"Borrowing" ideas from other models shows

[Astrid_squirts420]

I couldn't find anything posted on this specific topic, so here it goes!

What is the proper etiquette, or protocol on this?

I am still new to camming and I watch a ton of other rooms to learn the ropes, get inspiration etc. I just saw a model doing something super cool on cam, that would fit my personality and my camming style really well and I think my existing viewers would really enjoy it.
I would of course put my own spin on it and make it slightly different...but I mean, let's be real...I'm stealing her idea..right?

Is this ok to do? Or totally frowned upon?
If you were her and you saw me doing this unique thing in my room (probably a long shot, but let's pretend) even if I put my own spin on it...how would you feel?

 

[Marceline]

There's a difference between drawing inspiration from something and outright copying/stealing that idea.

For example, let's say I'm reading a best selling book about zombies. I love it and now I'm all pumped up and got zombies on the brain. I'm feeling all kinds of motivation and inspiration to write my own book about zombies. So, I write my book with zombies as the central theme, same as the other one, but the characters are different, the story line is different, etc. That is okay.

Now, let's say I read the same book and my thoughts were, "Wow, now I see why this book was a best seller. I bet I could do the same exact thing and have it be a best seller as well!". So, I copy most of the stuff from the original book while writing my own in hopes of my book being as popular as the original one. That's not okay.

Sorry if my analogy is silly, but yeah. I think a lot of it has to do with intention and of course how close to the original idea it is. If you're just gathering inspiration from the idea and putting your own spin on it, I don't think that should be a problem. You gotta think, there's all these things that cam models do, like wheel spins, raffles, balloon prizes, etc, that they saw someone else doing, and they just put their own spin on it to make it special.

I've had someone in this industry straight up steal my best selling clip ideas to the point where there was no denying that it was plagiarism. Needless to say, I was pissed. However, if that person would have instead made videos that wasn't just a cheap knock off of what I was doing and instead would have made videos with the same fetishes, with only slight similarities to mine, I wouldn't have been angry.

 

[AlexaCrush]

I think if you used it as a jumping off point for your own idea it'd be fine. Every work of art was inspired by something else and all that, you know?
Marceline's book analogy is great. Like, there's a million books and movies inspired by the Odyssey but they're not the Odyssey because the authors made it theirs - look at the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou?. It's pretty obviously inspired by the Odyssey but it's so unique at the same time. You can easily distinguish between the two.

 

[Mila_]

I'm gonna skip all the intellectualism and go straight to the point here: you will breed resentment with other models if you steal their ideas and even if you tweak them, if your idea is close enough to the original that they can identify themselves as the source of it they will dislike you.

However... every single model has taken ideas from other models for their shows and if anyone denies this they are simply lying. Every model does this, I haven't seen a single successful model yet who can claim their shows are 100% original, even the models who claim authenticity as their main moral value do this, so every model is indebted to other models and in the end it is just a chain of copies.

What you need to know before stealing stuff is you WILL be burning the bridge with the particular model you are stealing from. In all likelihood she will never want anything to do with you and depending on how resentful their personality is they might even go as far as to try to hurt you. Even if they, themselves, have also stolen from other models in the past. Nobody is clean in this industry.

In my particular case... I don't mind so much when a model steals gimmicks from me. This is the thing they steal the most. It's fine, it's just a marketing strategy. I would rather not have them copy it because like every other marketing strategy once everyone is using it, it completely loses it's power, so I have to keep coming up with fresh stuff. Still, I can deal with that, they re always one step behind and it forces me to come up with fresh angles all the time so it keeps me on my toes. What I do despise is when they copy my STYLE. Meaning.. my persona. This is something that really pisses me off and it is an absolute deal breaker to me.

So the questions you should be asking yourself are.. (1) Does the gain outweigh the loss? Is this thing you are going to copy something that will give you enough of an edge or a push or an advantage that it justifies pissing off the other model? You might want to consider the risk here if it is a very popular model and she is impulsive she might put you on blast. Is this something you need? (2) How you will look like to the viewers. Here is where tweaking is important. The model you are copying will always know you are copying her, but the viewers aren't as attached to the original idea so they won't see the connection. If you tweak the idea and the other model gets pissed off she will be less likely to retaliate if she thinks nobody else will see the ripoff.

That's my 2 cents.

 

[JoleneBrody]

Are you sure it’s truly her original idea and not just one of the many things tons of us do?
If so, it does not hurt to reach out to her first and ask

 

[Astrid_squirts420]

(I still don't know how to quote only parts of responses, and so to avoid quoting all three of your entire responses I just opted to quote nothing lol.)

Thank you all for your thoughtful responses. I really appreciate your perspective more than I can say!
I definitely have a lot to think about (especially after reading your response, Mila. Which was very detailed and gave me a lot of insight btw!) I want to make sure that if I do decide to take inspiration from the idea and incorporate it into my show, that I do it respectfully and without burning any bridges!
I do want to Express that this is just an "activity" of sorts and definitely not any part of her actual persona that I would be stealing! I definitely want my room to be my own and have my personal touch and not be mimicking anyone else's style or personality!
I will also say, that I do not personally know this model and there is an incredibly low chance of her ever seeing/hearing about anything that goes on in my room. For many reasons, (and maybe I'm very naive!) but the most obvious being that I am very new at this and have less than 5k followers atm. I usually only have between 60-100 viewers in my room...

I obviously sensed there was a bit of an ethical question, which is what prompted the post to begin with. So I still don't know what I will do or how I feel about it. I think taking some time to think on it will help, and avoid jumping the gun and pissing anyone off! The last thing I want to do is make enemies, especially this early in the game!
But....who knows where SHE got the idea...lol, I could be witnessing already stolen material! Hahah

 

[Astrid_squirts420]

Are you sure it’s truly her original idea and not just one of the many things tons of us do?
If so, it does not hurt to reach out to her first and ask

I did think of asking in a tip note but I usually only offline tip models after I watch their shows to avoid it looking like I am promoting myself in their room! I am still learning all the rules!

 

[JoleneBrody]

I did think of asking in a tip note but I usually only offline tip models after I watch their shows to avoid it looking like I am promoting myself in their room! I am still learning all the rules!

That’s not a bad idea as asking her something like that may disrupt the flow of her show. Asking her offline, in even an mfc Mail would be better than during her show. It may help for you to brainstorm exactly how you will make it your own first

 

[AudriTwo]

I'm giving full consent for anyone to get inspiration or "copy" my room on streamate. I really don't care, but I can understand why others would take issue.