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Originally Posted by DuckieTigger
I am not entirely sure I can believe that it is possible to write fiction without building on someone else's work. It is rather on point, and not beside the point. It is possible that even back then they recognized that fiction relies on research done of previous works. Since there was plenty of non fiction around, borrowing from fiction could be avoided. And yes, copyright has to be for all books equally. What entity would decide if something is fact or fiction?
Greek mythology again. You couldn't create your own version of greek mythology today. Way back then the people actually believed that the stories passed on were true. It took until Plato that someone showed that there were fiction elements in it. Today it is rather difficult to create your own mythology and make it believable. A vain attempt is the modern flat Earth movement (  ). |
It's beside the point because the non fiction works are a clearer example. It's very hard to argue that one can write history or philosophical works without depending on other works. Sure, you can also make the argument with fiction as well, though it's not as clear cut. Leebase's basic argument is that one can write about wizard schools without referencing Rowling's work, or that one can draw a mouse that doesn't look like Mickey (trademark rather than copyright of course). I'm simply going past that argument, to an area when it's more straightforward.
Rather obviously, I believe that artists tend to borrow from each other all the time - in fiction, in music, in movies and so on. The ability to do so without violating copyright depends on if you define copyright strictly or expansively. I've already shown that some authors make claims that are very expansive, so expansive that they claim that anything that is sort of like something in one of their stories is a copyright violation.
I don't know that one can't create one's own mythology. I would argue that is exactly what Lucas did with Star Wars, the force and the Jedi. I would not be surprised if quite a few people believe that the force is real. Tolkien did a pretty good job at creating his own mythology as well. Frodo Lives! While the idea of vampires and werewolves can be traced back quite a ways, the modern spin on vampires, werewolves, zombies and urban fantasy could be said to be a modern mythology.