Find him and kick him in the nuts then. That's a lot more productive.

... I don't know what it is with me and legalese on message boards, but it's tiresome. Don't mind me.

If I was hooked on Skyrim and had to write a paper about something, it would be hard for me not to at least have some kind of inspiration from Skyrim.

I know that back in High School, I wrote a few papers that took some kind of inspiration from the events in Final Fantasy 7. I may have changed the names of the people and places, but it was loosely retelling events that took place in the game.

You basically just openly admitted plagiarism dude. You told the story of someone else's idea and put your name on the paper, in short, you're "claiming" that was your idea. tsk tsk.

I think it all summarizes in a few thoughts.

Plagarism is difficult to prove. Just look at the debate on what defines it in this thread. OP is unlikely to be accused of actual plagarism. First off, someone made the point, inspiration has to come from somewhere. Secondly, it's a legal battle and school districts tend to want to stay away from legal difficulties due to dwindling budgets.

But in my post earlier in this thread, the OP risks a low grade if his/her assignment was to write a creative essay using his/her own ideas. Especially since the teacher was so impressed and is now sharing with other classes. If the OP freely admitted his/her inspiration to the teacher, it would go along way, but again, we have NOT seen what the OP actually wrote, much less what the actual assignment was. Can't stress how important this is.

Lastly, I think it's very telling that OP has not been back since. I wonder what will happen today in school.

Just for the record, Plagirism is not "illegal" per se. I mean, it's not listed on any current statute in any state within the United States. Not sure how it is handled in other countries. Is it immoral and wrong to plagarise something? You bet, especially if the work being copied wasn't given credit. In which case, if the OP of this thread has NOT told his teacher that he nicked the idea of his essay from Skyrim then yes, it's very much wrong. But as far as how much trouble he could get into is well..up to the teacher IF she/he finds out. The OP can get an "F", a detention, suspended. But no cop is going to bust his door in and drag him off to jail.

Remember, plagirism is not the same thing as copyright infringement. Copyright Ingringement is when something is used without permission. Fanfic "could" easily fall under copyright infringement if the owner of the copied work feels like make a case for it.

There is however a very thin line between plagirism and copyright infringement which I feel the OP again, "could" fall under. Basically, since he has openly admitted that he hasn't told his teacher that he nicked the idea and story for his essay from Skyrim and he has gotten an "A" on the work he has basically "stolen" the story of Skyrim and gotten something out of it, which means he's infringed upon Bethesda's copyright of the story. He benefitted from the story and hasn't given credit for it.

IMO, even if he told the teacher at this point he'd still deserve the "F" and if I were his teacher I'd be calling his parents and giving him a few detentions as well as making him redo the assignment.

It's not plagirism, but it is borderline.

Taking the idea and changing the names and places would be fine. If you use any names or places from Skyrim than you possibly could be violating copyright laws on top of the plagirism.

It's nice that the OP got the idea from Skyrim but I serioulsy would have just made something up that didn't even resemble the actual quest in question just to make sure it wasn't plagirism.

just call it a "tribute" and you won't have any problems of plagiarism, LOL

Good job on the A+.
I wrote Skyrim for my essay test and got 10/30.

i would actually like to see the essay first, granted if he had the work to create a creative rollplay arround the first part if the MQ shoulden't be a problem since it's onlly a school essay even then i found much safer to make a remmark about the source of inspiration surelly his teacher woulden't be pissed about it, if on the other hand the OP simply copy pasted the actuall contente and just decribed word by word what happened in the said quest not even he should be pleased with his own atitude and his teacher will find out eventually when said paper is read to other people

It may or may not be plagiarism depending on the wording of the assignment.

The OP wrote the story with original words (since there is no text for the game as far as I know). However, he did not come up with the plot. So it depends on what was expected. At the very least, I think the OP should have noted that the story was inspired by Skyrim.

Man, you're just the coolest. Isn't plagiarizing great?

Problem is, one day you'll run into an instructor like me, who, despite his age, is savvy on the modern trends. If you are lucky, you'll still be in high school and get away with a slap on the wrist. If you are not lucky, you will be a college student who receives an autofail for the class, and a black mark on your academic record. Yeah, serious business.

But yeah, rock on. Why write when you can steal?

Do not be sad about one bad grade.

If you do get a lot of bad grades in school, then you should aim for a teaching career, like becoming a teacher or an instructor. Your experience with bad grades will come in handy.

It is if she's worth keeping. The world is full of girls who not only tolerate Skyrim, but even play it! Your school might not be, but hiding your hobbies isn't good for you.

High school drama aside, what kind of essay involves making up stories? Yes, I had to write a few short stories, mostly for exams, but essays involved taking apart previously written material and anolyzing it. Borrowing so liberally from games like Skyrim wouldn't have been permitted and it would have been boring.

Precisely.

No, it's called Fan Fiction! Well, as long as the doesn't copy everything verbatim, he/she should be fine.


o.0 Why not? What's wrong with playing RPGs?

Games like Fallout or TES series inspire me as well. After I started to play Oblivion, years ago, I even joined an online RPG forum where we created characters and stories set in Cyrodiil after the Oblivion Crisis.

I am not sure what country you are living in my friend (or should I say fiend?), so your laws may vary (although probably not because most countries have followed the same basic rules since the Berne Convention) but in the United States, you cannot copyright an idea. This is from the United States Copyrite Office of the Library of Congress.

"Copyright does not protect facts, ideas, systems, or methods of operation, although it may protect the way these things are expressed. See Circular 1, Copyright Basics, section "http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.pdf."

Here is the link: http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-general.html

So, the way specific details have been expressed may be protected, but the basic idea that Dragons are waking up and attacking and the protagonist needs to go warn the nearest Jarl and then find the locations of the dragon spawns by locating a stone tablet map in an underground lair is going to be to generic an idea to be protected. Of course you have to tell the story in an original way using your own words.

Do you think the producers of Barb Wire (1996 starring Pamela Anderson) paid Warner Brothers when they copied the basic plot elements of Casablanca? No because Barb Wire was new and original (a different expression of the idea), despite following the same basic plot as Casablanca.

Exactly!

the OP said: "All I did was make up a story about the first main quest of how you have go tell the Jarl of Whiterun theres a dragon coming this way and you have to go and get the dragonstone and stuff like that." so if he did use the same names and followed the exact storyline it can be a plagiarism, if he made up new names and changed the story a bit it's not.

You guys are being incredibly uptight on the subject of plagiarism. People do it all the time, actually it's when it is just copypasta
under a different name do people get their feathers all ruffled up. The concept of borrowing plot ideas or simply taking a character
and just changing their appearence / background for our story's benefit, is so ingrained into our society that it isn't noticed hardly at all.

I'd imagine that 99% of Skyrim's quests owe their origins to some story or idea that the writer(s) was thinking about at the time of their creation.
Indeed, pure originality is hard to find these days. Everything is forged by something that had came before. Only the dwemer can divide by zero.

@ MrRicePatty, as long as you didn't use Skyrim's subject material (actually referencing whiterun / dragonstones etc.), it'd be ok.
It sounds likes you at least did some good on the choice of words and I can respect your use of inventive improvisation to fool
your teacher, thus giving yourself a high mark with little effort. It's smart, out of the box thinking, even if generally seen as bad by most.

he said it was influenced by skyrim for all we know it could take place in the Provence of Cloudrim and he had to go the the jarl of greyrun... to get the dragon tablet...

exactelly till we actually see the paper there is no way to know for sure

Why has the OP not made any more replies to this thread?

Because it's not a big deal but people keep making it a big deal. There's no way he could win this so he's probably not responding because of that. But that's just my guess about it though.

He could explain in a little more detail what he did exactly. From his opening post it sounds like he transcribed word for word the opening and first few quests from the game. Maybe if he'd give a bit more into what he wrote and how it was done it might help his case.

I think you are right. He/She wants to show his joy and luck and maybe wanted to say kind of "Thank you" and share it. I think He/she never thought there could be such a heavy discussion.