Posting stories online.

I have a concern much like Kizzi's, a few topics down. It being that I first began unleashing my novel ideas in the form of role-plays in various popular websites. For those who don't know, role-playing is when someone comes up with a story, other members of the site create characters for the given setting, and then they write in their character's point of view, interacting with one another until the story is finished, one post at a time. Now, I'm still new to the idea of actually publishing any of my novel ideas and I'm clueless about rights and the such, but I would like to know if I would have any problem publishing any story that I had already shared in the form of an role-play. In other words, let's say I had an idea for a story, I shared it with other people, we talked about, they and I created characters for it and, after a while, between all of us the story is completed. Then, months later I rewrote the entire story, using my own words, and alterling many aspects of the original story to my liking, would they still have claim over the new novel?

I do hope I make my question clear. Thanks in advance!

-Flaw

Role-plays really don't have a copyright, do they?

I think you'd be okay. And, you sounds as if you rewrote nearly every aspect of the story on your own, making it yours. So... no, I don't think you'd have any problem with it.

-:pirate3:

You'll have to be careful if you're using anything that someone else put into the story. That could potentially be a huge issue if you did publish the story as a book. It doesn't matter if it's your own words if you're using their characters or ideas, it's still a potential legal issue.

Well of course role-plays aren't copyrighted, you little smarty-pants. Gees, Pirates. =) Anyways, I was talking more along the lines of what Meep was saying, questioning how liable I was if I let someone else’s idea slip past me, and if it could possibly come back and bite me from behind. But I think I get it, I'll just have to be extra careful on ideas and characters that I can't quite remember are my own or not. I promise you I won’t be stealing anything purposely.

Thanks for the help guys, I appreciate it.

Make sure the others know what you're going to do with it, and acknowledge them, if the time comes that you actually publish it.

Better tell 'em first.