: Re: Are there any restrictions about the use of non-copyrighted characters or plots? I have finished my first novel and shared it online with beta readers and those helping me write query letters.

@Kaufman555

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You would need to show that your story is too similar to the offender to be reasonably unlikely that you happened to come up with similar names and plot elements. Again, there was the question posed of how close is his plot to yours... is there ideas that you did not have? If so, how much is a good guestimate to your own.

More importantly, how much of the commonalities could be seen from the Wattpad posts you made? If it's like your post but I never posted that, highly unlikely he stole it from you. The names of characters may have been taken, but that's not worth a hill of beans to proving copyright infringement.

Finally, you also need to prove that this book was written by someone who has a Wattpad account or access during the time you posted the story details. As its central to your accusation that he saw your work and duplicated it for his own profit, you have to prove this accusation.

Copyright does not mean you have to request it, just show you thought of it, as opposed to him. So just because you showed your ideas to others on the internet doesn't mean you can't claim them as your own ideas.

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