Story Reuse Licenses

Every story on Gay Collar Stories stays the property of the author who wrote it. By default nobody may do anything with it without asking them first.

Authors who want to may go further and open up the world of their story — its setting, its premise, the ideas it runs on, and its characters if you want them — so that other writers can tell their own stories in it.

You do not have to continue the original story. A sequel is welcome, but so is a side-story about someone else entirely, a story set years earlier, or something that shares nothing with the original but the world it happens in. Reuse the characters or leave them alone — either is fine. The point of these licenses is that a good idea can grow beyond the story that introduced it.

None of these licenses allows anyone to repost the story itself. They let you build something new on top of a story, never copy it elsewhere. If you want to republish someone's story as it stands — on another site, in a collection, in an anthology — you must ask the author, whatever license the story carries.

These are our own licenses rather than Creative Commons ones. Every Creative Commons license permits redistribution of the original work as its starting point, which is the one thing our authors most often want to withhold.

What every license below has in common

Credit is required. Name the original author and include a link back to the original story wherever your story appears.
Non-commercial only. You may not sell your story, put it behind a paywall, or use it to advertise anything.
No reposting. The original story may not be republished, mirrored or redistributed. You may quote brief excerpts — enough to remind a reader what happened, or to pick up where a scene left off — but never so much that your text becomes a substitute for reading the original.
Same license. Your story must carry the same license as the one whose world it uses, so that a third writer may in turn build on what you wrote. What was given openly stays open.
No endorsement. Do not suggest that the original author wrote, approved of or is otherwise involved in your story.
Nothing is taken back retroactively. If an author later changes their license, stories that were already written under the earlier one keep the permission they were given. The new license applies from that point onwards.
The author keeps every other right, including the right to use their own work commercially.

Shared world (version 1.0)

Anyone may write and publish their own stories set in this story's world, under the common terms above. That includes continuing the original, writing alongside it, or telling something entirely separate that simply shares the same setting — using its characters or not, as you prefer.

No permission is needed. You do not have to reach the author first.

Shared world, translations allowed (version 1.0)

As above, and in addition the story itself may be translated into another language and the translation published, under all of the same common terms.

A translation must be identified as a translation and must name the original author. Publishing the story unchanged in its original language is still not permitted.

No permission is needed. You do not have to reach the author first.

The default for every story. Nothing may be continued, reused, translated or republished without the author's explicit consent — including writing your own story in its world. You are welcome to ask them: most authors are glad to be asked, and the story page links to the author's profile so you can.

If you think someone has overstepped

These are terms, not technical restrictions. The site does not stop anyone from setting a different license on their story, from leaving out the credit, or from posting a story somewhere else entirely — just as it cannot read every story to check.

We rely on authors to tell us. If you believe a story breaches the license on your work, contact admin@gaykinkystories.com with links to both stories and an explanation. We will look at it and decide, and we reserve the right to decline a claim we consider unreasonable.

A license applies to every chapter of a series, and is set by the series manager. Authors can change the license on their own stories at any time under User → Story Reuse & License, or per story when editing it.