Fanfiction on Episode

But why do they need to do it on Episode when it’s against the guidelines? They can practice somewhere else. Why would you intentionally hurt yourself by coding so many chapters of fanfic, trying to go against the rules, with no good outcome in the end?

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You practice starting an entire story from scratch by starting an entire story from scratch, not by relying on other elements or people to write your story for you. I agree with you that it’s daunting, but… flowers can’t grow without a little rain. The end result will be worth it.

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exactlyyyy lol

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Hypothetically… Say a person LOVES Kung-Fu-Panda

So when they go to think of their story, they use ideas from Kung Fu Panda and use them to create their own story ideas- until it is entirely their own

Ex: They LOVE that the Panda was the one that had unexpectedly became the Kung Fu Master, so in their story, they make an unlikely person becoming something powerful, and all the while, society looks down on them for being there, and they really have to earn their place.

Would that be considered copyright?

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“There is still the legal side of copyrighted content that fans always need to keep in mind when creating new fan fictions”

Here is a quote from your source - your one source. The article itself said that there is a legal side you need to pay attention to. For example; if the website does not allow copyright.

And this one doesn’t. Maybe in some cases it is fair use, but not in this one.

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I am a little surprised that this issue in particular had to be clarified, as it was made pretty explicit, but hey, the more information we get in order to stick to the law the guidelines, the better.

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From what I’m hearing, my take is that it would be inspired since it sounds like you’re just using a trope and not a plot line - unless you were copying exact scenarios from the story itself. If it’s heavily inspired, I would take extra care to ensure I wasn’t dipping too closely to mimicking the original story on accident; use the sources you’re inspired by as a jumping off point and make it your own, you know?

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Not as long as it isn’t instantly recognizable as coming from Kung-Fu Panda (great animated movie, by the by).

The trope of an unlikely person or character becoming something unexpected is not copyrightable. The story would have to follow the plot and have a main character that was obviously KFP.

It is really a hard thing to give hard and fast rules about. For example… you can have a story about a Werewolf, Human, Vampire love triangle that we suspect is inspired by Twilight? But as long as that trope is all that is similar you are good. If there is more in there and it follows the plot too closely…then it gets sketchy.

My best advice if you are inspired is to make it as different as you possibly can. Keep the trope, invent the rest.

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Kind of. You have to be careful not to incorporate settings and unique elements that are instantly recognizable. So in the KFP example… probably okay. In the story set in Hogwarts…probably not.

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Thanks for the clarification!

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So, once we publish a story on Episode, it belongs to Episode and cannot be published elsewhere, because that would be an infringement of property rights?

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Hi loveyourself,

Thank you for your question.

The author owns the rights to their story, so the plot & the characters, ect. (Except for the app’s assets, Episode keeps those!) So authors can republish outside of Episode, but third parties cannot republish outside of Episode without the author’s consent.

I hope this helps!

Cheers,
Tyler

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Alright. Thank you!

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That is so tricky, wow… I have a question! Let’s say, there’s a story about ordinary high-school friends Serena Lomez, Riana Petit and Denny Tovato (I hope you see what I’m doing here, lol) and the story just describes their everyday struggles, funny situations, i.e. nothing alludes to “celebrities” life. Is it still a fanfiction? Is the reference still too direct and shouldn’t be presented at all?

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Hi Kira_Cooper,

Thank you for your question.

I understand where you’re coming from, and how it might make for an interesting story. Unfortunately just minor changes the names of the celebrities would still be not permitted.

:slight_smile:

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Understood. Thank you for an answer:)

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You can still write fantasy? I know it’s a dumb question.

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Yes hanna_epi, you can write fantasy stories as long as they don’t contain other people’s characters or settings. :slight_smile:

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What if you got “inspired by” as in you didn’t use any bits from the actual plot or story (book, movie, whatever), but it was just an inspiration? Like how a song can be inspired by another person or an event in their life, or if you liked the idea of something in a movie/book, e.g the main character being rich and becoming poor (I don’t actually know any books/movies like that, but you get the idea), and they used that idea but the whole plot is completely different. Is that alright?

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I have a question - The story which I’m writing draws inspiration from the episode story ‘Cold-Hearted.’
Although the plot is very different, there are some concepts which are similar, i.e: the main character is dead, and she receives flashbacks of her former life.
However, beyond this the plots are very different, and have little else in common, as this story focusses more on the afterlife than it does on the mystery of how the character died.
Is this allowed or will I have to adapt the story?

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