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Comment by bko | Hacker News Reader

I don't get it. Isn't that what people wanted to happen? Don't produce copyrighted work in the output. Sure you can learn from it, much like a director might learn from hundreds of movies he's watched. He obviously can't copy the plot from Die Hard but he can use elements he's picked up from it to make a Christmas movie.

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What do you mean he can't copy the plot? Any commercially successful movie is using one of about five basic plots.

Could you explain the five basic plots?

While the number of plot structures are fairly countable, a plot can still be considered different by changing part of its contents (character, setting, etc.). The decision on whether a plot outright infringes on an existing plot varies case-by-case. An example of outright copying is "Fistful of Dollars" directed by Sergio Leone, which lifts the plot from "Yojinbo" by Akira Kurosawa.

1. David vs. Goliath

2. Romeo and Juliet

3. Robin Hood

4. Crime and Punishment

5. maybe there are only four.

> 5.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero%27s_journey

Interesting. Is there a consensus of these story archetypes among writers?

Fair use doctrine has a lot of nuanced case law. I believe fair use has to be "transformative" upon the original, and it also cannot act as a market substitute for the original. E.g. if a new movie is substantially the same as an old movie, not transformative (e.g. like commentary or parody) and could reasonably be viewed as a market substitute for the old movie, then it'd probably be considered unfair use.

> He obviously can't copy the plot from Die Hard

I dunno, as long as you swap out genre tropes, make slight changes of geography, and/or change a few plot points, coolpying plot is routine in Hollywood.

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