When does a Homage become Plagiarism?

[aqua03]

So I've been working on and off on some promo stuff for my upcoming Tales of Phaeton (Series Banner, Series Thumbnail, etc.) and I was planning on having said materials be homages to things like the Prelude screen of Final Fantasy 1, the Vinyl Album cover for Wish you Were Here by Pink Floyd, etc. among other ideas for homages to various bits and bobs of fantasy/sci-fi art and pop culture throughout the series.

As I've been working on those sorts of things, it got me wondering: What's the line between homage and outright plagiarism? Because the last thing i want to do is cause trouble with my art and accidentally steal something without meaning to or make my art a 1 to 1 copy of something else.

So what would you guys say is the line between Homage and out and out plagiarism and how can avoid crossing it and getting into trouble or robbing my comic of its own identity as a result?

Thanks for the help.

[Ranty-cat]

As far as I know... If you copy and combine multiple different ideas in one, then it shouldn’t be considered plagiarism. This is just my opinion. Anyways, I'll let the experts say on this.

[FafasMcMelt]

I don't think you can get in legal trouble if you change things up. Like you said, just don't straight up copy it 1 for 1 and you're good to go (I'm not a lawyer though, so take it with a grain of salt)

[Kaydreamer]

I think promo materials riffing on existing media is perfectly fine! It's fun, and can indicate to a potential audience the kind of vibe you're going for.

Bits of pop culture working their way into a series is also cool. My opening episode has my protagonist singing along to Billy Joel's 'Piano Man', and I'm going to put screenshots from things like Mr. Bean and Wallace and Gromit on his TV screen in the background of his living space. (I also want to find somewhere to drape a big Doctor Who scarf in his ship, haha.) He's also got some vintage arcade games he's fixing up, one of which is going to be the 'Sailor V' title from Sailor Moon. Little homages like that are fun, and easily fall under fair use.

Where it gets murky is if you're lifting character archetypes, plot, worldbuilding, and so-on all from one or two series. That crosses over into outright plagiarism, and should be avoided.

[allenthomas]

My thought process is that combining elements of things to create something new should be safe even if you are mimicking something else. I tend to think along the lines that no one looking for the original material should in any way, shape, or form be able to accept YOUR work as a substitute. So if you make little nods here and there to an original work it should be okay. Just make sure they are NODS and not replications.

I hope that made sense because as I read it back it sounds like babble.

[IamKeeks]

An homage typically will credit the original work in some way. Plagiarism is literally claiming that it is your original piece. As far as a free webcomic goes, I wouldn't worry too much. It's probably flattering to the creator. Though certain companies guard their intellectual property like dragons guarding treasure, so if it gets popular, you'll have to get official permission to use it or remove it from your work. Japan in particular is very protective of IP, so you'll run into this kind of issue if big Japanese companies get a whiff of their stuff in your work.

This website might be helpful (for artistic purposes):

Tips to Avoid Art Plagiarism toward Becoming a Better Art Student

[monotone_ink]

When it's not cool enough

[Ordinaryaverageguy]

I posed something like to a lawyer online once, and the reply was something along the lines of "you didn't own the rights to the original material therefore you don't own a right to use parts or all of it or modifications of it without obtaining expressed permission" - Because it wasn't yours to fiddle with in the first place, basically. I think that's a rather hardline view but it might hold up in court.

[Ordinaryaverageguy]

I think you're a bit confused about the problem... It's not plagiarism that you'd be committing (if you did, which is the question) but copyright violation.
If you're in the US, you might look into the Fair Use copyright exemptions. What you want to do may fall into one of the exemptions that let you use material without permissions.

[ShoresofAcadie]

So a bit of clarification about plagiarism vs copyright infringement, from someone who has worked in the realm of commercial publishing:

Plagiarism is, ultimately, a moral issue. If you copy someone else's work and pass it off as your own, that is plagiarism. If you get caught doing it, it will reflect badly on you and may result in tangible or intangible consequences (e.g. fines, loss of income, loss of reputation, etc). However, plagiarism is not actually illegal, because it is a moral concept, not a legal one.

Copyright infringement is where all the legal stuff comes into play, because artists & companies that own intellectual property want to protect it from theft or unauthorized use. Some companies (especially those with deep pockets) are more aggressive about this than others, so if you are picking up and incorporating their work in some way (e.g. taking a verbatim passage or using an image) that doesn't involve significant alterations, you are going to want to ask permission and/or be prepared to pay associated fees for use of their work, otherwise, you could get into legal trouble. (Side note: You don't necessarily need to commit plagiarism to run into copyright infringement issues! Remember, plagiarism is about passing the ideas of others off as your own; copyright is about who owns those ideas and under what circumstances they are willing to let others use them.)

That said, almost all art is derivative in some way other, and this is where the legal concept of Fair Use comes into play (at least in the US). Fair Use is a doctrine that promotes freedom of expression and provides some protection to authors and artists who use take inspiration from other work as long as they are using it to produce something new and original. For more info about what constitutes Fair Use: https://www.copyright.gov/fair-use/more-info.html. Please note that this is specific to the US, so depending on what country you live in, and what country's laws govern the publication of the work you want to use, other rules may apply.

[Lirina]

It depends on how much you are using of the original. If you are using their images and change/modify/combine them, you will need a license for those images or permission to use their fonts etc. If it is just using the general style and theme then that should be fine

[ShoresofAcadie]

Fun Facts about Plagiarism & Copyright Infringement: (Not important to the primary discussion topic of the thread, but interesting nonetheless!)

1. Did you know that you can commit plagiarism without copyright infringement, and also copyright infringement without plagiarism? If I cut/pasted the entirety of Jane Eyre into a Word doc and told people I wrote it, that would be plagiarism, but not copyright infringement (since Jane Eyre is in the public domain and no one owns it). Alternatively, if I put a copyrighted image on my blog and credit the artist but don't ask them if I can use it, that would be copyright infringement, but not plagiarism.

2. Did you know that self-plagiarism is actually a thing that can happen? Basically, if you wrote something for hire, someone else owns the rights to that work, even though you wrote it! Thus, if you tried to reuse the same content later on, you would be plagiarizing your own previous work, and the rightsholder could come after you.

3. Different countries having different laws about copyright can create some odd muddles. For example, Peter Pan is considered public domain in the US and most of the EU, but for weird legal reasons, the rightsholders can still collect royalties on use of the character, but only if those uses are in the UK. (https://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2015/10/21/peter-pan-and-the-copyright-that-never-grew-up/)

4. Ever wonder why the rules about how long a work takes to become public domain in the US keep changing? Blame Disney. They have been lobbying for decades to keep extending the amount of time that copyrights can be maintained before expiring into the public domain because Mickey Mouse was first created in the 1920s, and they have no desire to ever lose that IP. (https://alj.artrepreneur.com/mickey-mouse-keeps-changing-copyright-law/)