Okay People We all know about rip-offs,
those pesky books that are a weak remake of the books we know and love
i admit the parodies, the rip-offs that were written as rip-offs usually in humour e.g. Barry Trotter, and The Va Dinci Cod.
But there are books that say their original when their obviously not, get on my nerves (most of the time, some are good despite massive plot blandness)

The gloves are off... tell everyone your view of these kinds of books.

I didn't know I was wearing gloves. Dx

But, I don't think i've ever read rip-off books? Seen rip-off movies. But not books. . . I must be missing them. That's a good thing though. Rip-offs of most kinds annoy me. >/

I know what you mean. I don't like blatant rip-offs, where you can clearly tell which parts came from where.
But honestly the vast majority of things that have been written have come from other places. Even Tolken took liberally from different mythologies. So a little inspired borrowing doesn't bother me. I think the area of copyright may place a strangle-hold on creativity and I don't want to see that happen based upon tenuous connections.

Personally, for me, wanting to read a rip-off depends on how much I liked what it's ripping off. *shrugs* Although, I would probably never read Barry Trotter no matter how much I love Harry Potter. I'm a little sensitive about rip-offs and parodys of Harry Potter. *shrugs*

Eh, I thought Barry Trotter was pretty funny. Too expensive for a book that thin though. Especially a book that didn't really require a massive amount of imagination...
When it came out I think it was like $11.00 at the College Bookstore.

rip offs are irritating... I do like re-interpretations though! Like Ella enchanted or just Ella, both are re-interpretations of Cinderella. They are actually pretty good.

If something is truly a rip-off of something else, then that person is going to get sued for plagiarism. What I think you're missing is that there's actually no such thing as an original story. I love to say Harry Potter was original and very imaginative, but was it really? Nope. Lots of books have been written before about witches and in most fantasies, there's some kind of big bad guy who the characters are going on a quest to get rid of who's the ultimate form of evil. Harry Potter had all those things. It had wands, Dumbledore was the stereotype of what a wizard was. I've seen wizards like Dumbledore in lots of movies and books. Hagrid's a half-giant? LOL. As if there isn't a million other characters who are half-this and half-that in every single fantasy story in existence. And this is just the beginning of how it's "unoriginal." But it was still a very good and original book series in my opinion. In fact, I think it was the best one ever written, but there's no such thing as a completely original story.

The only real rip-offs I've seen of things are fan-fiction where people pretty much write word for word stories that other authors wrote, but you don't get away with that in the publishing world.

I think the difference with fanfiction is that the writer of the fanfic actually gives credit to the original author. When someone tries to pass a work off as their own... MAY HELLFIRE RAIN DOWN UPON THEM!

Some interpretations are good... John Marsden's Hamlet for example I never would have read the play. but as a novel it's good.

Some of us are a little confused as to what rip-offs are.

Parodies are not rip-offs.

Adaptations are not rip-offs.

Eragon is a terrible, terrible rip-off of many different books. :)

So what is a rip-off then?

Originally Posted by carzeebear

So what is a rip-off then?

The people who get sued for plagiarism successfully because they genuinely copied someone else.

Parodies never get sued successfully.

Originally Posted by The Enchanted Tiara

The people who get sued for plagiarism successfully because they genuinely copied someone else.

I don't think rip-offs count as plagiarism (or vice-versa)--at least not in the way they're usually thought of, or the way most of us are referring to them in this thread.
The only legitimate accusation of plagiarism is when word-for-word text is copied (not an idea, probably not even a plot). You can't own the rights to an idea, so I've heard. :T

Plagiarism isn't that cut and dry actually. It's more complicated than that.

First of all, there's only so many ways to say something, so just because you use the same wording as another author, it doesn't mean you'll necessarily get sued.

Plot stealing does count as plagiarism depending on how closely the plot resembles someone else's plot.

What you are thinking of, is the fact that, just because one person writes a book about how to fix computers, doesn't mean that no one else is allowed to write a book on how to fix computers. And just because someone writes a book that is a vampire romance novel, it doesn't mean that no one is allowed to write a vampire romance novel besides that person. That's where the idea part comes in.

But plagiarism is not as cut and dry as you make it sound. If I took a novel, gave the characters new names and wrote it in my own way of wording things, but all the same things still happened as the book I was imitating (meaning the scenes were all similar), yes, I would get into trouble for plagiarism.

I don't remember the title, but there was a manga series that tried to rip off Deathnote, where the main character was a less likeable version of Light Yagami, and the basic ideas were all the same. I couldn't keep reading it x.x

Originally Posted by The Enchanted Tiara

Plagiarism isn't that cut and dry actually. It's more complicated than that.

First of all, there's only so many ways to say something, so just because you use the same wording as another author, it doesn't mean you'll necessarily get sued.

Plot stealing does count as plagiarism depending on how closely the plot resembles someone else's plot.

What you are thinking of, is the fact that, just because one person writes a book about how to fix computers, doesn't mean that no one else is allowed to write a book on how to fix computers. And just because someone writes a book that is a vampire romance novel, it doesn't mean that no one is allowed to write a vampire romance novel besides that person. That's where the idea part comes in.

But plagiarism is not as cut and dry as you make it sound. If I took a novel, gave the characters new names and wrote it in my own way of wording things, but all the same things still happened as the book I was imitating (meaning the scenes were all similar), yes, I would get into trouble for plagiarism.

Yeah, the occasional exact wording of a sentence doesn't mean it's directly plagiarized (Though I disagree with there being "only so many ways to say something"--unless it's a very short piece of description). I meant a substantial piece of text, or maybe something unique to the author's writing style.

Your last point would probably be seen in court, as plagiarism, yes. However, hypothetical plagiarizing situation is hypothetical. No serious author would go so far to write a novel as recreating each scene and character from another. Unless he or she introduced his or her own original element to the story, that novel would be completely pointless to the author.

Eragon was just the author's collection of his favorite books and movies - Tolkien, Anne McCaffrey, Star Wars - and him dropping himself as a self-insert Gary Stu character right in the center of the whole thing. It's probably the most blatant, successful rip-off books out there.

Someone is sueing JK Rowling for plagerisim.

They said they wrote a coloring book with a boy named Harry Potter and his friend Lily. I mean... what the heak??!

People just want money... Harry potter is a common name!

Originally Posted by bethanynel813

Someone is sueing JK Rowling for plagerisim.

They said they wrote a coloring book with a boy named Harry Potter and his friend Lily. I mean... what the heak??!

People just want money... Harry potter is a common name!

LOL. People are ALWAYS suing J.K. Rowling for plagerism. Not because she plagerized, but because she's rich and they want some of her money.

It pisses me off a lot though because every time she has to pay for lawyers. She hasn't lost one case yet, but that doesn't mean she doesn't lose money paying for lawyers all the time.