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McAnally's (The Community Pub) => Author Craft => Topic started by: logarithm.and.blues on September 10, 2009, 02:30:39 AM
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I'm in my last year of the IBMYP program as of this school year, and we have to do the Personal Project, which is basically "do something that interests you" (that's really basic, though). I was considering writing a short story using the Dresdenverse, except with my own OCs. However, I don't really want to get in big trouble for copyright infringement.
Bottom line: do I have a shot at getting permission from Jim to use his story universe in my short story?
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Given that even fanfic is a don't-ask-don't-tell status for the Dresdenverse, I'd say probably not. But it can never hurt to ask. Then again, if you're not planning to publish it, even free, that might help your case.
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I'd steer clear. If I could write. Our Revered Author really has no choice but to be soggy and hard to light on the issue. And that would probably make him sad. I think. Don't really know the man, mind you. Just my guess based on general impressions. Anyway, here's what the Site Gods say on Fanfic:
No fan fiction on the list. Period, end stop. Sorry.
Why? Simple.
Jim can't notice it.
If Jim notices it, he has to call the lawyers on you.
Don't make Jim notice it.
Why would Jim have to call the lawyers? From longtime subscriber Thermopyle, in November 2003:
Most authors operate under a don't ask, don't tell policy. If they acknowledge a fanfic (or fanfiction in general), they're taking a legal risk that the fanfic author could try to sue the author for "stealing" something the fanfic author wrote that happens in a book the author publishes later. This HAS happened...forget to whom, though. Bradley? Somebody like that. It's caused authors like Anne McCaffrey and Feist to go after people that write fanfics for their series. They'll have pages taken down, and go after webarchived mailing lists that have fanfics of their stories listed. So, bad news all around.
http://www.jim-butcher.com/mcanallys/
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very well
he's a punk
a crutunkulous schlunk
nobody loves him, not one tiny hunk
I agree, he's a gripulous gropulous groo
He's a schmoozler, a schmigler, a poo poobler too
He's a horridious object, which nobody loves.
He's untouchable unless you wear antiseptical gloves
lol, my son is getting into the old skool Cat in the Hat.
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Well, you're right, Shecky: I'm not planning to publish it. But it does have to be an original work, so that might be a problem.
...Lots of thinking later, I've decided not to risk it. Probably a bad idea. Thanks for answering my questions, though. That really helped a lot.
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Well, the "original" part is what would've convinced me, regardless of copyright issues and permissions.
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Well, I mostly took "original" as "you had to make everything up". I'm mostly just asking because the IBO is really strict on academic honesty and stuff. Plagarism will get a student kicked out of MYP, so I'm covering all my bases.
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On second thought, I don't think it would hurt to ask Jim because I'm not planning to publish it. Does anyone know how I can contact him? Would I, like, message him or ask him via the forums?
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Your best chance is to message him or one of the mods, but he's insanely busy at the moment - just finished FLF a month late, has a couple of shorts to bang out and is thereby already late on starting Changes.
And I still counsel that you trust your own abilities and make it REALLY original! :)
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*sigh* I guess I could try that. I'm really lazy and don't want to expend the mindpower to modify the Dresdenverse so that I can claim it as my own work, but hey. Might be fun.
I thank you, Shecky, for answering my questions so helpfully. Also, thanks, paynesgrey, for letting me know the Site Gods' stance on fanfiction.
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Use it as a seed - the idea of a wizard in a modern city. Play with the idea: what about a divine-magic-wielding priest? A scientist who discovers magic in subatomic physics? An alternate history where Benjamin Franklin discovered not electricity but a magical "element" à la the Greek elements (air, earth, fire, water)?
You'll run across something that just grabs you and screams, "WRITE ME!" :)
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you know, that's a really good idea, Shecky.
again, thanks a gajillion (or 157) for the advice.
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That's the thing - originality doesn't have to be (or, in my opinion, CAN'T be) totally original, but it's perfectly legitimate to take something that already exists and fiddle with the idea until it's something that suits you.
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Use it as a seed - the idea of a wizard in a modern city. Play with the idea: what about a divine-magic-wielding priest? A scientist who discovers magic in subatomic physics? An alternate history where Benjamin Franklin discovered not electricity but a magical "element" à la the Greek elements (air, earth, fire, water)?
Thing about Franklin is, he's one of these real people who does too much and achieves too much not to come across as a Mary Sue in fiction.
The thing about most urban fantasy, including the Dresden Files, is that to take place in a recognisable modern world there has to be some reason or another for the supernatural stuff to be largely hidden or unknown. Which I can accept as a genre convention for the sake of enjoying the Dresden Files and books in that genre, but is not a thing that interests me much as a writer. One of the things I have on the backburner (about 60,000 words done, but other projects foregrounded for the next couple of months) is a world where magic was formalised around the time of Newton, went through a paradigm shift around the turn of the twentieth century which made it more accessible, and has drastically changed things since; there have been four World Wars, and there's a White Russian remnant state on the Moon, where my protagonist will be emigrating in the next section.
Find something you're not sure about, change it, and see what follows.
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Thing about Franklin is, he's one of these real people who does too much and achieves too much not to come across as a Mary Sue in fiction.
But if the character IS Ben Franklin, everyone knows that he's what all Gary Stus ASPIRE to be. :D
I wonder what a mind like Ben Franklin would do today...
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I wonder what a mind like Ben Franklin would do today...
Speak bad french and lust after french chix whilst living in someone else's castle?
Oh, wait, today...
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Speak bad french and lust after french chix whilst living in someone else's castle?
And found a propaganda rag that became the Montreal English-language daily to this day ?
[ 250 years since the Plains of Abraham this past weekend. Why does nobody do Plains of Anraham as a divergence point for alternate history ? ]
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And found a propaganda rag that became the Montreal English-language daily to this day ?
[ 250 years since the Plains of Abraham this past weekend. Why does nobody do Plains of Anraham as a divergence point for alternate history ? ]
I thought it was Franklin's assistant who founded the Gazette. And I have a friend who toyed with precisely that event but never buckled down to write it.
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I thought it was Franklin's assistant who founded the Gazette.
It may have been, but it's certainly part of my city's mythic identity to attribute it to Franklin. (In the same way as the Marquis de Sade starting the French Revolution by sticking his head out the window of his cell in the Bastille and shouting "help, they're killing everyone in here" because he thought it was amusing, if it's not true it should be.)
And I have a friend who toyed with precisely that event but never buckled down to write it.
It's a long way from being a period I know well enough to write, but it seems to me that a French victory there and a solid New France leads pretty directly to no Proclamation of 1763, no Quebec Act of 1774, quite possibly a shorter Seven Years' War so less of the economic tightness that leads to the tax issues that are the proximate cause of the American Revolution, and a strong New France maybe making the idea of breaking free from the British Empire seem less appealing anyway; so if the history of the rest of the Empire goes more or less as it does in our timeline, the next interesting flashpoint is the Empire-wide ban on slavery on the 1830s as a possible point for the slaveholding territories to revolt. And likely not get very far with it if the rest of British North America gets the full weight of Empire behind it. (This all presuming nothing drastically weird happens during the Napoleonic Wars, but well, the War of 1812 ? Kind of a sideshow in world terms.)
You know, on reflection, I may have tighter standards for "not a period I know well" than many people.
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The good thing about alternate-history fiction is that all you have to do is research and build from there.
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Oh, hey, neuro - need your input over here: http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/index.php/topic,13881.0.html
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The good thing about alternate-history fiction is that all you have to do is research and build from there.
Hmm, the War of Jenkins' ear...
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The nice thing about alternate history fiction is that all the historical figures are in the public domain, so the author doesn't need to obtain permissions.
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The nice thing about alternate history fiction is that all the historical figures are in the public domain, so the author doesn't need to obtain permissions.
provided you stay far enough back not to be writing about alternate versions of currently living people.
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Is there a certain amount of time that must pass before a deceased person becomes "public domain" and it's permissable to write about them in fiction?
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Is there a certain amount of time that must pass before a deceased person becomes "public domain" and it's permissable to write about them in fiction?
Not that I've ever seen. Harry Turtledove's alternate histories run through World War II, so I'd guess 50 years would be a good rule of thumb.
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Not that I've ever seen. Harry Turtledove's alternate histories run through World War II, so I'd guess 50 years would be a good rule of thumb.
Hmmm...in my current WIP there's one scene where the characters summon the ghost of a deceased rock star to play a few numbers. I know in most books there's a disclaimer about any resemblence to anybody living or dead being strictly coincidental. So I'm wondering if that'll fly.
Oh well. That's assuming the manuscript ever gets published. So I'll roll with it for now and burn that bridge when (if) I come to it.
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id love to see an alternate history where the industial revolution happened in rome 2000 years ago. it almost did, a steam piston was invented but was looked at as a toy so noone saw the possibilities
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id love to see an alternate history where the industial revolution happened in rome 2000 years ago. it almost did, a steam piston was invented but was looked at as a toy so noone saw the possibilities
Lest Darkness Fall, L. Sprague de Camp, 1939.
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Hmmm...in my current WIP there's one scene where the characters summon the ghost of a deceased rock star to play a few numbers. I know in most books there's a disclaimer about any resemblence to anybody living or dead being strictly coincidental. So I'm wondering if that'll fly.
I sold a short story once featuring Elvis Presley, but it was printed in The International Journal of Elvisology and the Elvisian Era, put out by the local college and The First Coast Writer's Festival, so that probably doesn't count, since ALL of the stories featured Elvis. :)
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Yeah but that's a little different. Elvis isn't dead. ;)
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bummer to make everyone think that you died engaged in a 5 hour power dump :D
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bummer to make everyone think that you died engaged in a 5 hour power dump :D
My story was a Sherlock Holmes pastiche called "The Puzzle of Graceland Manor", where the Great Detective was called out of retirement to solve what really happened to Elvis. In 500 words or less. I got $50 for it. :)
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oh, you gotta share!!! ::)
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I sold a short story once featuring Elvis Presley, but it was printed in The International Journal of Elvisology and the Elvisian Era, put out by the local college and The First Coast Writer's Festival, so that probably doesn't count, since ALL of the stories featured Elvis. :)
Sort of like that one SF anthology called Carmen Miranda's Ghost is Haunting Space Station 3. :D
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oh, you gotta share!!! ::)
It was printed back in 1994, and I'm not sure I still have a copy. :(