: Re: Is the Concept of "Machine of Death" Copyrighted? I am a fan of the book "Machine of Death"; http://machineofdeath.net/pdf/MachineofDeath_FINAL.pdf PDF Page 452 of the above link details the copyright

@Annie587

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U.S. copyright law explicitly says that you do not have a copyright in an idea. There's a big international treaty about copyright so most other countries would be the same.

You only own a copyright to the exact words, pictures, or other "tangible expression" of an idea. If you're not copying someone else's exact words (or pictures or music or whatever), you're not violating their copyright.

Update

I should add, the NAME "Machine of Death" could be trademarked, if that's the actual name used in the stories you're stealing from ... I mean drawing inspiration from. You can avoid any problem there by just using a different name. I think that would be a good idea in any case to make your own work look more original.

If your intent is that you want to write stories that fit into someone else's universe, I'd heartily encourage you not to. It's one thing to say, "hey, that's a cool idea, I'd like to adapt that and use it in my own stories". It's quite another to take someone else's characters, settings, plot arcs, etc, and plagiarize wholesale. Make up your own universe.

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