I'm also telling the story of an OC, and a story that takes place firmly outside of canon timelines and, frankly, almost outside of canon genre.
That kind of story seems to me to be where you can say, honestly, "inspired by"* -- and people get the notion that you're drawing on the same sources and/or themes of the existing story, but the "inspired by" works as a notation that you're going in a completely different direction with it. After all, one cannot copyright (nor defend from copyright violation) the premise of a story, only the cohesive entirety of it as a distinct work*. Premise and setting aren't necessarily cohesively distinct, in and of themselves.
* using that notation has changed my perspective on movies, now that I'm sensitive to the difference between "based on a true story" and "inspired by a true story" -- with the former denoting sticks-to-original and the latter denoting goes-off-on-wild-goose-path, or close enough. ** at least, that's my understanding, but I'm also using a lot fewer words than in any explanation I've been given, so I may be over-simplifying.
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Date: 9 Feb 2010 05:06 am (UTC)That kind of story seems to me to be where you can say, honestly, "inspired by"* -- and people get the notion that you're drawing on the same sources and/or themes of the existing story, but the "inspired by" works as a notation that you're going in a completely different direction with it. After all, one cannot copyright (nor defend from copyright violation) the premise of a story, only the cohesive entirety of it as a distinct work*. Premise and setting aren't necessarily cohesively distinct, in and of themselves.
* using that notation has changed my perspective on movies, now that I'm sensitive to the difference between "based on a true story" and "inspired by a true story" -- with the former denoting sticks-to-original and the latter denoting goes-off-on-wild-goose-path, or close enough.
** at least, that's my understanding, but I'm also using a lot fewer words than in any explanation I've been given, so I may be over-simplifying.