Copyright question

[House of Mustard]

Here's a question for Stacer or EUOL, or whoever else knows their copyright law.

In my next novel, I'm using the ideas of two politcal scientists who wrote a book on Nuclear Proliferation.  I wanted to use a couple of their specific points/arguments in the novel.  Do I need to reference that?  I'm not copying sections of text, just ideas.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

I would make a reference either in a forward or an author's note at the back specificying which books you pulled the ideas from. You shouldn't need to specify in the text of the novel itself pages and such.

[House of Mustard]

Yeah, I figured I wouldn't need page numbers or footnotes or anything, but wuld I have to mention in the text "John Mearsheimer said..."

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

I believe it's simply acceptable to put it at the end of the book (or in a forward) stating generally where the ideas came from. Won't you have an editor to make sure this happens? Just hold on to the page numbers in your notes, so if you're asked in the future, you can produce it. But fot he manuscript, "author's note" should probably suffice.

[stacer]

I agree with Saint. Unless it's part of the story, I'd keep it to front or back matter.

[House of Mustard]

Sounds good.  Yeah SE, I'm sure my editor could tell me exactly how to do it--I'm just too lazy to email her.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

wow, I really admire your time wasting fu. It's almost as powerful as mine. I mean, you can type it here, but not there.

Of course, I've done the equivelent a million times, walking all over my bldg looking for someone with a potential answer instead of just emailing one person and waiting.

[42]

According to my brother who graduates in bussiness law and public policy next month, "copyright laws protect products, not ideas." Course, there is the whole argument of intellectual property, but that doesn't stand up very well in courts unless you have some hard evidence that your idea belongs solely to you and therefore no one else has a right to think those thoughts.

But to be curtious and to proliferate the culture of intellectualism, you should place a reference in the book. Most books I've worked on place them in the back.

[Peter Ahlstrom]

Check a science-heavy science fiction book on how to do it. See for example the acknowledgments at the beginning of Hominids by Robert J. Sawyer (just swing a look in the bookstore). It's the one part of the book I can recommend for sure.