Do you guys think that there is a fine line between inspiration and plagiarism?
For example you got inspired to write a story based on movie you watched but you added some lines, word for word from the movie. Would you pass it off as inspiration or is it full on plagiarism and I know plagiarism is against the episode guidelines, but some will say that “the story is inspired by ———— movie” and have some lines from the said movie that was written word for word but everything else is different from the original. Would you report the story or would you talk to the author first?
From my understanding, word for word would be plagiarism unless it’s just one, two or three words because it’s too short to fall under copyright and I’m pretty sure the Episode Guidelines state that we can’t have excerpts from film or television, but we can have at most 5 lines of song lyrics. I personally don’t see any issue with one or two lines that are word for word if it’s a reference and/or joke.
As for reporting… I would not report unless the plagiarism was heavy and consistent (as well as so obvious and recognizable) but to be honest I don’t watch many movies so I probably wouldn’t notice anyway.
And yes, to me, the line between inspiration and plagiarism has the potential to be very fine, but varies for different authors. Some have an incredible talent to steer completely away from plagiarism and work solely on inspiration whereas others may have more of a low-self esteem/confidence in their own creativity resulting in a partial or complete reliance on plagiarism (not saying every author is either one, there are many variables).
I agree fully with schittwriter
I would add that because it can vary from person to person I would definitely go over everything to make sure I’m fully with the guide lines.
And I would look into the copyright laws as if u do certain things it isn’t technically copy right but people will still complain as it’s so similar.
The only thing I remember about the copy right laws is that there is a specific amount of names and lines that have to be changed
