While I usually confine my fangirling to (relatively) normal subjects, I recently discovered something I get a great kick out of looking up: legalistic copyright issues. Okay, I'm only partially saying that for shocker value.
Recently, I've been thinking about my story planned for July Camp NaNoWriMo, and I'm thinking of reviving my last July's idea: a community that's basically one big rooftop garden, built in different levels, the plants and sod and wildflowers sprawling over the rooms in which people live. Last July, the idea was that of a girl who is approached by the fairies of the community (formerly living in secret from the humans of the community) to help them save their certain secret havens within the gardens. And this July, I'm thinking of using the worldbuilding and applying it to a spin-off of the classic story The Secret Garden (by Frances Hodgeson Burnett). All right, now I've said it, I've got to follow through! Writing shall ensue.
However, while fairy tale spin-offs are widely accepted as subjects for writers, how about spin-offs of non-fairy/folk-tale classics? Spin-offs of contemporary stories such as the Harry Potter series are certainly fanfiction, but where on the continuum is a classic story? I've read spin-offs of The Scarlet Pimpernel and The Island of Doctor Moreau, two great classics with great spin-offs: Across A Star-Swept Sea and The Madman's Daughter, respectively. However, would it be different with The Secret Garden? Each story has its own copyright.
Having realized that my big writing stumbling-block is overdeveloping worldbuilding and underdeveloping plot, I, like some of my best writer friends, am turning to fanfiction and spin-offs. Even if you tease out the plot into something different or add a whole new genre, characters, or world, the foundation is there for you to lean on.
Long story short, The Secret Garden is public domain. So is Alice in Wonderland, a story one of my writer friends is basing stories off of and that I looked up incidentally. It's wonderfully (no pun intended) easy to look up whether a story is public domain. However, said writer friend is also writing Peter Pan spin-offs. And that's a whole 'nother story, something that could make a novel plot all on its own.
J. M. Barrie wrote novels featuring Peter Pan. These were popular, so he wrote a play, too. When he died, he made a deal with the Great Ormon Street Hospital (GOSH, an ironic acronym) so that they (a children's hospital) could be supported perpetually by the royalties. But perpetual copyrights are nearly unheard of! The rights technically expired 50 years after Barrie's death, but the UK's prime minister created a bill so that Barrie's wishes of perpetual support for GOSH could continue. But then the EU standardized copyrights, so "perpetuity" changed to 70 more years (so the copyright ended in 2007). By today (2016), the novels and the play are public domain everywhere but the US and Spain. GOSH still has copyright on the play, but the novels are public domain in the US. By 2023, it will be public domain everywhere!
Public domain is an amazing thing I've never fully appreciated more. The fact that someone can take their idea and run with it, using a great author as a role model and a support, really is a wonderful thing. J. M. Barrie, too, was an amazing author whose philanthropy continues to be talked of today! (Right in that paragraph above, folks, for one thing.) His interesting copyright is a fun story on its own.
A more in-depth analysis of the Peter Pan copyright: https://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2015/10/21/peter-pan-and-the-copyright-that-never-grew-up/
Happy reading!
~Citali
Recently, I've been thinking about my story planned for July Camp NaNoWriMo, and I'm thinking of reviving my last July's idea: a community that's basically one big rooftop garden, built in different levels, the plants and sod and wildflowers sprawling over the rooms in which people live. Last July, the idea was that of a girl who is approached by the fairies of the community (formerly living in secret from the humans of the community) to help them save their certain secret havens within the gardens. And this July, I'm thinking of using the worldbuilding and applying it to a spin-off of the classic story The Secret Garden (by Frances Hodgeson Burnett). All right, now I've said it, I've got to follow through! Writing shall ensue.
However, while fairy tale spin-offs are widely accepted as subjects for writers, how about spin-offs of non-fairy/folk-tale classics? Spin-offs of contemporary stories such as the Harry Potter series are certainly fanfiction, but where on the continuum is a classic story? I've read spin-offs of The Scarlet Pimpernel and The Island of Doctor Moreau, two great classics with great spin-offs: Across A Star-Swept Sea and The Madman's Daughter, respectively. However, would it be different with The Secret Garden? Each story has its own copyright.
Having realized that my big writing stumbling-block is overdeveloping worldbuilding and underdeveloping plot, I, like some of my best writer friends, am turning to fanfiction and spin-offs. Even if you tease out the plot into something different or add a whole new genre, characters, or world, the foundation is there for you to lean on.
Long story short, The Secret Garden is public domain. So is Alice in Wonderland, a story one of my writer friends is basing stories off of and that I looked up incidentally. It's wonderfully (no pun intended) easy to look up whether a story is public domain. However, said writer friend is also writing Peter Pan spin-offs. And that's a whole 'nother story, something that could make a novel plot all on its own.
J. M. Barrie wrote novels featuring Peter Pan. These were popular, so he wrote a play, too. When he died, he made a deal with the Great Ormon Street Hospital (GOSH, an ironic acronym) so that they (a children's hospital) could be supported perpetually by the royalties. But perpetual copyrights are nearly unheard of! The rights technically expired 50 years after Barrie's death, but the UK's prime minister created a bill so that Barrie's wishes of perpetual support for GOSH could continue. But then the EU standardized copyrights, so "perpetuity" changed to 70 more years (so the copyright ended in 2007). By today (2016), the novels and the play are public domain everywhere but the US and Spain. GOSH still has copyright on the play, but the novels are public domain in the US. By 2023, it will be public domain everywhere!
Public domain is an amazing thing I've never fully appreciated more. The fact that someone can take their idea and run with it, using a great author as a role model and a support, really is a wonderful thing. J. M. Barrie, too, was an amazing author whose philanthropy continues to be talked of today! (Right in that paragraph above, folks, for one thing.) His interesting copyright is a fun story on its own.
A more in-depth analysis of the Peter Pan copyright: https://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2015/10/21/peter-pan-and-the-copyright-that-never-grew-up/
Happy reading!
~Citali
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