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Q&A General copyright - How much is actually copyrighted?

I find myself seeking a lot of ideas for my alternate universes, novels, short stories, and so forth. Exactly what can be considered copyrighted, and what isn't? Let me give you some examples. S...

2 answers  ·  posted 9y ago by Ninjakreborn‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Question copyright
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T04:16:16Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/17350
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Ninjakreborn‭ · 2019-12-08T04:16:16Z (almost 5 years ago)
I find myself seeking a lot of ideas for my alternate universes, novels, short stories, and so forth.

Exactly what can be considered copyrighted, and what isn't?

Let me give you some examples.

Star Trek: I know the name "Star Trek" is copyrighted. I am guessing that things like "Enterprise" is as well, and perhaps other ship names. I am also guessing the names of the different races are also copywrighted? But what about things like... "Warp Drive", "Slipstream mode", planet names, technology names, and so forth?

Same with any other fiction. I know that from fantasy: Elves, Necromancer, Dwarves... all of these fantasy terms. They are all open copyright. I can use them in stories, novels, short stories, world creation and so forth.

Bottom line, is I am trying to find out a good way to tell what exactly is copyrighted, and what exactly isn't. What I can use freely, and what requires permission.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2015-05-19T19:23:42Z (over 9 years ago)
Original score: 4