There's not much that I can add here. Joe, as usual, is his damndest accurate self.
In fiction, let's take this analogy. I wrote a detective story about a wandering, hobo detective. It sells horrificly well. Later on, Jimbob writes a story about a hitchiking detective. Aha, I say. You stole my idea and I will sue you. I just might win. Never mind that my story is set in the USA while your's is set in England. Never mind that "murder mystery" is a genre.
Now, let's look at Harry Potter. In the world, there are many Harry Potter clones. Rowling's lawyers have done their best to sue such works out of existance. They bear some resemblance to Harry Potter, but in the way that any work of a similar genre will. The stories take place in different countries, with different characters, and even different times. That doesn't matter. They are considered "derivitive works", and can be blocked from publication.
I don't know what else I want to say. Must go sleep.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2003-07-23 08:45 pm (UTC)In fiction, let's take this analogy. I wrote a detective story about a wandering, hobo detective. It sells horrificly well. Later on, Jimbob writes a story about a hitchiking detective. Aha, I say. You stole my idea and I will sue you. I just might win. Never mind that my story is set in the USA while your's is set in England. Never mind that "murder mystery" is a genre.
Now, let's look at Harry Potter. In the world, there are many Harry Potter clones. Rowling's lawyers have done their best to sue such works out of existance. They bear some resemblance to Harry Potter, but in the way that any work of a similar genre will. The stories take place in different countries, with different characters, and even different times. That doesn't matter. They are considered "derivitive works", and can be blocked from publication.
I don't know what else I want to say. Must go sleep.