Protecting my fantasy world

[paragon]

As a fantasy writer, I have had to develop my own world complete with maps, locations, cultures etc. This was a labour of love, but also a long and arduous process.

Of course it would have been easier for me to just write something in the Star Wars universe or Lord of the Rings Middle-Earth BUT... I am sure such worlds are protected from me just exploiting them. "Hey mr. Publisher, I wrote this cool novel in the Star Wars setting, want to buy it?". I'm pretty sure that's not possible, and I need to know why.

So the question arises, what about the world I made? Is it inherently protected merely by the fact that it is written into my novels, or how does it all work?

In other words, I know that the novels I wrote are copyright protected, but what about the world, the lands, the characters and so on? Since I probably can't legally write books in the Harry Potter world, for example, how do I prevent others from writing in mine?

I've been searching the web for days trying to find anything concrete, but I have been unsuccessful figuring out how it works. I'm hoping you can all help me figure it out.

[Teresa Edgerton]

Your work and everything that forms the heart of it -- the world (unless it is almost identical to the real one), the characters, the artwork (which would include maps) -- as well as the sequence of events, are automatically protected by copyright the moment you create them, and they remain in copyright for a very long period of years after your death before they go into the public domain. The individual names of characters and places, as well as book titles, are not normally protected, unless they happen to be trademarked, but this is special case and wouldn't apply to your own unpublished work. You can't copyright ideas, either. However, anything that appears too close to a substantial portion of your work -- like the names of several characters plus the central concept of the book, would count as plagiarism, if you could prove that you were doing it first and that they were knowingly copying you.

You need not do anything, until and unless someone plagiarizes or infringes on your work, then it would be useful to have plenty of evidence that all this is truly yours should you decide to bring a suit. (First drafts, notes, sketches, people who saw the work in its early stages, would all count as evidence.)

In the same way, other people's worlds and characters are protected from you. Franchised works (novelizations written in the Star Wars universe, for instance), works associated with a distinct product line (Forgotten Realms, etc.) one should assume are trademarked, and the use of any distinctive names should be avoided.

You can't prevent people from writing stories in your universe or using your characters privately and for their own amusement (for one thing, how would you know?) but once they started to publish or distribute those stories in any form (a fanzine or website for instant, let alone a printed book) you would be entitled to take legal action to make them stop.

Of course commercial publishers know all this and would never accept a novel or story based on the Star Wars universe or Tolkien's Middle Earth, unless they had a contractual agreement with the copyright holder and you had been had been specifically hired to write something in that setting and using those characters.

[paragon]

Thank you for the thorough and fast response, Teresa.

I really appreciate it, and am glad to see that it is all as I expected it to be.

On another note, I just found this community by chance today, and have been perusing the forums for a while now. I think I'll be sticking around!

[Urlik]

Originally Posted by Teresa Edgerton

The individual names of characters and places, as well as book titles, are not normally protected, unless they happen to be trademarked, but this is special case and wouldn't apply to your own unpublished work. You can't copyright ideas, either. However, anything that appears too close to a substantial portion of your work -- like the names of several characters plus the central concept of the book, would count as plagiarism, if you could prove that you were doing it first and that they were knowingly copying you.

You need not do anything, until and unless someone plagiarizes or infringes on your work, then it would be useful to have plenty of evidence that all this is truly yours should you decide to bring a suit. (First drafts, notes, sketches, people who saw the work in its early stages, would all count as evidence.).

you can protect your ideas, it is known as intellectual property
and an easy way to protect your work is to regularly send yourself copies with a dated seal across the flap of the envelope.
then you can present the unopened envelopes to your solicitor/barrister/lawyer if you need to take it to court.

[Teresa Edgerton]

Originally Posted by Urlik

an easy way to protect your work is to regularly send yourself copies with a dated seal across the flap of the envelope.
then you can present the unopened envelopes to your solicitor/barrister/lawyer if you need to take it to court.

Much is said about this method -- sometimes called the Poor Man's Copyright -- online. However, there is no guarantee this would stand up in a court of law (and solicitor/barrister/lawyers can be an expensive commodity if you don't already have one handling your affairs who would be willing to take the manuscript as a courtesy). If you depend on this method to protect you, you could end up seriously disappointed. As a general rule, date stamps, people who have read the work in progress, and a truckload of notes and early drafts are cheaper and more convincing.

[Urlik]

if you can get the post office to put a date stamp over the flap of the envelope when you post it, that effectively proves that it must have been written before that time, so long as you never open it untill it is needed in a court.

it is cheap and another part of the evidence to go along with the other drafts and notes, not the full evidence.

[Teresa Edgerton]

If we're talking about an envelope big enough to hold a book manuscript, you could steam open the bottom flap and the date stamp would be unaffected. Then you could insert a different manuscript, and glue it back.

This is one reason why this method won't hold up in a court of law.

[ctg]

What about emails?

[Teresa Edgerton]

Now, there you have me. I'll bet there are all kinds of electronic trickery that would make emailing your manuscript meaningless, but my ignorance when it comes to computers is (to quote a well-known 17th century poet) vaster than empires and more slow.

[Urlik]

I think it is too easy to change the date stamps on emails or saved files

[ctg]

If you have access to those files, but what if you have been for year posting your MS as backup to a public emailing system (Gmail, yahoo, hotmail)?

[Overread]

Originally Posted by Teresa Edgerton

You need not do anything, until and unless someone plagiarizes or infringes on your work, then it would be useful to have plenty of evidence that all this is truly yours should you decide to bring a suit. (First drafts, notes, sketches, people who saw the work in its early stages, would all count as evidence.)

hmm the digital age would be providing a problem here. If a person works fully on the works in a digital setting then drafts, notes and such will all also be digital and able to be modified (start dates and such can be edited - at the most simple level you just turn your computer clock back.)
On a forum I think such things are legally speaking relativly safe as they are part of a functioning community (many witnesses) and are also very hard to forge false dates on (though as we have seen from the post posted before the start of the internets it can be done - though you tend to need more admin rights).
If you are worried about your work and its in a digital format then it might be an idea to have a copy printed off and handed to a soliciter with a witness present to view the exchange on a set date. That way they have a hard copy that is untouched from that date.
Just a thought for proving ownership here.

[Malloriel]

Personally, I've got friends and family ABOUNDING to attest to the time and energy I've put into the manufacture of my own fantasy world and the stories therein, which I hear are pretty important when concerned about protecting against thieving psudo-writers too lazy to do their own worldbuilding, and so forth.

I've also built up a site containing a lot of information about races specific to that world, ideas on magic, the theology, etc, and at the bottom of every page is the original copyright date to current year. People doing web-comics will have the same thing on the bottom of their pages as well, letting the web-community at large that the material is theirs, and this is how long it's been theirs, which can help detour those who would steal it. Now, obviously they could still abscond with the idea from there, and you'd still need the notes and drafts and witnesses and what have you, buuuut I think I've got that pretty well covered as well. I never throw out anything associated with Eleasia in case I ever need it again (aaaand because I'm vain enough to pretend that someone would go through my notes as Chris Tolkien did his father's to pull together the History of Middle-Earth. I was, after all, 15 when I started this project. I do like being able to plot my progression from those earliest days to now to gain perspective on how truly far I've come).

But that's all me. I'd know about the intellectual property, but without something to back you up it can be a little scary putting even tiny bits out anywhere.