See the guides published by the Australian Society of Authors. There are also Writers Centres in most capital cities which may be able to assist you. http://www.asauthors.org
See the guides published by the Australian Society of Authors. There are also Writers Centres in most capital cities which may be able to assist you. http://www.asauthors.org
Ideas and pieces of information are not protected by copyright - it is their form and expression that is protected.
However, even if you did not copy the actual words from the transcript, or use any of the actual words from the person with whom you discussed You may own copyright in the work solely, or jointly with the person telling the story. This depends on the extent of the other person’s involvement. Where the other person has regular input into the way the work is developed, it is more likely you own the copyright jointly - even where they do not actually write the words. Alternatively, if the other person merely makes suggestions, this would not usually be sufficient for them to own copyright.
You would also need to seek permission from the owner of the copyright in the transcript in order to use that material. It could be the transcriber or the person telling the story who owns copyright in the transcript. This will depend on whether the transcriber acted as a “mere clerk or agent” for the other person, or whether they exercised some skill and originality in transcribing and compiling the information.
Ideas and information are not protected by copyright, but in this situation there is a very real possibility that you will co-own copyright with the person (or with their estate, if they have died).
This is because, even though you have not used the person’s actual words, you may have structured your novel around those stories, and the other person may therefore have a strong claim as a co-author of your work and therefore a co-owner of copyright.
Every situation depends on its own facts, but in this case, you may have been best off discussing with the person the fact that you were writing a novel based on your discussions and documenting how copyright issues would be dealt with.
Themes and ideas are not protected by copyright; therefore it is not an infringement of copyright to write a work based on a theme that is used in another work. You will, however, need to be careful that you do not reproduce any important part of the way the other author has expressed that theme in his or her work. Other areas of law, such as Trade Practices, may also be relevant to the way to market such a book. You will need to consult a private solicitor if this area of law is of concern to you. The Arts Law Centre of Australia may also be able to assist you. You can contact Arts Law on (02) 9356 2566; http://www.artslaw.com.au.
Material such as old family diaries and letters may still be protected by copyright, even though it may be very old. Copyright in unpublished material can last indefinitely.
You might therefore only be able to publish this type of material with permission or in situations covered by a special exception to infringement.
Neither the name of a character nor a fictional character as such (insofar as it consists merely of a collection of attributes) is likely to be protected by copyright. Bart Simpson, for example, is just a brattish boy with spiky yellow hair.
However, if you go further than just using a character’s name and attributes, and start using the events and motivations from a particular story or film that a character has appeared in, or if you use someone else’s drawing of the character, you will have copyright issues to deal with. In many cases you may be using a “substantial part” of a work in which someone else owns copyright.
In some cases, the use of a character may also raise issues under other areas of law, such as trade marks and trade practices legislation (if people are likely to think that your book is an authorised sequel, for example). This might be the case even if there is no copyright infringement.