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CHAPTER LXVIII 345 tributed, the local or police censorships in some cities make tlieir own rulings, and these, being made by persons less well qualified to judge, may result in all crime scenes being cut out instead of merely those which are without excuse. Therefore, when a story is returned to you with the statement that it will not pass, it may mean the local censorships rather than the National Board. (12.XXXIX:6) (13.XX:8^ CHAPTER LXVIII COPYRIGHT AND COPYRIGHTED STORY PROBABLY no question is more frequently asked by the novice than just how far it is possible to go in using tlie material of a story protected by copyright. 2. Sometimes, indeed generally, the question seems to be asked in all sincerity, but all too often the question is phrased so clearly that it reads, "Just how far may I proceed in stealing the work of another. brain and get away with it?" 3. The answer in either case is simple. You may derive inspira- tion but not material from the work of another. Just what inspira- tion means is a matter between you and your conscience, since it is not easy to draw an exact line that may not be crossed. 4. Suppose that you read a story of a girl who has married the wrong man. He treats her brutally. She shoots him, not altogether in self-defense. The purpose of the book is to argue that a .32 bul- let for the man is better than an arsenic tablet for the woman. 5. If you write of a woman who marries the wrong man and shoots him, you've taken too much from the story. Suppose you argue that she should have left him, should have tried harder to reform him or, in short, anything but killing him. The further you get away from the story, the safer you are from a charge of theft. You'll probably stay within the legal rights. But suppose that this story gave you the idea of a similar match in which the birth of a child drove the pair still further apart but its death united them. 6. In such a case you can take your check with a clear conscience, for you have not stolen the idea. You have merely given an impetus to your own imagination through reading the product of another im- agination. That, perhaps, is the surest test. If you work your im- agination and direct it rightly, you have produced instead of copying. 7. You can take the start or the finish or perhaps take a part of the middle and use it for* a start. Once you have a start, if you possess imagination, the rest is easy, but if you have no imagination you cannot Write photoplays and it is useless to try and become a literary burglar because your sins will find you out. 8. There is a commercial as well as moral side to this matter. You