From My Mind to....

To Usurp Or Not To Usurp

DAY 5:  Even though there's no legal/copyright protection for ideas themselves, do you think it's morally acceptable to take another writer's idea and write your own version of it without permission or giving them credit? Would you find it more or less acceptable if that person weren't a writer or artist themselves? Why?

For the sake of argument and this discussion, let's define an idea to be a fairly fleshed out plot and not just a prompt. 

It has always amazed me how different folks write different stories from the same prompt, which, in turn, tends to lend credence to my thought that no one can write a story exactly as you can.  Obviously, one's experiences, background, schooling and what-have-you all combine to make you a unique individual and writer.  Add this to that fact that ideas are continually being used and reused by different folks, and one might be able to state that an idea is only unique to each unique person.  Thus, someone else cannot steal your idea.

However, an idea that is carefully crafted with characters and plot would be a different story.  A fleshed out plot with heading in a certain direction would be unethically usurped by another writer.  That is something I would never knowingly do even if giving appropriate credit to that person.

If that person weren't a writer or artist, and I found myself quite taken with that idea, I would attempt to get permission from them.  (And though it's not fashionable these days, I could consider a handshake good enough for approval.  Frankly I think the world would be much better off if a person's word meant what it used to.)  Without permission, I wouldn't proceed.

Enough of the soap box.