which is its self a parody of the anti piracy thing you get on DVDs You wouldnt steal a car you wouldnt steal a handbag you wouldnt steal a movie video piracy is stealing wah wah wah (and yes piracy is IP violation not stealing, but i guess the copyright folks both know that and know that the average punter won't get the difference)
"Plagiarize! "Let no one else's work evade your eyes! Remember why the good Lord made your eyes, So don't shade your eyes, But plagiarize, plagiarize, plagiarize ... Only be sure always to call it please 'research.'" --Tom Lehrer, of course
If authors didn't steal, TV Tropes would be out of business. Like the poster above mentioned, there are only, fundamentally, a handful of unique plots. However, tapestries may look similar, but none unravel quite in the same way. The only restriction really is to not outright steal and make a carbon copy of an existing story. Your beta readers will catch you on it, and if not, make sure you alert them to be on the lookout. Good luck!
I'm not sure I'd call what usually occurs "stealing". There are a lot of things that are shared simply out of a need to maintain tension throughout the story. You can't have your main villain beaten near the beginning, for example. Though I will admit, there are cases where "stealing" is an accurate descriptor. The one that comes to mind is Eragon's almost plot point for plot point mimicry of the original Star Wars movie.
@X Equestris stealing or theft is traditionally defined as taking of another's property with the intent to permanently deprive the other of that property (i.e. convert it to one's own use). It is limited to personal property in the modern statutes I've seen when the act is identified simply as taking away the property of another (it broadens out for purposes of fraud, etc.). For example, in California the statute begins: "(a) Every person who shall feloniously steal, take, carry, lead, or drive away the personal property of another..." (emphasis added). The analogies to physical property don't work so well when you're talking about copyright infringement. It just doesn't meet the test for stealing or theft. There's a reason that people who infringe copyrights aren't charged criminally under theft statutes for stealing the property of another person.
I know that. I'm speaking more in a metaphorical sense of the word "steal". And I should also point out that I was talking more about the general exchange of ideas and such. Revenge plots, chosen one stories, things like that typically follow much the same general course within themselves, but I don't think most people would call them as a whole plagiarized, or even "stolen" in the loosest figurative sense. Not saying a whole plot can't be plagiarized or anything, and not saying that Eragon is plagiarism. Just that Eragon so closely matches A New Hope's plot that it seems like Paolini saw the movie, translated it into a fantasy world, and made a handful of tweaks to it.
I mention it only because we're throwing the word "steal" around in reference to people, which is not a very nice accusation. When we're talking about things like theft versus infringement, we're necessarily talking about matters of legality and public policy. As a personal feeling on the matter, I don't like the words "stealing" or "theft" being applied to people in situations where we have decided as a matter of public policy that they're not stealing.
