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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/3928
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

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 names are copyrighted and cannot be copied. I am also fully aware that the representation of the idea (the words themselves, in _substantial_ amounts) are copyrighted.

But what I'm curious about is the play, the plot points, the storyline, in other words, the idea behind which the words convey.

Let's assume I hold the copyrights of the Harry Potter books.

1. If someone took all the pages of a Harry Potter book and rewrote each of them **in his own words** (when I say _in his own words_, I mean no simple task of rewriting. Paragraphs are removed, changed, added, dialogues changed, added, removed, even the chapters are different, the entire expression is different beyond recognition), plus he had renamed all the characters (e.g. Harry Potter to Gary Potter and so on). Although the entire expression of the idea is beyond different, **the entire idea is identical**. could I charge him for infringement by the copyright law? Could he publish his _plagiarised_ work and claim copyrights for it?

2. I see that the Harry Potter movies do not use words copyrighted by the Harry Potter book (spoken words, or written words which are shown on screen). Does it mean that if the movie were to rename all its characters (while having _exactly_ the same plot), it is fully original by the copyright law, and the publishers (or movie makers etc) do not have to pay a single cent to me (the copyright holder of the Harry Potter books)?

Now let's take another example, this time on the web.

1. If someone rewrote every single post in my blog **in his own words** and publish it, could I charge him for infringement by the copyright law? Could he publish his _plagiarised_ work and claim copyrights for it?

2. If someone rewrote all the content of my website (keep in mind that I'm not talking about programming code/design of the webpage) **in his own words** and publish it, could I charge him for infringement by the copyright law? Could he publish his _plagiarised_ work and claim copyrights for it?

Original score: 11