geni wrote:
On 7/23/06, Matt Brown <morven(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
On 7/22/06, Anthony <wikilegal(a)inbox.org>
wrote:
Of course, as far as I'm concerned I
wouldn't be terribly sad if all
the articles about non-free fictional works moved to Fictionpedia.
Especially the plot summaries, which are really non-free derivative
works in themselves, though they generally fall under fair use of
course.
Plots are generally not copyrightable, although character names may be.
Could you patent them?
You can TRADEMARK them, which is nearly the same thing, and almost
everyone does if they can afford the fees.
Sometimes this can cause confusion. Superman the comic book character is
a trademark, superman the philosophical term is not. James Bond 007 is a
trademark, but James Bond the famous ornithologist after whom Ian
Fleming named him is not.
What's really confusing is that it is almost impossible to come up with
a name for a fictional character in the normal sense that is not being
used by some real person somewhere in the world. Spock is a fictional
alien, but Dr. Benjamin Spock is a pioneering writer on pediatrics and
childrearing. There are probably hundreds of people named Malcolm
Reynolds living in the English-speaking world right now who are, of
course, totally unconnected to the protagonist of the television series
Firefly.
And there is actually a wikipedia article on Michael Hopcroft -- the
English physicist, not myself (a Portland, Oregon based Sf and RPG writer).