Images used on Back to Titanic are copyrighted to their respective owners and the copyright to such images are held by the photographers and/or Paramount Pictures.

The copyright to the name Back to Titanic is not claimed by the staff members of Back to Titanic, and is simply used here with the purpose of operating this site as a source of entertainment based on the movie Titanic. The above statement also pertains to the slogan "Have you been through the inspection queue?"

Some contributors to Back to Titanic may be first-time writers and unaware of the concept of plagiarism. Therefore, here is a good explanation, excerpted from Wake Forest University's English Department Web site (http://english.tribble.wfu.edu/english/writing4.htm)

"To put your name on a piece of work is to say that it is yours, that the praise or criticism due to it is due to you. To put your name on a piece of work any part of which is not yours is plagiarism, unless that piece is clearly marked and the work from which you have borrowed is fully identified. Plagiarism is a form of theft. Taking words, phrasing, sentence structure, or any other element of the expression of another person's ideas, and using them as if they were yours, is like taking from that person a material possession, something he or she has worked for and earned. Even worse is the appropriation of someone else's ideas.
... If you paraphrase, you merely translate from his or her language to yours; another person's ideas in your language are still not your ideas. Paraphrase, therefore, without proper documentation, is theft, perhaps of the worst kind. Plagiarism is a serious violation of another person's rights, whether the material stolen is great or small; it is not a matter of degree or intent ... Your responsibility, when you put your name on a piece of work, is simply to distinguish between what is yours and what is not, and to credit those who have in any way contributed."

Because all Titanic fan fiction deals with the life experiences of particular characters during a specific historical period and in certain geographic locations, there is always the possibility that different people may place these characters in the same, or similar situations. The normal creative process should naturally create variations in how these situations are handled. However, certain submissions received in recent weeks go beyond these expected similarities, and are clearly taken, in some cases almost verbatim, from other previously linked works.

With the volume of treatments being submitted, evaluating whether a submission is plagiarized or merely has similarities to another work is an inexact science. However, when every aspect of a plot, all characters and their dialogue, and/or phrasing and style are virtually identical to another work, plagiarism, whether intended or not, must be assumed, and such works will not be accepted as submissions.

We believe that all who submit works to Back to Titanic are writers of good faith and of good intentions. However, in the case of writing, or any other creative endeavor, imitation is NOT the sincerest form of flattery.

(This definition used with permission from Beth and Jill at Titanic Stories. Thank you very much!)