Is fanfic, in fact, plagiarism? I know it's illegal-ish in many ways, but isn't plagiarism actually stealing people's words (and maybe altering some details like names and eye and hair colour, but basically stealing them)?
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Plagiarism is taking some one's idea and words and passing them off as your own. I've never seen a fan fiction writer claim to own Fox Mulder, Harry Potter, Miles Vorkisigan. Fan fiction writers are very clear on the fact that those things do not belong to them and that they are borrowing them.
Plagiarism is something something more than just stealing ideas... because some ideas can't be copyrighted. There are thoughts and ideas that are so engrained in our culture that those phrases have become common knowledge. "Will you marry me?" "Want a coke with that?" Material like isn't copyrightable unless it's part of a bigger whole.
I keep seeing dictionary definitions being used for plagiarism being used to defend this and that's great and all but it isn't very helpful since that has very little bearing legally or ethically. Schools and law define it a certain way and those are the definitions that will impact your life.
Northwestern's "Principles Regarding Academic Integrity" defines plagiarism as "submitting material that in part or whole is not entirely one's own work without attributing those same portions to their correct source."Plagiarism (http://www.nwu.edu/uacc/plagiar.html)
to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own : use (a created production) without crediting the source vi: to commit literary theft: present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing sourWhat is Plagiarism by SE Van Bramer (http://science.widener.edu/svb/essay/plagiar.html)
That same article says: If you use something word for word it MUST be acknowledged. Things start to get a bit gray when you paraphrase. There is one simple solution to this dilemma. DO NOT PARAPHRASE! Only use someone else's writing when it serves a purpose. Only use someone else's writing when you want to quote precisely what they wrote. If this is not your goal, USE YOUR OWN WORDS.
The problem with fan fiction that incorporates large masses of changes from some one else's creative work is that in order to be legal you need to cite it. It gets passed off as your own unless you point it out in some form. Disclaimers at the top saying you quoted from such and such are not going to cut it unless you specifically point out which parts are being used because if it isn't being pointed out, than you're using it on your own with out crediting it; you're presenting the story as original.
My brain is dead but fan fiction normally has disclaimers dispelling ownership and saying that people do not own the characters, yackety yack do. That works pretty well since the characters are all over the stories as are the settings. It doesn't pretend to claim that characters are there own.
We all seem to be mixing apples and oranges here as regards copyright law (which I know *nothing* about, so please don't ask and make my skull explode), the academic definition of plagiarism (which are administrative rules set by a private body--i.e. a university--and carry no legal weight or, one could argue, much extra-academic significance), and the common-sense notion that you do not copy several pages out of an obscure novel, claim you wrote them and hope to God nobody else on fanfiction.net happens to recognize the book in question. (If I've got the nature of this whole cause celebre correct, I haven't been following it that closely.)
Personally, I'd say that fanfic is a derivative work--much like, say, parody--and that as such it differs from the outright, uncredited theft of someone else's dialogue and ideas then presented as your own (as someone else pointed out, that's why fanfic is supposed to be presented bristling with disclaimers; they won't save you from a charge of copyright violation, but they are an upfront attempt to acknowledge you're not working from an original source). But that's not a legal/philosophical definition, it's just an opinion.
Please don't now proceed to ask me whether, say, Shakespeare taking plots and characters outright from obscure medieval troubadours and poets and constructing entire plays around those uncredited sources would make him the world's most famous plagiarist, because then my poor skull really *will* explode. ;-)
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From:
Plagiarism
A brill little explanation of what it actually is. By a real lawyer-type guy.
:-)
From:
Re: Plagiarism
From:
Fan fiction isn't plagiarism
Plagiarism is something something more than just stealing ideas... because some ideas can't be copyrighted. There are thoughts and ideas that are so engrained in our culture that those phrases have become common knowledge. "Will you marry me?" "Want a coke with that?" Material like isn't copyrightable unless it's part of a bigger whole.
I keep seeing dictionary definitions being used for plagiarism being used to defend this and that's great and all but it isn't very helpful since that has very little bearing legally or ethically. Schools and law define it a certain way and those are the definitions that will impact your life.
Northwestern's "Principles Regarding Academic Integrity" defines plagiarism as "submitting material that in part or whole is not
entirely one's own work without attributing those same portions to their correct source." Plagiarism (http://www.nwu.edu/uacc/plagiar.html)
to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own : use (a created production) without crediting the source vi: to commit literary theft: present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing sour What is Plagiarism by SE Van Bramer (http://science.widener.edu/svb/essay/plagiar.html)
That same article says: If you use something word for word it MUST be acknowledged. Things start to get a bit gray when you paraphrase. There is one simple solution to this dilemma. DO NOT PARAPHRASE! Only use someone else's writing when it serves a purpose. Only use someone else's writing when you want to quote precisely what they wrote. If this is not your goal, USE YOUR OWN WORDS.
The problem with fan fiction that incorporates large masses of changes from some one else's creative work is that in order to be legal you need to cite it. It gets passed off as your own unless you point it out in some form. Disclaimers at the top saying you quoted from such and such are not going to cut it unless you specifically point out which parts are being used because if it isn't being pointed out, than you're using it on your own with out crediting it; you're presenting the story as original.
My brain is dead but fan fiction normally has disclaimers dispelling ownership and saying that people do not own the characters, yackety yack do. That works pretty well since the characters are all over the stories as are the settings. It doesn't pretend to claim that characters are there own.
From:
no subject
Personally, I'd say that fanfic is a derivative work--much like, say, parody--and that as such it differs from the outright, uncredited theft of someone else's dialogue and ideas then presented as your own (as someone else pointed out, that's why fanfic is supposed to be presented bristling with disclaimers; they won't save you from a charge of copyright violation, but they are an upfront attempt to acknowledge you're not working from an original source). But that's not a legal/philosophical definition, it's just an opinion.
Please don't now proceed to ask me whether, say, Shakespeare taking plots and characters outright from obscure medieval troubadours and poets and constructing entire plays around those uncredited sources would make him the world's most famous plagiarist, because then my poor skull really *will* explode. ;-)