Are concepts behind a species copyrightable? I'm curious because I was randomly browsing through Wikipedia, when I typed up Avian to see what would be brought up.
Sure enough, something did come up, and according to Wikipedia, they seem to be a generic term for a race of winged-creatures in many fantasy stories/novels/games.
Anyway, I was asking because I have a species in my story specifically called Avians, and they are winged-birds, and although they have an anthropomorphic body structure, they're still essentially birds, and not simply humans with wings on their back. For instance, they have seperate limbs for their wings and their arms (I suppose in this sense they would look sort of like what you'd imagine an angel would look like, but again, the head is that of birds, not people).
I came up with this stuff years ago when I was randomly doodling in class. Since I drew a lot of bird-men and liked what I saw, I began to develop them even more (obviously their species has the fastest ships in my story, for example), to the point where they have a pretty complex history. And prior to looking it up on Wikipedia, I had no idea these other things existed.
I'm wondering if I could get sued later on for this (particularly if it becomes popular. I'm asking now so that if this does happen, well, it's not like I was blatantly ripping people off). Again, I didn't know about the other Avian stuff till I looked it up on wikipedia (great place to find info on stuff you can't normally find elsewhere), and I am developing a lot of unique things so that my version of it will be radically different from other people's things (such as having them fly spaceships and small fighters, etc. Yes, they can fly with their wings, but in my story, they have ships in which to fight the bad guys with).
If this could be a potential lawsuit, I can always change the name of the species of birds in my story (I've already done that a few times since names I came up with for characters and concepts were already taken by others, and again, I don't want to seem like I'm just ripping off people, which is all too common nowadays). But if that stuff is generic enough that it probably wouldn't bother anyone, then I may stick with it (I suppose I should start looking though, to make my story even more unique, cause Avian is kind of generic).
Keep in mind I'm not calling these things Hobbits nor is my book called Star Wars (which I understand would definitely be ripping it off). I'm thinking this would probably be along the lines of stuff like elves, dwarves, etc, because Tolkien didn't invent those races (but no doubt he made them popular), so I suppose my naming of this particular species wouldn't be infringing on anything because it is kind of generic (but again, let me know if it sounds like something that could be a lawsuit later on).
Sure enough, something did come up, and according to Wikipedia, they seem to be a generic term for a race of winged-creatures in many fantasy stories/novels/games.
Anyway, I was asking because I have a species in my story specifically called Avians, and they are winged-birds, and although they have an anthropomorphic body structure, they're still essentially birds, and not simply humans with wings on their back. For instance, they have seperate limbs for their wings and their arms (I suppose in this sense they would look sort of like what you'd imagine an angel would look like, but again, the head is that of birds, not people).
I came up with this stuff years ago when I was randomly doodling in class. Since I drew a lot of bird-men and liked what I saw, I began to develop them even more (obviously their species has the fastest ships in my story, for example), to the point where they have a pretty complex history. And prior to looking it up on Wikipedia, I had no idea these other things existed.
I'm wondering if I could get sued later on for this (particularly if it becomes popular. I'm asking now so that if this does happen, well, it's not like I was blatantly ripping people off). Again, I didn't know about the other Avian stuff till I looked it up on wikipedia (great place to find info on stuff you can't normally find elsewhere), and I am developing a lot of unique things so that my version of it will be radically different from other people's things (such as having them fly spaceships and small fighters, etc. Yes, they can fly with their wings, but in my story, they have ships in which to fight the bad guys with).
If this could be a potential lawsuit, I can always change the name of the species of birds in my story (I've already done that a few times since names I came up with for characters and concepts were already taken by others, and again, I don't want to seem like I'm just ripping off people, which is all too common nowadays). But if that stuff is generic enough that it probably wouldn't bother anyone, then I may stick with it (I suppose I should start looking though, to make my story even more unique, cause Avian is kind of generic).
Keep in mind I'm not calling these things Hobbits nor is my book called Star Wars (which I understand would definitely be ripping it off). I'm thinking this would probably be along the lines of stuff like elves, dwarves, etc, because Tolkien didn't invent those races (but no doubt he made them popular), so I suppose my naming of this particular species wouldn't be infringing on anything because it is kind of generic (but again, let me know if it sounds like something that could be a lawsuit later on).
