benefiting from someone else's work theme

A character must decide whether they can quietly take credit for something that is actually due to another person's labor.

11 total · 6 major · 5 minor

StoryLevelMotivation
as1985e2x15 major Billy took credit for writing hilarious sitcom script, but in reality a sentient spider plant was behind much of the heavy lifting.
as1985e2x17 major Jo-Jo passed off compositions created by the spirit of George Gershwin as his own work.
columbo1971e10x13 major Findlay Crawford, an Academy Award winning film score composer, murdered his ghost-composer out of desperation to keep the young man from outing him as a fraud.
columbo1971e3x06 major Neil Cahill was named the Scientist of the Year for a plagiarized "theory of molecular matter". The plot turns on Neil's father resorting to murder to prevent his son from being outed as a fraud.
futurama6x21 major Leela took credit for writing great stories, but really she just writing down what she observed a group of aliens going.
tz1959e4x18 major The bumbling screenwriter Julius accidentally conjured Shakespeare into existence, got him to write a play, and then shamelessly took credit for it. Shakespeare was rather annoyed of not receiving any credit for all the work Julius simply put his own name on.
movie: Bride of ReAnimator (1990) minor Herbert recalled aloud how Dr. Carl Hill had tried to take steal the credit for the corpse reanimating serum that Herbert had invented.
movie: ReAnimator (1985) minor Dr. Carl Hill was pointedly accused of having plagiarized Dr. Hans Gruber's work. Dr. Carl Hill tried to steal the credit for the corpse reanimating serum that Herbert had invented.
movie: The Red Shoes (1948) minor Professor Palmer had stolen Julian's work, and Julian discussed this with Lermontov who concluded that Palmer was the more pitiable
tftc1989e5x08 minor The inept stage magician Miles Federman stole the acts of two other magicians.