Understanding the Star Trek: Discovery Plagiarism Allegations

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From Plagiarism Today:

In late August, news began to come out that CBS and Netflix were being sued by Egyptian video game developer Anas Abdin for allegedly stealing his idea to create Star Trek: Discovery.

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[Abdin] accused CBS (and others involved with Star Trek: Discovery), of taking ideas and even characters from his unreleased game, Tardigrades, and using it in the series.According to Abdin, he had first posted the game on Steam Greenlight in May 2014 and posted constant development updates since. Star Trek: Discovery, on the other hand, debuted in September 2017 on CBS All Access  (and Netflix internationally).

Abdin, in an August 2018 post announcing the lawsuit, said that he had attempted to work with CBS to address this issue “but they treated me in disrespect and just dangled me around with postponing meetings due to their vacations and being busy.”

But this raises the question: Is there anything to Abdin’s allegations or his lawsuit? The answer is “Probably not” but the case does highlight some interesting issues about the boundaries between independent creation, plagiarism and copyright infringement.

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Tardigrades is an unreleased point-and-click adventure game about a civilization that existed 20,000 years ago and discovered that, through the use of giant tardigrades, they could travel anywhere in the universe.

Star Trek: Discovery is the latest series in the Star Trek universe. Set in the time between Star Trek: Enterprise and the original series, it explores the story of a cutting-edge ship named Discovery that is able to travel anywhere in the universe instantly through the use of its Spore Drive.

However, for several episodes in the first season, Discovery operated its Spore Drive with the aid of a giant blue tardigrade named “Ripper”, which had a symbiotic relationship with the spores and a connection to the mycelial network the drive uses. When it was discovered using it in the spore drive was causing it harm, the crew let Ripper go and a member of the crew took over the job.

According to Abdin, the similarities between the two are just too much to ignore. The use of giant blue tardigrades to teleport anywhere in the universe is a striking similarity. Furthermore, Abdin claims that many of the characters in Star Trek: Discovery are similar to ones in his game, including an interracial gay couple. Couple that with some similar visuals, such as the inside of the Spore Drive vs. the inside of the Wormhole in Tardigrades and Abdin feels there’s enough to file a lawsuit.

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To prove his case, Abdin has to show two things:

  1. That the team from Star Trek: Discover copied from him.
  2. That what they copied amounted to copyright infringement.

The first item will be difficult enough. Tardigrades was announced in May 2014. Star Trek: Discovery was announced in November 2015. Most likely, Star Trek: Discoverywas in the works well before anything was made public about Tardigrades.

It’s also worth noting that Tardigrades are real creatures. They are microscopic organisms that have become somewhat famous in recent years for their ability to survive in space. In fact, in 2008 scientists from the European Space Agency subjected tardigrades to space-like conditions and they suffered no ill-effects. Tardigrades resiliency combined with their alien appearance make them natural fodder for science fiction.

Though it is an interesting coincidence that both used giant blue tardigrades to aid in instantaneous travel, the mechanisms by which they worked appear to be different.

. . . .

But, even if it can be shown that CBS did copy from Tradigrades, Abdin has to prove that what was copied is protected by copyright. Simply put, ideas can not be copyright protected, only expressions of those ideas. You can’t sell copies of Harry Potter but you can write your own story about a child wizard that goes to a magic school.

Characters can be copyright protected, but only if they are distinct and original.

. . . .

Given that tardigrades are real creatures, it seems unlikely that either CBS or Abdin would have protection in large, blue, space-traveling tardigrades.

The same is true for the other similarities. Having a black female lead or an interracial gay couple can be part of a character, but does not obtain copyright protection by itself. After all, these are elements in many, many stories and, if Star Trek: Discovery can be held liable for using, then Abdin would likely be in trouble as well.

. . . .

Abdin has been working on this game for years and his fans have been following his work for just as long.

When they saw Star Trek: Discovery, they saw something that felt very familiar. The similarities were striking. However, similar does not equal plagiarism and plagiarism does not equal copyright infringement. The gap between something being similar and it being infringing in the eyes of a court is huge. Far stronger cases have failed to meet those burdens.

Link to the rest at Plagiarism Today

3 thoughts on “Understanding the Star Trek: Discovery Plagiarism Allegations”

  1. 1- He almost certainly will be unable to prove anything.

    2- He almost certainly was ripped off, judging by the “coincidences” and the quality of the writing on the show.

    It’s plothole central. Panicky “throw stuff out to see what sticks”. Given their lack of respect for the source material, why expect respect for anything else?

    • I once received a nice lawyer letter stating ‘I’ had stolen their client’s story idea.

      I sent them a link to a Yahoo groups site where the discussion about ‘my’ story being spotted on a website started – way back in 2005 …

      Didn’t get a reply for some reason, and happily never heard another word from them.

      .

      Though I have seen a couple of people with common interests come up with the ‘same idea’ without there being any actual transfer/trading of ideas from one to the other – they’d just seen some of the same things and came up with the same plot.

      • Sure, ideas float up from the same inspiration all the time.
        But seriously?

        Giant. Blue. Tardigrades? Not black or yellow or green. Blue.

        Why not giant blue space whales?
        Afraid Marvel would sue on behalf of Chris Claremont?
        Couldn’t use Space Dolphins because DC did those…
        Ah, but Tardigrades from a video game. Who would notice? Or care?

        Like I said, I can see it.
        Won’t do him any good, though.

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