lose. It is obvious that the backstory was there in the authors mind in the first place. Now if the authors work was close to word for word, all events in the same order and all conversations with the same quips ect. I might listen to the fan and call what Bradley did bating. Unfortunately I am not a judge. Our legal system is sometimes not as clear as it should be.
But in the case of Grimm. We are not being encouraged to write if we do, we do it at our own risk of losing the work. We are operating in someone else's Trademarks and Copyrights. I do not believe however that the writers would allow something to be stolen in total and not want to fiddle with it to the extreme. When I rewrite and I do for myself all the time it never comes out close to the original.
To illustrate that fact ask yourself what would have happened if Wu had at some point had an affair with Rosalie.... Monroe would not be the good blutbad about it I am sure. lol picture it in your head if nothing else and the series becomes very different.
If I had something important to say, I would have mumbled it.