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From: root@trwatf.UUCP (Lord Frith)
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers,net.movies
Subject: Re: The Terminator vs. Harlan Ellison
Message-ID: <981@trwatf.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 11-Jun-85 13:28:43 EDT
Article-I.D.: trwatf.981
Posted: Tue Jun 11 13:28:43 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 13-Jun-85 01:03:23 EDT
References: <1027@peora.UUCP> <2818@nsc.UUCP>
Reply-To: root@trwatf.UUCP (Lord Frith)
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In article <2818@nsc.UUCP> chuqui@nsc.UUCP (Chuq Von Rospach) writes:
> off their short story 'Brillo' about a robot cop. The reality is that SF
> authors get ripped off a LOT, mainly because they seem to be afraid to
> fight back, either independently or through their agents or SFWA. The
> Mystery Writers group, on the other hand, has relatively little problem
> because they DO tend to police their work. Harlan, who has been around that
> industry for a long time and isn't known for his timidity, is also not
> afraid to go for what he believes is his. If other authors or the SFWA took
> a more active stance in hollywood, perhaps hollywood would take SF a bit
> more seriously...

How do you differentiate between rip-offs and coincidence?  The idea of a robot
cop doesn't sound so obtuse to gaurentee another writer won't think of it
again... and invent story lines around it.

Harlan's stories may have been inovative in their day, but that doesn't mean
that they are inovative now.  Thus it seems presumptuous for him to conclude
that he was ripped off.

Terminator is somewhat more unique than a robot cop story.

"The sun never sets on this child...."
-- 

UUCP: ...{decvax,ihnp4,allegra}!seismo!trwatf!root	- Lord Frith
ARPA: trwatf!root@SEISMO

"Give a man a horse... and he thinks he's enormous"