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Q&A Original writing is lost when using other people's ideas?

The only works that are truly original are by people who've never had any contact with other people. Every work has inspiration from other works, or ideas that are present in other places. Many exc...

posted 9y ago by Mr. Shiny and New 安宇‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T04:33:42Z (about 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/18703
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Mr. Shiny and New 安宇‭ · 2019-12-08T04:33:42Z (about 5 years ago)
The only works that are truly original are by people who've never had any contact with other people. Every work has inspiration from other works, or ideas that are present in other places. Many excellent works don't even have novel plots.

As for legal repercussions, "ideas" are not protected by law. Only the expression of the idea is protected by copyright. "Inventions" that do useful things can be patented, but unless they ARE patented, they are not protected either. So you're probably safe, legally, if you are writing your own work. IANAL.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2015-08-18T20:16:52Z (over 9 years ago)
Original score: 6