Tom Casiello who is one of the writers at Respawn just explained why he usually doesn’t read any Apex Legends related fan theories.
According to Tom, he really wants to see how Apex fans see their characters. However, the fear of plagiarism makes him not want to read any of the fan theories. Even though he really would like to read every single one of the character backstories, weird ships, character nationalities, new legends abilities, etc, he just won’t because he doesn’t want his work to be compromised in any way shape or form.
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“There are only so many ideas, and if I accidentally stumble into a character someone else thinks they created and I stole from them, then they can sue me. And/or the company I work for. And if there’s a record anywhere on any computer that I read that tweet with that oc, they have a case“, Tom Casiello on why he doesn’t read any fan-made content regarding Apex Legends.
Furthermore, sometimes writers can accidentally plagiarize someone’s content. For example: if a writer reads something and then later decides to write something similar to the original content he/she just read, at a subconscious level writers can sometimes accidentally copy someone’s intellectual property without even knowing it.
Additionally, if someone feels like a writer stole their original work, they can sue the writer and the company he/she works for allegedly stealing other’s content. To avoid both accidental and intentional plagiarism, writers usually don’t read fan-made content that they are currently working on.
When I no longer work here, I’ll go back and catch up on what I missed. But for now, I don’t even open the links. The urls won’t be in my browser history. And I never have to worry that I got paid for using somebody else’s idea.
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While writers would love to read fan-made content, they really can’t for legal reasons. However, Tom did admit that if he ever leaves Respawn he would love to revisit all of these fan-made theories/stories that he missed all this time.
