Quote:
Originally Posted by leebase
No one has made the case that with copyright, there'd be no shared story telling. We have plenty of evidence to the contrary. Every movie that came from a book. Every author that writes "Star Wars" books - legitimately.
We also have ample, overwhelming, evidence that folks can tell "the same story" using their own characters and plotlines. Every Cop Buddy movie, every "medical drama" tv show.
Someone else already demonstrated with a listing of all the cartoon mice character's that copyrighted MickeyMouse was no barrier toward.
You want to make a movie in the Avatar universe....go talk to James Cameron or his company and secure rights. If he doesn't agree or you don't want to pay the price....then create your OWN "humans riding in Alien Android hybrid machine" story.
Want to write a book in the Halo universe? Talk to microsoft and secure a license. They won't play ball or you don't want to pay the price? Then write your own "man rides inside large mechanical fighting machine" story....like the THOUSANDS that exist.
There is no limit on fiction. There is no societal good that comes from putting a term on copyright for fiction that wouldn't ALSO come from just taking things other people own and saying "this is now the public's".
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The fallacy of your argument is shown in two simple words - patent trolls. Before the district court of North Texas showed itself to be sympathetic to patent infringement cases, patent trolls weren't a thing. Now, it's a major industry and a major issue.
Eventually, some clever lawyer is going to convince a jury that yes, any man rides inside large mechanical fighting machine story is an infringement of the copyright on Halo and boom, instant copyright infringement industry. Harland Ellison got them to pay him off for the idea of someone goes back in time to stop something from happening simply because the threat of the lawsuit could have put the project on hold.