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Stealing Storylines

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So I'm on one of my favorite photostory sites and I see that she has a very similar storyline. Orphaned girl, raised in the Alps who later finds out she's a princess when she discovers her father is a king of some tiny made up country. Seriously? The friggin' Alps even?

In her defense, I never mentioned that my doll's father is royalty, (WAS an upcoming photostory shocker) perhaps glazed over the Alps, if I mentioned it at all. And really, take out the Alps and you've Princess Diaries. As my husband loves to say "The Universe has run out of original ideas."

In this case, I know she didn't STEAL material, but I still have to rework my upcoming story. But what if someone DID steal your material? What could you do? As far as I know, we don't copyright our stories and we don't really make money off of them. It would just be principle.

So if it happened to you, what would you do?

Oh it's okay, Dani, we'll figure out why your father's identity has been a secret all these years...
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  1. AmithiJune 24, 2011 at 10:45 AM

    Honestly? I don't know. I gave up my Roman project, because one person I told about it picked up the general idea, but it was not like he was stealing. It was more complicated and involved among other, more personal reasons my belief that the 1:6 community is too small for 2 Roman storylines.
    But I know of someone who was a few years ago accused by a third party (still not known to me) to have stolen one of my ideas. I knew of the story, I didn't feel she was stealing and the whole thing sparked a group project similar to the one we're planning right now. It was fun.

    If folks feel the need to steal (being inspired is a whole different shoe) other peoples' ideas, they're more or less digging their own grave. I'd hope that the parts of the community would be clever enough to see that.But I think I would rant if I had proof (or at least circumstantial evidence). That at least would hopefully make me feel better. Because I doubt anybody wo has something precious stolen from them could shrug it off. And a story you thought about long and hard, invested in and care about is something precious.

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  2. corsetkitten (aka Erica)June 27, 2011 at 4:32 PM

    I agree with Ursula about this. If it was clearly a stolen concept & details (and story) then I'd make a fuss about it.

    On the other hand, your husband is right. There is only a limited number of ideas & ways to combine them. However, what makes the difference is how _you_ and _they_ interpret them. What and how you spin your take on an idea (and how you execute it) is what makes it "yours".

    There are lots of photostories (and regular written) stories that have the same type of characters/ personalities/ settings/ plot ideas. It's the actual stamp of how the person does it that makes it unique.

    If you want your "hidden princess in the alps" story--DO IT. Make it your own, and make it the best that you can. It won't be a copy. It WILL BE AN ORIGINAL.

    Get my drift chickie?

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  3. DaniJune 28, 2011 at 11:06 AM

    Thanks Erica.

    You know I just started getting into True Blood and the themes it has in common with Twilight are many. But Twilight is so badly written and cheesy that it certainly stands alone!

    Maybe you'll be a princess after all Dani.

    ReplyDelete
  4. corsetkitten (aka Erica)June 28, 2011 at 1:03 PM

    Please, just say no to Twighlight!
    (I picked up a copy at the thrift shop for 50pence, but man, I had to slog through it. I get the whole tween attraction to it (who else could ignore such terrible writing?) but I really don't understand why it became such a phenomenon.

    You better do better than that! Put some kind of interesting spin on Dani's princess-dom! Maybe if it gets discovered she will fall victim to a horrible curse....MWhahah (oh, sorry. melodrama mode was kicking in!)
    ;)

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  5. DaniJune 29, 2011 at 4:46 PM

    hahaha. I read all four Twilights. And I will never get that 1/2 hour back. I have a compulsion with books. I have to read an entire series, even if it's bad. And MAN, was it ever. But yeah the movies are even worse.

    Funny you should mention the curse thing, I'm working on a fairytale. Which at my pace, will be done when I'm 80.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Raven K.July 1, 2011 at 10:49 AM

    Keep at it! Even slow is better than not at all! :)
    And fairytales are gooooooooood! I'm working on gathering stuff and making stuff for an eventual costume drama/fantasy storyline. I can totally understand the slow = 80+ years.

    ReplyDelete
  7. corsetkitten (aka Erica)July 1, 2011 at 10:51 AM

    D'oh. Sorry about that Dani! I was trying to update Raven's blog and forgot to sign out before commenting on yours! >_<

    ReplyDelete

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