Using ideas posted on social media: is it ok?
I have a question about copyrighting.
I was scrolling through tumblr the other day and someone had posted an idea that said something about people seeing in black and white until they meet their soul mate - then they see in color.
I really like this idea and would want to use it in my fiction novel, but I was wondering if that is considered copying? I don't want to copy someone's idea.
Can you use any idea posted on social media or is it considered stealing someone's ideas?
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This idea was used in a TV show called "John Doe", but I don't remember in which episode it was.
wikipedia link
As others have already stated, there is no copyright or patent in ideas only in the expression of those ideas.
For example, Romeo and Juliet has probably been written and re-written a thousand times since Shakespeare wrote the original play. Think about West Side Story: that is essentially the updating and retelling of a very old tale.
So long as how you tell the story is fresh and original, the fact that you took an idea, thought or concept as your inspiration does not matter.
Ideas are not protected by copyright.
In no case does copyright protection for an original work of authorship extend to any idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery, regardless of the form in which it is described, explained, illustrated, or embodied in such work. (Copyright Law of the United States of America, § 102 (b))
Copyright only protects works.
Anyone can use any idea, even ideas that have been turned into works. If you chose to write a novel about a postapocalyptic society forcing teens to go through some media event where they had to kill each other, Suzanne Collins couldn't sue you (or she would long since have sued Veronica Roth and her other imitators).
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