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Jul. 5th, 2013 07:16 pm1. Sweaty day, but am inside with the A/C, and in a way grateful that it is a sweaty day outside, since I can't go out and play in it anyhow. Should be mobile tomorrow with the boot.
2. Finished watching last week's Falling Skies, which has some good character moments. Granted the series follows fairly closely long-established survivor movie/sci-fi tropes. But it is compelling. This week had the time-worn buddy pairing of the hero and the anti-hero in the forest. The heroic and upstanding Professor Tom Mason and the ex-con John Pope who at times feel like mirrors to each other. Mason does not come from the Norman Lear or Rockwell family Pope assumes, and bad-boy Pope is not quite all he appears either. Their interactions are at times amongst the best in the series. Meanwhile Robert Scean Leonard's tortured scientist continues to intrigue - he certainly has more to do than either Terry O'Quinn or Matt Frewer did. Every time I see Matt Frewer...I think Max Headdroom.
But unlike a lot of series, this one gives its guest stars plenty to do and chewy characters.
3. Also finished reading The Devil to Pay by Liz Carlyle which had a bit more plot than the last four books I've read. (No, not "Dance With Dragons" - haven't finished reading it yet, so it does not count. Plus it has more plot than all of the books I've read combined.) This one is about a widow who robs rich scoundrels and gives their purses to disenfranchised women, then one night robs the wrong man and falls in love. A review on Amazon whined about that story baring to close a resemblance to Connie Brockaway's All Through the Night...which apparently is also about a widow who robs rich scoundrels and gives their purses to the poor (disenfranchised soliders and widows and orphans apparently) and one night falls into the trap of a spy. Which in turn is similar to a Laurie McBain novel entitled Moonstruck Madness about a female highwayman who robs the rich to give to the poor and one night tries to rob the wrong guy. I was tempted to point out to the Amazon reviewer who claimed this was plagiarism that "tropes" can't be stolen or infringed on. Plots can, but they have to intricate detailed and innovative plots - not the typical plots one sees in romance novels and mysteries.
I've always been amused by the internet's views on plagiarism. Clearly people have no clue what it amounts to? Reminds me of a screen-writing course I took once, one of the guys in it was terrified someone would steal his great idea. (It was a man and woman get together, the man discovers she's actually a he, and been pretending all this time..much chaos ensues. Poor dear didn't seem to know that was plot to The Crying Game. What made the movie innovative and interesting were the characters involved and how the writer chose to examine that plot.) People? No matter how crazy your plot trope may seem to you, trust me, odds are it has been done before, most likely several times. Worry about making your characters and their lives interesting and different.
Example? A former high school cheerleader slays vampires. Her friends help her. She has an older mentor.
Nothing copyrightable about that. Lots of people have done variations. Albeit not popular ones.
What made Buffy the Vampire Slayer innovative was how the writer built the world, what he focused on, the characters reactions, how they interacted, and how he told the story.
The "What" really isn't that big a deal. The how on the other hand...
Another example: A widow dresses up in various disquises at night and steals from the undeserving rich to give to the poor and disenfranchised, she runs across a man who becomes obsessed with her.
Nothing innovative about that.
However...an English solider's widow, and noblewoman is kept from her estate by trustees. Unable to use her money to help others, she becomes a lady's companion and governess by day and decides to steal it from the nasty trustees by night. A spy and intelligence officer who has a bone to pick with the nobility, tracks her down and one night she falls into his trap - but manages to escape by nefarious means. The Col, who is military intelligence obsessively tracks her down, and both are obsessed with each other. Meanwhile he falls for the widow.
vs.
A French swashbuckler and sailor's widow moves back to her native England, the daughter of a courtesane, and sets up shop as an ettiquete teacher, while by night she disquises herself as the Black Angel - stealing from scoundrels to right their wrongs against the women they've abused. One night she mistakingly decides to rob a rake, they have a fiery encounter. Later he meets her as the widow and falls for both women, not knowing they are one and the same. She has a brother who is a dealer in antiquities.
Very different plots. Same initial idea told in two different ways. Plagirism is when an idea is told in the same way. If it was plagirism to use the same idea and tell it in many different ways - we would not have stories. Or we would but it would be like maybe a hundred. The whole point of stories is the to see various ways of tackling the same problem.
If I get lost in the woods, what do I do?
It's only plagiarism if the second writer told the idea in the same way. Tropes can't be copyrighted. In Buffy - the characters: Buffy, Spike, Angel, Xander could be, but their names can't be, nor can the idea of a high-school cheerleader slaying vampires with her friends. You could write a story about Sarah the Vampire Slayer, who happens to be a cheerleader and slays with her sidekicks Harry (a dog), Tootie (a shape-shifter) and Darla, her best bud and be okay. Even have her fall for a vampire - say Lily. Just as long as the vampire doesn't bare a close resemblance to Angel or Spike.
Copyright Law is not for amateurs. It's complicated. I remember when I took a course in it - we spent an entire week defining what "original idea" meant and what was copyrightable.
Not everything is.
Another example: A lot of people think fanfic is plagiarism. Eh no. That's not why it's considered infringement. Has zip to do with plagiarism. It has to do with someone using characters that have been copyrighted and a world that has without permission. Sort of like borrowing your neighbor's special and award winning blend of flower seed, without their permission, and creating a new garden in your yard with it. Your garden is different then theirs, but you've planted Buffy, Spike, and Angel flowers, while they had not granted permission for anyone to plant Buffy, Spike, and Angel flowers but them. You're giving them credit, they just didn't want anyone planting those flowers but them. Infringement would come into play if you won a contest and got award money on your planting of Buffy, Spike and Angel flowers without giving them a piece of the action. Now, plagiarism would be if you took the Buffy, Spike, and Angel flowers (called them Buffy, Spike and Angel flowers) and won a contest with them but claimed you created those flowers and did not give the original owner credit at all. Not it would not be plagiarism or infringement if you won and the award was not based on the Buffy, Spike, Angel flowers and you did not call them Buffy, Spike and Angel flowers and they were used very differently.
Now, I know this is confusing, why the heck do you think I got out of copyright law? Ran screaming from it actually.
2. Finished watching last week's Falling Skies, which has some good character moments. Granted the series follows fairly closely long-established survivor movie/sci-fi tropes. But it is compelling. This week had the time-worn buddy pairing of the hero and the anti-hero in the forest. The heroic and upstanding Professor Tom Mason and the ex-con John Pope who at times feel like mirrors to each other. Mason does not come from the Norman Lear or Rockwell family Pope assumes, and bad-boy Pope is not quite all he appears either. Their interactions are at times amongst the best in the series. Meanwhile Robert Scean Leonard's tortured scientist continues to intrigue - he certainly has more to do than either Terry O'Quinn or Matt Frewer did. Every time I see Matt Frewer...I think Max Headdroom.
But unlike a lot of series, this one gives its guest stars plenty to do and chewy characters.
3. Also finished reading The Devil to Pay by Liz Carlyle which had a bit more plot than the last four books I've read. (No, not "Dance With Dragons" - haven't finished reading it yet, so it does not count. Plus it has more plot than all of the books I've read combined.) This one is about a widow who robs rich scoundrels and gives their purses to disenfranchised women, then one night robs the wrong man and falls in love. A review on Amazon whined about that story baring to close a resemblance to Connie Brockaway's All Through the Night...which apparently is also about a widow who robs rich scoundrels and gives their purses to the poor (disenfranchised soliders and widows and orphans apparently) and one night falls into the trap of a spy. Which in turn is similar to a Laurie McBain novel entitled Moonstruck Madness about a female highwayman who robs the rich to give to the poor and one night tries to rob the wrong guy. I was tempted to point out to the Amazon reviewer who claimed this was plagiarism that "tropes" can't be stolen or infringed on. Plots can, but they have to intricate detailed and innovative plots - not the typical plots one sees in romance novels and mysteries.
I've always been amused by the internet's views on plagiarism. Clearly people have no clue what it amounts to? Reminds me of a screen-writing course I took once, one of the guys in it was terrified someone would steal his great idea. (It was a man and woman get together, the man discovers she's actually a he, and been pretending all this time..much chaos ensues. Poor dear didn't seem to know that was plot to The Crying Game. What made the movie innovative and interesting were the characters involved and how the writer chose to examine that plot.) People? No matter how crazy your plot trope may seem to you, trust me, odds are it has been done before, most likely several times. Worry about making your characters and their lives interesting and different.
Example? A former high school cheerleader slays vampires. Her friends help her. She has an older mentor.
Nothing copyrightable about that. Lots of people have done variations. Albeit not popular ones.
What made Buffy the Vampire Slayer innovative was how the writer built the world, what he focused on, the characters reactions, how they interacted, and how he told the story.
The "What" really isn't that big a deal. The how on the other hand...
Another example: A widow dresses up in various disquises at night and steals from the undeserving rich to give to the poor and disenfranchised, she runs across a man who becomes obsessed with her.
Nothing innovative about that.
However...an English solider's widow, and noblewoman is kept from her estate by trustees. Unable to use her money to help others, she becomes a lady's companion and governess by day and decides to steal it from the nasty trustees by night. A spy and intelligence officer who has a bone to pick with the nobility, tracks her down and one night she falls into his trap - but manages to escape by nefarious means. The Col, who is military intelligence obsessively tracks her down, and both are obsessed with each other. Meanwhile he falls for the widow.
vs.
A French swashbuckler and sailor's widow moves back to her native England, the daughter of a courtesane, and sets up shop as an ettiquete teacher, while by night she disquises herself as the Black Angel - stealing from scoundrels to right their wrongs against the women they've abused. One night she mistakingly decides to rob a rake, they have a fiery encounter. Later he meets her as the widow and falls for both women, not knowing they are one and the same. She has a brother who is a dealer in antiquities.
Very different plots. Same initial idea told in two different ways. Plagirism is when an idea is told in the same way. If it was plagirism to use the same idea and tell it in many different ways - we would not have stories. Or we would but it would be like maybe a hundred. The whole point of stories is the to see various ways of tackling the same problem.
If I get lost in the woods, what do I do?
It's only plagiarism if the second writer told the idea in the same way. Tropes can't be copyrighted. In Buffy - the characters: Buffy, Spike, Angel, Xander could be, but their names can't be, nor can the idea of a high-school cheerleader slaying vampires with her friends. You could write a story about Sarah the Vampire Slayer, who happens to be a cheerleader and slays with her sidekicks Harry (a dog), Tootie (a shape-shifter) and Darla, her best bud and be okay. Even have her fall for a vampire - say Lily. Just as long as the vampire doesn't bare a close resemblance to Angel or Spike.
Copyright Law is not for amateurs. It's complicated. I remember when I took a course in it - we spent an entire week defining what "original idea" meant and what was copyrightable.
Not everything is.
Another example: A lot of people think fanfic is plagiarism. Eh no. That's not why it's considered infringement. Has zip to do with plagiarism. It has to do with someone using characters that have been copyrighted and a world that has without permission. Sort of like borrowing your neighbor's special and award winning blend of flower seed, without their permission, and creating a new garden in your yard with it. Your garden is different then theirs, but you've planted Buffy, Spike, and Angel flowers, while they had not granted permission for anyone to plant Buffy, Spike, and Angel flowers but them. You're giving them credit, they just didn't want anyone planting those flowers but them. Infringement would come into play if you won a contest and got award money on your planting of Buffy, Spike and Angel flowers without giving them a piece of the action. Now, plagiarism would be if you took the Buffy, Spike, and Angel flowers (called them Buffy, Spike and Angel flowers) and won a contest with them but claimed you created those flowers and did not give the original owner credit at all. Not it would not be plagiarism or infringement if you won and the award was not based on the Buffy, Spike, Angel flowers and you did not call them Buffy, Spike and Angel flowers and they were used very differently.
Now, I know this is confusing, why the heck do you think I got out of copyright law? Ran screaming from it actually.