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I'll give a clear example of plagiarism, My book Dark Streets, Power goes off, people revolt, the state has become it's own country, with a dictator and he has turned the police into a private army. Now what was done, Eric Kripke lifted it from Australia, to the US,called it Revolution. Virtually the entire first series each episode was a modified chapter from my book. The drugs the sex the kidnapping the power plays - the situations. (serial killer is the only thing missing so far) THAT my friends is plagiarism in my opinion. What do you think?

I couldn't get this to post on a specific website so thought, bugger it, I'll put it here. I'll give a clear example of plagiarism, My book Dark Streets, Power goes off, people revolt, the state has become it's own country, with a dictator and he has turned the police into a private army. Of course there is a resistance movement which is where our hero comes in. Now what was done, Eric Kripke lifted it from Australia, to the US, called it Revolution. Virtually the entire first series, each episode was a modified chapter from my book. The drugs the sex the kidnapping the power plays - the situations. (serial killer is the only thing missing so far, but touched on when they went in the rail tunnel - chapter 2) THAT my friends is plagiarism in my opinion. What do you think?

As I understand it, plagiarism isn't a legal offense. It's a moral/academic/journalistic one. (I almost added 'artistic,' but I'm not sure that holds water; ask David Shields.) Plagiarism doesn't (necessarily) rise to the level of copyright violation. Maybe it can, but then I think we just call it a legal infringement of IP. I suspect that the definition in Hollywood--given' a longstanding tradition of ‘recycling’ story concepts and stories themselves'--is very different from the one in academia or publishing.

I'm starting work on my Ph.D. this month, and if I did stuff like that without properly referencing it... I'd BE CRUCIFIED!!! In Australia, you might have a case for breach of copyright, but I don't know about the US. In fact, huwtm, if I were you, I'd be taking a close look at the fine print in the US-Australia Free Trade Agreement, because there was a big section on Intellectual Property protection including copyright in there. America's Big Pharma wanted it to protect their pharmaceuticals. Ought to cut both ways. In fact, email me at neal0018 at flinders dot edu dot au, and I'll see what I can rustle up for you on it - I took a topic on Aus-US relationship some years ago and we spent about 5 or 6 hours on the fine points of this Free Trade Agreement. I probably still have my notes and readings on it.

Y'all might be interested in this: http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=277 Scott sued Ricoh in Australia for plagiarism, and settled for something like $5K (not sure if US or Australian), which he donated. Huwtm, I once wrote a TV script about a supernatural apartment building in Manhattan. Wasn't very good, but about a year later, 666 Park Avenue came out and pretty much every scene in the pilot trailer existed, frame by frame, in my script. Thing is I only ever showed that script to a single manager for a read. You'd be amazed at how easily people come up with the same *obvious* ideas. And, trust me, they are obvious. There are so many people out there writing, that unless what you're doing is really out there, someone is bound to have the same notion as you. So unless someone rips off your dialogue, *word for word*, I'd chalk things up to synchronicity and move on.

Oops, Scott Aaronson sued the *ad agency*, not Ricoh.

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Thanks for the response! This is good to know! I was also wondering about cross-medium inspiration and whether the same rules apply with that. Say there is a song that is written in a narrative form and could be used perfectly for dialogue in a movie. Since it's not in the same medium (music vs. film, rather than music vs. music) do the same rules of plagiarism apply? Do movies use that? I'm sure if someone in a movie said "all you need is love," everyone would get the reference immediately. Would the writer have needed permission to use something so widely known? I draw a lot of inspiration from the music I listen to and sometimes I come across little snippets of lyrics that would be perfect in movie dialogue. Of course I don't want to claim the song lyrics as being my own work, but I think there is a lot of material out there that would do very well in film. Thoughts on that? Is it acceptable or something to steer clear of? Thanks again!

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