>And yet nobody, least of all David Gerrold or Robert Heinlein, thought >_The Trouble With Tribbles_ plagiarized _The Rolling Stones_. Or for >that matter the Hornblower books. In literature, if you borrow from >enough sources and rub off enough serial numbers, it really does stop >being plagiarism. On the other hand, Ellison kicked up major stinks over "Back to the Future" (which he thought too similar to _Time Enough for Love_) and Terminator (which he thought too similar to his own _Demon with a Glass Hand_). Personally, I thought both comparisons ludicrous [1], but it goes to show that the difference between thematic simularity and plagarism are often a matter of personal perspective. -- [1] The *only* similarities I see are that TEfL is a time travel story where the protagonist visits his own mother, and that DwaGH is a story about a soldier from the future. Beyond that, IMO, all similarities end. Marty, >from BttF did not, for instance, actually have sex with his mom. _________________________________________________________________ STOP MORE SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail