Hi, Quinn.

--- Quinn Tyler Jackson  wrote:
> How do people here feel about plagiarizing from life? 

Doan' think you can do that.

> I've asked this
> before ... if something happens to me, I own the interpretation of
> what happened, right? 

Only until my trademark/copyright/registration of The Universe comes
through.

> Let's make it more complicated: if two writers A
> and B both know some person C, and both fictionalize the life of C
> based upon what they knew of that person during the hippie era --
> and
> both novels come out sounding much the same, because both A and B
> were
> there for many of the same events ... who owns the character D --
> the composite of the interpretations of C as seen by A and B?

Each owns his own representation of character D.  Just as I can take
a work like Harry Potter and rewrite it from start to finish while
following the same plot and have an original work (at least so far),
so both books can be original.  What's key to the discussion on
plagiarism is that a pre-existing work is consciously copied word for
word.  And as for the Potter/Grotter ruling, I'll refer the crowd to
the Gone With The Wind / The Wind Done Gone case in the U.S. last
year.  It appears that the Potter case is very similar, but the
principals in this one settled after a lower court ruling was
overturned on appeal.  In favor of the derivative work.  

> If Mary and I had an affair when I was 18, and she was 28 -- am I
> allowed to fictionalize it and almost tell it word for word -- or
> can
> she sue me? What amounts to reasonable care in hiding her identity,
> if
> only she and I knew of it and the only way anyone could know is if
> one of us revealed her true identity? 

 It's a matter of discretion as near as I can tell.  Don't
forget that any story about someone who was a part of your life is
also a story about you in part.  We certainly cannot be forbidden to
use autobiographical elements much less to write autobiography.

> Who holds the rights on interpreting the people I've known?

Think of it in law enforcement terms.  Anything you see that takes
place in a public place is public domain.  If you want to delve into
more private aspects of a person's life then you need a warrant or
any evidence you turn up will be thrown out of court as fruits of a
poison tree.  It all depends, I suppose, on how ethical the
individual writer is.

=====
Did you ever hear anyone say, "That work had better be 
banned because I might read it and it might be very 
damaging to me"? --Joseph Henry Jackson

>From the Lair of Fang-Face DreamWeaver
and The Encyclopedia Michael Nellis
http://www.angelfire.com/scifi/dreamweaver/index.html

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