The Middle Distance

Yes. Plagiarism is taking credit for someone else's work, but doing work of your own based on inspiration from someone else's work is SO clearly NOT plagiarism.

You can't own ideas because there is always someone else in the world who can (and often will) have the same idea from the same context of the material, but without ever having any contact with you.

*nodsnods* Absolutely. It happens all the time.

I love citing sources. I've written some writers' notes to some stories that are as long as a chapter of the story itself - the synthesis of sources is so much fun to me. The recipe is not the cake, but some people geek out on recipes in their own right. :)