: Re: On copyright laws and plots I was pondering a lot on the issue with copyrights on plots. Is having an identical plot infringing someone else's copyrighted work? I am fully aware that the character

@Cody1607638

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CAVEAT: I am not a lawyer.

At the level you're describing, yes, this is copyright infringement.

Basically, if it's easy to demonstrate that your work is "substantially similar" to another piece, to which you had access, then infringement can be proved. Working with similar themes, plot elements, and tropes generally doesn't constitute such extreme similarity, but if you're talking about rewriting a piece at a paragraph-by-paragraph level, merely re-wording without changing content or theme, then that's an easy case against you.

Note that there are plenty of retellings which don't constitute infringement - but they need to add or change something substantial. West Side Story 'wouldn't infringe on Romeo and Juliet (even if that illustrious work weren't long out of copyright) because it's a retelling in an entirely different era and setting, and these elements change the story. Barry Trotter and the Shameless Parody doesn't infringe on Harry Potter because it's a parody. Wicked doesn't infringe on Wizard of Oz because it retells the story from a vastly different POV, and is a riff on the Oz mythos. Also, "substantial similarity" can be vague and tough to prove, so even fairly blatant rip-offs can avoid infringement.

But a simple line-by-line rewriting - the same elements, characters and events in the same configuration - would be shot down pretty easily.

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