Fiction copyright, mythologies and interpretations of ancient texts?
So, I understand that ancient mythologies and their characters such as Zeus etc are part of the public domain. However, what happens to individual interpretations of ancient texts?
For example, a sacred tablet that has been translated from another language and interpreted in many different ways. Would these characters still be public domain and fair use? More importantly, would there be any copyright infringement issues on the plot itself if I were to write a book, screenplay etc?
Non-fiction writers have published and copyrighted books with their translations and interpretations of these texts (in recent years) and I'd like to avoid drama. Having said that, many books by various authors each discuss the exact same thing, so I don't see why I can't?
In short, if I were to write fiction with the same characters, same names, similar plot, but with my own twist, sub-plots, descriptions and in my own words would I have a problem? Could I have a bibliography at the end of a fiction book citing these established materials and would that help?
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if I were to write fiction with the same characters, same names,
Same as the mythology, or the same as recent authors? If it is an ancient text, or even a text out of copyright (like Shakespeare), then you can copy characters and names, you are free to take the characters from Hamlet and write an adventure with them as children, perhaps introducing new side-characters for playmates and villains, etc.
If another author already did that, you can copy the idea of Shakespeare's characters as children, but not the parts they invented.
Copyright doesn't cover general ideas, or plots. In the US it doesn't cover anything first published in 1923 or earlier.
Here is a detailed explanation about what is covered, and for how long, in Findlaw.
Currently the copyright term for individuals is life of the author plus 70 years. It is different for "works made for hire" (by employees or contractors, basically an exception for businesses, under the notion that there may be no specific author, or the business is not going to die), there it is 95 years from the date of first public display, or 120 years from the date of creation, whichever comes first.
You don't have to worry about copying ancient works more than 200 years old, but you do need to be careful about are translations that may still be in copyright, of ancient works.
I also suggest clicking on your "copyright" tag to see other answers about this.
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As others intimated you can do pretty much anything you want with ancient / mythological characters. However, what you cannot do is use a representation from a film. e.g. You can use Thor but you must not make him similar to Marvel's Thor as the studio will claim your character is based on their copyrighted character.
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/48723. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
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