Staffing Plagiarism

[Kaycakes 78]

 

2 hours ago, iReadYerMind said:

 

Because no one provided verifiable proof that my member was actually stealing anything, and the sites I found this app posted on all used the same email address as my member (if not the same OOC name), we told the user that she is welcome to continue RPing on the site with her app as-is, but that we recommended she revamp the app at her convenience to prevent any further claims or drama from hateful people.

 

She found that decision to be fair and is still a good member of our site, and the BS claims from guests have stopped. She's working on revamping the application as her schedule allows.

 

 I'm pretty sure the original claim was just someone being pissy with a personal vendetta against her. 

 

Oh man. This may be the same member who has been the topic of quite a bit of debate. I think you handled it better than many did, including the previous site I was on. Not a bad resolution! I salute you.

[Dusty 55]

It is very difficult to know who has the rights to an OC and what the 'drama' behind a drive by accusation might be.

 

Recently we had about three apps in a row that took a movie/ TV/ Music video character and basically cut and pasted the personality, looks and history from the original with the same PB and only changed the name. We are not a fandom and while I totally get being inspired by a character we love to watch or read about, the site is original. Even the canons are not based on anything. So we don't actually accept real historical characters or established ones from someone else's creativity.

 

Having said that, most ideas have been inspired from somewhere, but changed up enough to be a whole different character/ place/ thing.

 

Where do you guys draw the line between 'inspiration' and 'plagiarism'?

[iReadYerMind 2]

17 hours ago, Dusty said:

It is very difficult to know who has the rights to an OC and what the 'drama' behind a drive by accusation might be.

 

Recently we had about three apps in a row that took a movie/ TV/ Music video character and basically cut and pasted the personality, looks and history from the original with the same PB and only changed the name. We are not a fandom and while I totally get being inspired by a character we love to watch or read about, the site is original. Even the canons are not based on anything. So we don't actually accept real historical characters or established ones from someone else's creativity.

 

Having said that, most ideas have been inspired from somewhere, but changed up enough to be a whole different character/ place/ thing.

 

Where do you guys draw the line between 'inspiration' and 'plagiarism'?

 

 

In this case, I feel that creating "fan" characters from existing fictional worlds is a little bit different from outright plagiarism.  In the case of fan characters, these are usually obvious copies of existing fictional people which we can point to and say, "This character came from ___ book/movie/series, and as we are not a fansite, we do not permit it."  

 

On the other hand, if you have the exact same, word-for-word app of a supposedly original character being posted on different sites, it's much harder to claim it's been stolen.

 

For the above problem I was having, the person that did the drive-by who was claiming theft referenced a site which did not have a copyright date, or even a creation date/posted on date or other timestamp to indicate when the character was created, nor did it name the original author.  That made it impossible for us to say, "Billy created this character on [date] 2011, and yours didn't show up until [date] 2013. Therefore, we rule in favor of the drive-by accuser."  lol

 

To answer your question: inspiration shouldn't use the same Face Claim/Play By, same likes and dislikes, etc.  It should largely be a stand-alone character with perhaps some similarities with its inspirational character.  A good example would be: Someone inspired by Hermione Granger might create a booksmart witch OC, but the OC ought to have her own unique personality traits, physique, appearance, etc. and the OOC Player should not use Emma Watson as their Play By (even if it's been 'shopped).

 

I hope I make sense there. xD