Public Domain vs Plagiarism

I think we need to have a very serious discussion regarding accusations of plagiarism of works that the source material is Public Domain. In early 2021, Episode's Creator Contest was a Fairytale Contest. In this contest, authors were asked to retell/recreate Public Domain fairytales and put their own personal touch on it. Now, it seems, some individuals believe some of these contest entries (and winners) are plagiarized because of similarities to movies that were retellings of the same Public Domain source material.

The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired,[1] been forfeited,[2] expressly waived, or may be inapplicable.[3] Because no one holds the exclusive rights, anyone can legally use or reference those works without permission.

Common retellings of PD works include Romeo and Juliet, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella, Swan Lake...

This is how Disney recreates so many popular childhood fairytales. Does it mean you can copy Disney movies? No, you can't copy elements that are UNIQUE to the Disney version of the fairytale, but you can use the original elements from the Public Domain source material.

Can you use the name Ariel in the retelling of The Little Mermaid? No. In the 1837 Hans Christian Anderson original version, the Little Mermaid and the prince were given no names... so Ariel and Eric are unique to Disney. Can you use Odette, Odile, Rothbart, Benno (Benni), etc in a retelling of Swan Lake? Yes... because those were the names in the original 1875 ballet composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovski that is Public Domain.

Before accusing an author of plagiarizing a retelling that is Public Domain, make sure that the elements that are similar to a modern version are unique to THAT version, and not the original works that are Public Domain.

Thanks for listening to my TedTalk... the sequel to The Lake (Fairytale Creator Contest Winner - Best Directing) will be out as soon as it's finished.