What if I have a story with some characters from another story by a different author and don't want to be copyrighted?

Question

I am writing a story with some of Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson characters in it like, Percy, Annabeth, Grover,Leo, Hazel, Piper, Jason, and much more other characters in his story. I wanted to make a "pretend" story of technically me if I were a half-blood - and I really don't want it to be copyrighted.

Answer 1

I am not a lawyer, but I think you may need one.

It doesn't make a difference if you try to get a copyright or not, Rick Riordan already has the copyright on his works, and that means only Rick Riordan has the right to give you permission to copy his characters.

Not to mention, his characters might also be trademarked.

You cannot use another writer's characters or words without their permission. There are some minor exceptions, like mentioning their names, but you will go too far if you include his characters in your work, you have no right to do that.

Even if you have no intention of making any money off your work, if you just want to publish online in a blog or something for others to read.

Essentially you are talking about "fanfiction", but modern authors usually extend their copyright to "derivative works", which would include fanfiction, and may set specific rules for fanfiction: JK Rowling allows fan fiction in the Harry Potter universe; but subject to several restrictions (including not using certain characters, no adult content, no profit-making works, etc).

Many other writers do not; and especially do not like and will sue over derivative works that make their main characters subordinate to some new character, or create new character traits in any of their characters, etc.

It doesn't make a difference if you make money on it; it can be like defamation in that sense: The defamer doesn't have to make money from their defamation in order to be guilty of defamation. Just the fact that the author (or their lawyers) were able to read your work somewhere makes it published without permission of the copyright holder (their client) and they can sue you for damages.

Do not write fanfiction or derivative works without careful research into what the original author allows, and if you can't find that, err on the side of caution. At least if you prefer to stay out of court and keep your stuff.

Answer 2

Usually, good stories give inspiration to the reader. He/she wants to continue the imaginary trip with the story characters. This is a good start for writing.

For copyright:

1. Must your characters have the same backstory they had in "Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson"?
2. Change not only the name of the character, but mix your character with another one from people in the real world, then put them in your imaginary situations, and you might end up with your own story, backstories, and characters.