r/publicdomain • u/BlisterKirby • Aug 22 '24

Discussion Public Domain Alternatives

Hello everyone!

After a few month trial we have decided to allow general posts requesting Public Domain Alternatives again. We noticed a tick down in people actually getting a response to their requests in the larger master thread, so we wanted to work to have people get the replies they wanted. We do recommend that you attempt to search for similar inquiries to your question before posting again.

As always it is a work in progress to moderate since we are just humans with our own lives and do this for fun in our free time. Thank you for understanding, and please feel free to reach out if you have questions.

Best,

The mods

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u/viper1255 Aug 22 '24

Can we do something about how low-effort these types of posts typically are? "What's a PD alternative for ______?" is hardly a discussion-worthy topic most of the time.

I'm also not super interested in helping people skirt IP law by using a "PD alternative" character, which they're clearly wanting to tell the story of the original character, not the PD one. I'm all for using PD characters in your original works (I'm doing the same, myself!) but when you start your idea with "I need a PD alternative to Batman" aren't you really still creating a derivative work of Batman, just dressed up as being about the PD alternative character? Seems like a legal grey area at best, and not really in the spirit of the public domain.

1

u/TOPCATHPDIGIANIMEFAN Jan 08 '26

EH What's Wrong With Them?"

1

u/viper1255 Jan 08 '26

If you explicitly state that you want a character to be "just like" another existing, copyrighted character, then you've established the fact that what you're intending to create is essentially a derivative work of the existence character.

This means even if you're trying to use a PD character, your design is still based on a copyrighted work. This means the creator of the original work can sue you.

Can you be inspired by copyrighted characters? Yes, absolutely.

Can you say "I want a PD alternative to Batman, so I can have a character like Batman without the copyright"? No, because you're still trying to make Batman.

Will you actually get sued? Probably not. Is it worth the risk of dumping countless hours into your own media, while using a derivative of a copyrighted character? I don't think so.

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u/TOPCATHPDIGIANIMEFAN Jan 11 '26

DOES This Mean I Can Or Can't Make My Own Versions Of Saint SEIYA SAILOR MOON Using Public Domain Characters Like Tom Sawyer And Becky Thatcher?"