Anonymous author story adaption copyright?

[brandon.harw]

If there is a story (In this case creepypasta) that the author is anonymous and no one knows who it is, because he has no copyright, would it be okay to make a film adaption of some creepypasta? I've been thinking about doing some "Are you afraid of the dark" or "Goosebumps" Type series on youtube and vimeo.

[michaelbak]

Date back the year it was made. All copyrights hold up after 75 after the owner of rights is dead. If it's a story everyone knows then i guess it's all right. The only movie i have seen that was based of a old story is Hoodwinked but that was a parody so it protected.

[brandon.harw]

Well, I'ts not really old, but just to clear things up with people

Creepypasta is
The modern equivalent of the urban legend, creepypasta is able to utilize viral, or memetic, transmission to reach a wider audience much more rapidly than it's word-of-mouth predecessor.

These short stories, copied and pasted by users who often remain anonymous, are typically left without citing the original source. Due to the generational nature of their transmission, the original source is probably not known.


Creepypasta is found primarily in forums such as 4chan.org, 7chan.org, and somethingawful.com, though offshoot forums have now been developed solely for threads regaurding user short horror fiction

So basically, they dont really have copyright, their just like urban legends, accept their more like short stories.


So would it be illegal to make a film adaption of them, I'm sure its not, but I want to make sure.

[WesScog]

A copyright exists upon the creation of a work. Even if the author remains anonymous AT THIS TIME, that does not mean that they do not own a copyright of the work.

If they can prove they wrote it and it was their idea (by having dated copies of the story before it first appeared on the internet), and you follow their idea EXACTLY, then they can sue you for copyright infringement.

Now if they are throwing it out there anonymously, there is no telling where they got their idea from (or if they didn't steal someone elses story verbatim), and that is a whole 'nother heap of issues all itself. But if it really is their idea, and they are willing to throw it out anonymously, they may not care too much about their idea and you most likely don't have a lot to worry about, but that doesn't mean that they don't own a copyright still. (Unless they willfully abandon it, and publish it under a CC or Copyleft license).

Regardless, a basic idea can't really be copyrighted, only a specific execution of an idea, so if you read a story about monsters coming in out of another dimension, and they are calling the Xil'iboths, and the main character is a spunky Heroine named "Crissy Lee", who weilds a magical samurai sword, you can't turn around and do the same exact thing, you can make a story about monster's from another dimension and spunky heroine's all you want, just don't name them the Xil'iboths, and don't have your main character be named "Crissy Lee".

If he name is Sarah, and it's a completely different race of Monsters, no one can really sue you if it's different enough, even if it's the same basic idea.

You can't get sued from being inspired by something, you just can't turn around and adapt something verbatim without getting permission, even if you don't know who owns the copyright on the material. Being ignorant of the copyright holder isn't an excuse.

[gonzo_entertainment]

Date back the year it was made. All copyrights hold up after 75 after the owner of rights is dead. If it's a story everyone knows then i guess it's all right. The only movie i have seen that was based of a old story is Hoodwinked but that was a parody so it protected.

There are lots of them. My recently finished film is one. An H.P. Lovecraft story from 1919. Some of his stories are copyrighted and some aren't. The ones he had published in "amateur" publications the copyright was never extended by his estate. The ones he published in "Weird Tales" were extended by the publishers.

[TheResignation00]

Also, stop going on 4chan.

[brandon.harw]

Also, stop going on 4chan.

/x/ isn't that bad, I like looking at the paranormal threads

[brandon.harw]

Thanks Wes! :D You truely do rock!

[whereintheworld]

/x/ is the only decent thing on that godforsaken site, closely followed by /v/

Also have you seen this guys http://www.youtube.com/user/SCPantera videos?