Thread by @KurtBusiek

Another thing I’ll metion in all this ramble about creativity and direct inspirations…

Ideas are not ownable.

Copyright is about “the concrete expression of ideas,” not the ideas themselves.

You can use ideas from anywhere.

You can’t use them in exactly the same ways that someone else did. But you can use them.

You want to write about a kid who sees his parents murdered and sets out to fight crime? Go right the hell ahead.

Just don’t have him dress up as a bat with a kid sidekick and a butler, and fight a murder clown.

[Actually, you can probably do all of that if you make it feel different in keys ways.]

But ideas themselves are not property. They’re free for anyone to use.

There’s a story I want to do that’s at heart about Superman, that could be the kind of project SECRET IDENTITY or CREATURE OF THE NIGHT were.

But it doesn’t need to be DC-owned. It doesn't need to be _their_ Superman. And I’d be able to do it better without someone else...

…telling me what I can and can’t do with the character.

If Superman were in the public domain by now (as I think he should be), I’d do it with Superman. Since he isn’t, I’ll do it without Superman and everyone who reads it will know that I’m writing about the idea of Superman.

Because we are always in conversation with ideas and stories and traditions and so on. Even if we can’t use the exact trappings.

It’ll be a good story.

[Actually, I have two stories like that, but they’re about different aspects of Superman. They’ll both be good.]