Copyrights?

ratsy

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I've been thinking about an idea for a book I want to start and one of the ideas hinges on being able to 'rip off' some of the literary classics themes. Jeckyll and Hyde, Dracula, Frankenstein..maybe even a little Dorian Gray.

What are the rules when it comes to that...are they fair game?
 
I'd say it was ok, but I know nothing. There's been all these 'Pride, Prejudice and Zombies' and 'Jane Slayer' books out, so...
 
In the UK, copyright lasts until the author has been dead for 70 years. After that, their work is fair game -- you can even publish their books. There might be different time limits in other countries.
 
That sounds about right..how many times have we seen Christmas Carol rip offs!!
 
One thing to watch out for - there have been moves to get around the end of copyright by tradmarking. I'm not a lawyer so can't really advise on this but it's something to watch out for when dealing with stuff that looks like it should be in the public domain.
 
In the UK, copyright lasts until the author has been dead for 70 years. After that, their work is fair game -- you can even publish their books. There might be different time limits in other countries.

I think Conan Doyle's estate managed to get that extended for Sherlock Holmes related stuff.
 
I wasn't going to be as blatant as using their characters or plots. From what I've read it should be alright.
 
Parody is generally allowed, regardless, if what you're thinking of falls under that category.
 
Thanks Teresa, I thought so...I downloaded them for research purposes and was blown away by the start of The Picture of Dorian Gray. I've always thought the premise behind it was cool but have never read it. The first two lines are the longest first two lines I've ever seen! Check it out.

And I quote from the hands of Oscar Wilde -

The studio was filled with the rich odour of roses, and when the light summer wind stirred amidst the trees of the garden, there came through the open door the heavy scent of the lilac, or the more delicate perfume of the pink-flowering thorn.

From the corner of the divan of Persian saddle-bags on which he was lying, smoking, as was his custom, innumerable cigarettes, Lord Henry Wotton could just catch the gleam of the honey-sweet and honey-coloured blossoms of a laburnum, whose tremulous branches seemed hardly able to bear the burden of a beauty so flamelike as theirs; and now and then the fantastic shadows of birds in flight flitted across the long tussore-silk curtains that were stretched in front of the huge window, producing a kind of momentary Japanese effect, and making him think of those pallid, jade-faced painters of Tokyo who, through the medium of an art that is necessarily immobile, seek to convey the sense of swiftness and motion.
 
I'm not sure if that second sentence is the longest I've ever seen (I can think of some contenders by Charles Dickens and George MacDonald), but it might be!
 
No kidding. I am sure it's the longest I've ever read.

This book is quite racy for a book published in the 1800's!
 
I looked into this only last week because my story is based on the Mars One mission set to colonise Mars in 2024. I'm even using the Mars One ship blueprints and the exact plans for the design of the settlement.
What I learn was quite interesting.
There has not been a court case won in over 25 years, when a organisation says "Hey, thats ours". As long as you do not slander anyone you're in the clear.
Check Trademark & Copyright laws regarding writers in Google and you will be happy when you find your answer.:D
 
Be aware that the copyright timing is different in different countries. I believe America is one of the shorter ones but that they are trying to come in line with Europe. Though I may well be wrong on that. I think, until recently, it was 50 years in America and 75 in the UK for example. Also I think it does no harm to list your influences. David Weber is completely open about C S Forester's influence on his Honor Harrington books.

As an aside on the sentence length I have to say that sentence is a mere minnow. Try Roberto Bolano or Gabriel Garcia Marquez; both have sentences that span multiple pages. I can't remember the exact length of the longest Bolano sentence I encountered but it was in the order of ten plus printed pages. Though these were surprisingly very easy to read - I typically never noticed how long these sentences were until I came to their endings!
 
I think Conan Doyle's estate managed to get that extended for Sherlock Holmes related stuff.

They got a minor extension in the US for stuff that was new in the last few books. It's fully out of copyright in the UK and even in the US you can use anything that was established in all stories but those last few.

So America isn't shorter. In most cases it's 70 years after death, 95 years after publication or 120 after creation if never published, but it depends on lots of stuff. Basically for US copyright anything in English prior to 1923 is fair game, otherwise look it up.

Here's a set of the rules from Cornell: https://copyright.cornell.edu/resources/publicdomain.cfm
 
Whatever may have happened with the Sherlock Holmes copyright before, now, even in the States, the character is explicitly in the public domain thanks to a recent court case.

Those last few stories may not be, but the Doyle Estate can no longer legally ask Amazon to take down Holmes related fiction.

The trademark end-run is a pain and has happened with some great stuff. Zorro for example, public domain but trademarked. Conan the Barbarian, some stories in the public domain but trademarked. Sherlock Holmes, most stories in the public domain but trademarked.

US copyright law and trademark law are thoroughly borked.

If you're so inclined, here's the TESS Trademark Search.
 
I'm going to see how far any of you think artistic licence can be used here.


I have a character who is a spaceship and likes superhero characters, think I Banks here and your close to my model intelligence for the spaceship. The characters are Marvel characters (Captain America and The Hulk), Judge Dredd and the Matrix too, just in case I missed anyone who could sue me into oblivion. Its always clear that it is Ship who is pretending to be these characters and I am drawing on popular culture here for all my ideas, but how exposed am I. I've always assumed this book will never be published simply because of the characters I reference. Am I right?
 
Bowler, there's a difference between referencing a character and using that character. So even before the recent case it was fine for you to have someone in a book referred to as a second Sherlock Holmes, and OK to have eg a young boy pretending to be the supersleuth, but to write about SH as SH, even if the scene were transplanted to another time or milieu, would have left you on dodgy ground. The same even with trademarked characters. After all I can write about a character getting out his Hoover to vacuum the carpets without falling foul of any laws (unless I then write something that is potentially libellous about the cleaner or its company, of course!).
 
Yay - I'm clearly in the referencing and character pretending box. All I need now do is get over the un-publishable hurdle and I'm home and dry.
 
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