Writing Stack Exchange
Writing Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [copying]

This tag should be used for questions that are related to the act of copying something from someone else, for example to enhance your own document. This is often related to legal questions about copyright, but could also be used for example to ask about copying from your own works. When using this tag the mechanical act of copying verbatim should be an essential part of your question.

This tag should be used for questions that are related to the act of copying something from someone else, for example to enhance your own document. This is often related to questions about , but could also be used for example to ask about copying from your own works. When using this tag the mechanical act of copying verbatim should be an essential part of your question.

You should mention what you are trying to achieve, what problems you see with this practice and your reasoning for choosing this practice in the first place. If you are not asking about copying something verbatim from someone else you should elaborate in which way the mechanical act of copying is essential to your question, such as when asking about or that support certain modes of copy-paste commands.

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Are wands in any sort of book going to be too much like Harry Potter?

I am trying to write a magical system, and I love the way that wands are like gunfire and how you flick and attack and it's instant. No weird hand movements or long unwieldy staffs or canes to use. But I'm stuck at the Harry Potter series, as I…
John155jd
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Can I copy an existing magic system?

Is it fine for me to copy the magic system of another author if every other aspect (story,plot,etc.) of my fantasy story is my own design? For instance, can I use bending from Avatar: The Last Airbender Comics but not use anything else from Avatar:…
Alexander
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Do writers copy other writers?

Good artists copy; great artists steal. This famous Picasso quote often reminds me that the best artworks are rather a mix of many other artworks instead of something completely new. Walt Disney made a new version of old fairytales, as Steve Jobs…
Ąžuolas Lomonosovas
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Can I use more specific monsters and creatures legally?

To be specific, metallic or chromatic dragons for an example. I know mindflayers and beholders and such are way off the list. But is the concept of dragons in distinct categories like this too similar to be used to any extent? P.S. Respectfully,…
Bruce Karn
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Using ideas from other authors without infringing copyright

My girlfriend and I want to write a story about science fiction. I'm a fan of Star Wars, and many of the ideas in this universe are fantastic, but I do not want to plagiarize anyone. Is there any way of knowing what ideas I can use without…
Diego Hillesheim
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Does the fact that an old work was republished later affect the public domain status?

I want to use large excerpts from an old book in the textbook I am writing (e.g. 500-1000 word chunks at a time taken). These will serve as primary sources for the students to analyze. The first version was originally written in Spanish in the…
Village
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What resources can I use to be 100% assured that my story is not too similar/plagarising already existing works?

I've been worrying about this for quite a long time. So, for the past year or so, I've been working hard on a story I'm very passionate about. My biggest concern of them all is copyright issues. I'm not going to bore you with the details, but I was…
Alexandrang
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What are the advantages and disadvantages of copying writing styles?

I come from a non-native English speaking country and, from my own analysis, I will say I have an intermediate level English fluency (IELTS score 7). Some of the articles on my blog were chosen by an international magazine (free of course). But now…
White Cloud
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"Stealing" jokes

In one of my stories, I have a character who is a bit of a smart ass, always cracking jokes at the expense of others and sometimes even himself. I often get inspired by things I find on the internet and incorporate them into the story, either by…
user23083
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If a software project has a permissive open source license is it plagarism to copy text to a paper without attribution?

Many open source software projects have licenses that allow freely copying source code and using it however you want. Some of these licenses do not even require attribution. Source code is just text so my question is is it legal to copy text from…
costrouc
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Citing someone's work, copying and pasting fragment. Is that OK?

I found the original manuscript of a very celebrated English botanist on the internet (in pdf format of course) Here it is: http://sciweb.nybg.org/science2/pdfs/dws/Brownian.pdf The reason is that in an introduction to an academic essay/thesis, I…
mark
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Universe similar to Transformers

I have in mind a story that would be about a transforming robots like Transformers, but with slightly different origins of their creation and what they're really are. I'm a bit afraid of using concept of transforming robots so Hasbro or other…
lukaszkups
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Am I copying an idea too closely?

I guess this is a question about inspiration versus copying. I recently came across a story that really gripped me both with the inspiration for an idea and at the same time a doubt I could ever write anything as ground breaking or well written. I…
White S.
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How long and/or big can a reference be?

In my story, there is a sidestory and character arc for a minor supporting character. Due to a war happening in the fantasy world, the character is drafted into the military, and is sent through basic training as a soldier. I was thinking about…
Crafter
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What can I do so my work isn't closely similar to others?

I'm writing romance right now. I'm on the part where it's like a really good poem or a scene. You know, the one where you'll see it posted/quoted everywhere in Instagram or some other, but everything I write seems to be already written in some…
user56271
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