Star Control Discussion Board

This is a novelization of the Star Control 2 story (Star Control 2: The Book), not a completely separate work which happens to take some inspiration from other works. For that analogy to make sense, Star Control 2 would have to be Star Trek: The Video Game.

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Tiberian expanded on Paul's idea's and has to pay when he monetizes it.
Paul expanded on the ideas in star trek and has paid nothing when he monetized it.

My work combines things I came up with myself and things Paul came up with. In addition, the book has lots of unaltered quotes from the source material.

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Author of Star Control novelizations Groombridge Log and Eternal Doctrine. www.tommisalminenbooks.com

You surely take great liberties in defining what a derivative work is and isn't

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I know the legalities, but this is a matter of principle and Paul being a greedy hypocrite . Just let me be that mael-num shouting to the ur-quan in the sky.

What bothers me though is that such reasoning would only label everyone a "greedy hypocrite" who created a fictional universe, as long as you're free to choose the scope of what a "idea" is, eligible to be put under copyright protection. I think it's important to have a reasonable distinction of similar and identical ideas, plus IMO the most important question to ask is: if the new work is made to make profit, does the new work build it's commercial success on it's unique (or more accurately "new") qualities, or the qualities of the work it's derived from? I think in this regard the main difference Paul and Tiberian is that Tiberian's work is clearly made to appeal for a readership that was originally created by Paul's work.

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I disagree there. My goal has always been to write for both SC2 fans and to those who are unfamiliar with the game.

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Author of Star Control novelizations Groombridge Log and Eternal Doctrine. www.tommisalminenbooks.com

I don't doubt that. In that regard you don't differ from anybody working with foreign IP. What I meant is that your base readership is the SC fanbase. That's where you can expect your profits. In other words, you'd milk someone other's cash cow.

What I doubt though is that PR3's profits come from trekkie wallets by taking inspiration from ST or incorporating some superficial similarities. SC2 appeals generally to gamers who are fans of popular sci-fi without an explicit call for the attention of any specific fangroup, therefore I don't see how PR3's principles would be reprehensible.

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I am not expecting any profits. Currently I have no plans on selling the book.

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Author of Star Control novelizations Groombridge Log and Eternal Doctrine. www.tommisalminenbooks.com

I think that Paul's work would still exist without Gene's, even if slightly different form. Tiberian's work would not exist without Paul's at all. Fairly big difference.

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