Question!!!

Drako11 · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **Drako11** on Sun Mar 09, 2008 9:52 am

Hey guys!

I was wondering yesterday, what keeps like writing companies or individuals from coming on here and stealing our RPs for story ideas and such?

Keeley · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **Keeley** on Sun Mar 09, 2008 9:53 am

thats a good question lol

Akishra · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **Akishra** on Sun Mar 09, 2008 10:18 am

For one thing, there's copy right laws. Even if it's just a roleplay, it's the creator's idea. Technically, unless I tell someone an idea I have for a book is okay for them to write, they can't. So most authors, out of respect, won't steal the sort of ideas on here. Secondly, the ideas here are pretty vague. "Let's have a teenager running away from an abusive parent." But a lot of stories deal with that sort of thing. "Let's have a teenager discovering he/she has magic powers and going on a quest." Again, a lot of stories like that, so it doesn't make much of a difference. Thirdly, some of the ideas here would be hard to make a book out of. One roleplay on here I wanted to join but which died involved all our charecters turning into children. But that would be a really hard plot to do. Another would be the roleplays where a plot isn't defined at the beginning, like My Conscience is an Animal.

That's using my knowledge, at least. Hope that helps.

Yami-Dokuro · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **Yami-Dokuro** on Sun Mar 09, 2008 3:03 pm

(Hey that's my RP you're talking about, sorry it never got started, nobody joined)

But yes, everything here is copyright the creator and can only be hosted here, so if you find it anywhere else guess what, SUE 'EM

Fractal Resonance · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **Fractal Resonance** on Sun Mar 09, 2008 5:27 pm

Most ideas roleplays are based on are too vague to genuinely be protected by international copyright laws. They're just too vague to be ultimately unique. This isn't to say they don't lend themselves to good roleplay, but it's true what Akishra says about most of the premises of roleplays.

This, of course, coming from my previous experience roleplaying elsewhere and browsing these forums.

Village Alchemist · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **Village Alchemist** on Sun Mar 09, 2008 11:06 pm

Because all our ideas suck anyway? Yes, even mine.

Ghost_x1000 · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **Ghost_x1000** on Mon Mar 10, 2008 9:22 am

I think the main reason is that we, the players, could ruin the writer's career, if they were found out to have stolen ideas from a site like this one.

Think about it logically. Sometimes we do have pretty good ideas. (Sorry to those of you who don't think so, put it's true.) Ideas that a decent writer could make into a great book. So why don't the writers use them? It's the "time problem."

One of the worst things an author could do is to be caught writing something that someone else has already written. No one wants to pay a person for work they didn't do. Also, the publishing companies don't want to get sued for something they didn't do. So authors that are known to copy don't last long.

When, and if, an author writes a best selling book based upon a roleplay, then they have a major problem. Any of the roleplayers can just point to the roleplay and say: "This is our idea." The author would then have to claim that they copied him/her and are just trying to get him/her in trouble, in order to maintain appearances. Then the people point out that the date the roleplay was started was before the book was released, or even sent to the publisher, and poof. The author, if he/she wants to have any chance of remaining in the field, is entered in a race of time, to sue the roleplayers (for spying on him/her and stealing his ideas) before they sue him/her for stealing their ideas and then selling them under his/her name. Neither case, in all likelihood, would succeed, but the roleplayers' case are a bit easier to make, and would most likely win. Either way, however, it would be bad publicity to the author, not to mention a lot of time and money. Rather than go through all that, they would probably decide to come out and admit that they copied, and then there goes their career.

As you can see, this is just one of the MANY problems that are associated with copying things, even from online, and so it would be too much trouble, which is why the authors decide to stay away. Now if you specifically give them permission, then that's a whole different matter, but I don't have time to discuss that here.

Remæus · **Tips:** 0.00 INK by **Remæus** on Mon Mar 10, 2008 10:17 am

In practice, it simply doesn't and likely won't happen.

However, in the event of such a happenstance, each post is preserved with an author and a timestamp that can be verified in court, and the correct copyright can be applied.

Unlike our current (broken) legal system dictates, copyright refers to who has attribution rights - and we honor this system. All posts are copyright to the poster unless otherwise noted, and we will defend said copyrights in any situation where content has been stolen and copyright broken.

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