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Since getting into writing I have been wondering about the fine line of plagiarism and using another person's idea. For example, I absolutely love Isaac Asimov's "Foundation" series. I particularly enjoyed the concept of "The Mule," a very skinny, sickly man who had the power to control your mind. He was able to set your mind up to think anyway he wanted. He used this to gain control of the Empire.
I would love to use the concept of mind control but in a totally different setting and with different characters. Would this be considered plagiarism?
posted
Asimov based his future history on past history...I'm inclined to think his reading of the Mule owed much to his study of Napoleon, of Hitler, and of any dictator in the Roman Empire.
But the idea of a mutant who could control minds hardly began or ended with Asimov...a Google search came up with some fourteen thousand entries linking "science fiction," "mutant," and "mind control." Some of 'em are bound to link to some descriptions of stories...
posted
Keep in mind, though, that you're obliged to make your mutant and his mind-powers different in some way...Asimov did describe in a fair amount of detail how the Mule's power worked, from the viewpoint of others and eventually from the viewpoint of the Mule himself...you'll have to come up with other ways of describing how this power works if you have your character (or characters) work with something similar.
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posted
You can't plagarize an idea. Plagarism is when you take someone else's written words and claim them as your own.
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I hate to contradict She Who Must Be Obeyed, but I think you'll find some lawsuits - particularly in the movie industry - suggest otherwise...
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posted
Yeah, China Mieville could come after me if I wrote a book about red skinned people with scarab beetles for heads in a squalid steampunk city, but he couldn't come after me for having, say, pink skinned people with scarab beetles for heads herding sheep in the Old West or some such.
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