Are Characters in a Book covered under Cpyright

What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? South Carolina

I am working on a book that is a sequel to a successful book and movie. In order to have continuity, I need to bring some of the old characters forward as I develop new ones. The story I am developing is unique and totally of my own creation.

I am using the same first names and have changed last names or omitted them in what I am writing. Is this a safe way to proceed without having copyright issues with the prior works?

Any intelligent comments or expertise is sincerely welcome.

My e-mail address is [email protected]


Thanks,

JVC689

Are Characters in a Book covered

Stock characters (a shady PI/ex-cop for example) cannot be protected. HOWEVER, detailed characters CAN be protected under copyright law. For example, Mickey Mouse was protected as a component part of a larger copyrighted work. (Note that there is a theory that Mickey is really PD due to a publication lacking copyright notice issue.)

You cannot create a sequel without permission. That simple, unfortunately for you. (Don't bitch, I'm on your side.) Either get permission, write your own story without using their characters, or forget it. Btw, the more similar the stories or characters are, the easier is would be for them to convince a court that you copied, so even if you don't directly copy, doesn't mean you are 100% safe either unfortunately. If you base your sequel on their characters and admit that, you lose the case.

And the CORRECT answer would be based on from which works are you deriving a sequel. While most are covered as described, if you decided to write a sequel to the New Testiment it would not be covered.

So, there is no answer to your question until you give some hint as to the foundational work from which the sequel will be derived.

He wrote:

"a successful book and movie"

I gather from that we can assume it is a copyrighted work unless informed otherwise.

J. Michael said:

He wrote:

"a successful book and movie"

I gather from that we can assume it is a copyrighted work unless informed otherwise.

Click to expand...

The bible is the most published and purchased book in the history of publishing and the plethera of 'bible' movies make up more than $1 billion in revenues from ticket sales.

Is there a more successful book/movie combination?

I doubt he's qualified to write that sequel.

J. Michael said:

I doubt he's qualified to write that sequel.

Click to expand...

No argument.

And poster, the strategy to use in this instance, if you're wanting your sequel to be noticed and perhaps purchased, would simply be to write a treatment and market that to publishers with the disclaimer that the book uses some characters from "insert title here" which would require copyright release before publication.

If you're good enough and the story holds together, it will be up to the publisher to decide if they want to purchase the rights to the sequel AND any associative copyrights.

Book Charcter Copyright Issues in Sequel

I am living in Myrtle Beach, SC.

Thank you for your reponses. And whoever said I am not qualified to write
a sequel to the Bible is definitely right. But it sure sounds like a good idea.

The advice about proceeding and if it is good enough then a publisher may wish to buy the copyrights of the original work has interest to me but means taking time on a great project which has a built in seed of destruction. Even if I could create a "masterpiece" I guage the consensus that the risk of not getting published to be heightened by the sequel dilemma.

I am on a roll and just finishing the second chapter. I am still going to proceed because I have too much research into it and the last sequel installment left little room to unravel a further sequel without the creative issues I bring into it.

Outside of the unplagiarized background material, I use no old material and change the last names of all of the old characters and bring in all new characters. As a fact, there are only 3 old characters which I bring forward with a new last name.

Even the title is markedly altered. Plus the original author is dead and left no ideas on any follow-up.

Does any of this info change or alter any first responses?

Thank you so much and I hope to hear from you again.

Sincerely,

JVC689