mastone,
Your talking about amendments and changes to a theme, Harry is a Hero, as is Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Indiana Jones etc...
TBH the subject of copyright law is so vast it would be months to go over everything. I was a police office for 11 years and had to cover the basics of copyright law and it took 3 weeks (8 hours a day, 5 days a week).
The concept of a Hero cannot be protected or copyrighted its the same as trying to copyright your engagement or falling down the stairs. Its not tangable, therefore would not really fall under the bounds of copyright law. Ideas would only get a look in if it has been written down or in the case of inventions, have been patened.
But the idea to taking someones idea or image and amending it to suit your needs, can be considered plagarism and could be subject to copyright laws.
If you buy a DVD Movie and then show this at a public event. You have broken the law, copyright on that case is breaking the agreement you made when your purchased it and read the statement on not editing it, show publicly etc... Found at the beginning of every DVD purchase.
Whether you have purchased the DVD or not, does not give you the legal right to use its content, as you see fit, without the permission of the copyright owner. Even if it is not within the public domain. If you wanted to use someones work, write to the publisher/distributer or owner and ask. If its for personal use, they will probably not charge you, or will ask to be able to use your work in return. Its all swings and round abouts. But in reality 20thCentury Fox are not going to hunt you down cause you made chewies fur blue.
Plagarism, is simply taking someones work or idea and passing it off as our own.
Chris (formerly R@nSiD)
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Last edited by R@nSiD; 10-05-2007 at 07:17 AM.