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Young Writers Society


Question: How Does One Rewrite A Story Without Getting Sued?



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Sat Feb 05, 2011 4:48 am
EloquentDragon says...



How Do You Take A 100 Year old story and rewrite it, but minus the plagarism? (I am thinking of doing a now very popular story from 1902, but I want to know the dirt on it before I put any effort into writing.)
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Sun Feb 06, 2011 1:30 am
Lauren2010 says...



It really depends on the story. A lot of copyrights from very old stories have expired (or never existed, for very very old stories) and shouldn't cause you any problems. Just look at all the retellings of the Cinderella story out there, or of similar old tales. But really, it depends on the story. Do some research about copyrights related to the story you want to remake. If there aren't any, you should be good.
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Sun Feb 06, 2011 3:20 am
Rosendorn says...



Copyrights on stories expire after 50 years, if I remember. Only if the copyright is actively renewed does it remain active.

It also depends on the extent of the rewrite. If you twist it around a lot, then it might be fine.
A writer is a world trapped in a person— Victor Hugo

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Sun Feb 06, 2011 3:29 am
EloquentDragon says...



Yeah, I want to twist it around a LOT.
But this story has had several (okay, lots) of movie remakes over the last 50 years. Is it still uncopyrighted? Or did the film companies claim the copyright?
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Sun Feb 06, 2011 3:49 am
MeanMrMustard says...



EloquentDragon wrote:Yeah, I want to twist it around a LOT.
But this story has had several (okay, lots) of movie remakes over the last 50 years. Is it still uncopyrighted? Or did the film companies claim the copyright?


Research if anyone still holds a trademark (unlikely, those are reserved to things like Disney, Ford, etc.) or if any living descendants look after the rights (messy, but necessary); people may hold onto them simply to respect their ancestor and if anyone like yourself comes along. Now, the copyright/intellectual/creative rights field is really, really super complicated. So much that each case demands individual attention, but, I would argue finding out information I outlined. If there is no party to guard the rights, there is no suing to be done. That said, if someone applicable is still alive that could control the rights in some way, be prepared for something. It doesn't always mean you'll get sued, and that doesn't mean anything will happen, but contact may be made.

If you're serious, inform yourself. Sometimes people pull punches and they know less than you may, and in that case arm yourself to not be caught like a deer in headlights. If you're catching on, the rights to something will be viewed as only as valuable as the money it continues to bring in. The more successful it was then, has been, and is now the harder this will be, approaching impossibility without some kind of inside edge. Try though, you never know. Someone is being allowed to write a true "official" modern Sherlock Holmes, by the people who own the rights. So you never know.
  





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Tue Feb 08, 2011 5:13 pm
EloquentDragon says...



Well, Google is my friend. I searched and discovered that the story is over 50 years old (it was written between 1909 and 1923) and thus is in the public domain in the good ol' USA.
However, are there still legal issues regarding this? Or if I change the thing around enough, will I still have to jump through copyright hoops?
(Someone else has already written a book "based" on the original dime novel series, and considering the many, many movie adaptations, it would seem as though the copyright issues are small, if any.)
No more countin' dollars... we'll be countin' stars.

Enter, if you dare.
  








A non-writing writer is a monster courting insanity.
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