(2016-02-12, 4:22 am)alphador Wrote: What I reported (the fact that X and 十 look similar) was, of course, an exception, since most of the other have totally different stories (I am still checking though). And yet, I can assure you that even people who never read the book made that association, proving that it is a natural and obvious way to remember it (expecially if you live in the land where roman numbers were invented).I understand that point (and agree, that's an obvious story, anybody could come up with it). But, like I said, that's not what matters, what matters is how many similarities there are. Even if it's obvious stuff, if it's a lot of them, it proves that copying was done. Sure, it's easy to coincidentally make this one story, that happens to be the same as in Heisig. But if it's a lot of them, then it becomes impossible for it to be a coincidence.
How many stories would you say are similar to the ones in Heisig? And how many primitives (of the kind that Heisig created himself, they weren't radicals before)? And how many primitive names, that aren't just the meaning of Kanji in Japanese (or any language). That's what matters. If it's not a lot, then you're fine. If it is, then you should probably change them, and then you'll be fine. Either way, this shouldn't cause you to have to take all your work down permanently, or worse, have to spend money on a lawyer. To me, at least, it seems like a fixable problem.
Look at it this way: they can't sue you over using Kanji in the same order Heisig did, or about translating the meaning of the Kanji themselves...since those are actual meanings of characters, plenty of open source dictionaries and sites publish them, even in English. Only thing they can sue you over are similar stories and primitive names (not all, just the ones Heisig came up with himself...sorry, I don't know what percentage that is, I only studied with the Heisig method, never paid attention to radicals). But I'm pretty sure those can be changed without ruining your work.
This is not 100%, but I'm also somewhat confident that you can use the same components Heisig uses, as long as you call them something else. Often, Heisig will name a primitive something that has nothing to do with its meaning, in any East Asian languages. Using that same name (or a translation of it) is an issue, but everything else seems like fair game.
P.S. And yes, I am aware that this site also has stories that technically violate the same copyright. But they're user submitted stories, they are not content the website owner copied. The website owner only published the Kanji and their keywords. Those are not subject to a copyright claim. Of course, user submitted stories can be challenged, but, as long as the site owner responds to those challenges appropriately (the same way youtube for instance responds, by taking down the content in question until the matter is settled one way or the other), the site itself is safe. You aren't safe, because it's your work. You can be sued directly, and you'll lose, for the same type of content that this site can't lose over. You can't say that it's someone else posting the offending stories on an open site, you're the one who put them up.
Edited: 2016-02-12, 2:01 pm