how cautious should you be of telling people your ideas?

R

RealJasonBourne

I had an idea that I posted on this forum and I saw a couple people looking very interested in it, I think they might want to write it themselves.

The concept was about a pile of spaghetti who finds a magic cowboy hat in grandma and grandpas attic, which turns him into a snowman. He has to travel through the west to north pole in time before he melts.


lol jk.

should you be cautious when you have an idea? I heard John Truby say that the fear of people stealing your idea is completely overrated: http://youtu.be/8Q07y1JFeEE?t=1h24m46s


should you be afraid of a lurker swiping your idea?
 
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I heard John Truby say that the fear of people stealing your idea is completely overrated
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I think Truby is talking about pitching your idea to studios, production houses etc. Context is somewhat important in this regard.

The fear is real and not depending on the laws in your area. I read somewhere that the laws between LA and NY (for instance) are different. If you pitch your idea to someone in NY, you're somewhat protected, compared with LA. (check with a lawyer. It may be reversed. Hell it may not even be remotely true). It had something to do with expectations where NY had some expectations under their law, but that expectation wasn't in LA.

You cannot copyright an idea. So the thought that your idea can be stolen is very much real. If your idea is the next Matrix, protecting it may be wise, especially on forums like this and/or Facebook. The truth, most ideas are crap, or are just ideas that have already been used or are so different they have no value.

Anyway, with writing, the quality comes from the details of the script. You could have a great idea, though if executed poorly, could have no real value. If you think your idea will have value, it's smart to be at least wary of having it stolen.
 
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Sweetie said:
I think Truby is talking about pitching your idea to studios, production houses etc. Context is somewhat important in this regard.

The fear is real and not depending on the laws in your area. I read somewhere that the laws between LA and NY (for instance) are different. If you pitch your idea to someone in NY, you're somewhat protected, compared with LA. (check with a lawyer. It may be reversed. Hell it may not even be remotely true). It had something to do with expectations where NY had some expectations under their law, but that expectation wasn't in LA.

You cannot copyright an idea. So the thought that your idea can be stolen is very much real. If your idea is the next Matrix, protecting it may be wise, especially on forums like this and/or Facebook. The truth, most ideas are crap, or are just ideas that have already been used or are so different they have no value.

Anyway, with writing, the quality comes from the details of the script. You could have a great idea, though if executed poorly, could have no real value. If you think your idea will have value, it's smart to be at least wary of having it stolen.
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ohh ok, I see, thanks.
 
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Ello, RealJason, Before I tell you my take on this please know I've spent years as a game designer so my take on this isn't REALLY slated towards scripts/film ideas, but I'm sure the outcome will be close if not the exact same.

Anyways! It's a understood fact that no idea you have is original. Also, no one will want to go through all the work you've put into an idea, just to risk you coming out with it first. However if they do decide to pursue the idea, of which you've posted on a forum, they will most likely put less thought into the matter and create a less impressive version of your vision, not to mention they will have a whistleblower (you) to worry about getting them blacklisted among indies.

Want to post a script to really get some opinions? Never have fear. The moment your script is finished, it has international copyright law protecting it. That is a legally protectable product that you can fight for! However, I would like to point out that Indietalk most likely wouldn't be the happiest site to fight for you. I would recommend first posting the script to sites like Wattpad that have publicly stated they will help fight for copyright actions. Once posted there, your story is safe to post to a site like this.

Again, this is from the view of a game designer, mainly the idea of indies blacklisting another user comes from experience with someone trying to copy a game concept that was posted on a well known Indie Designer website. Blacklisting from the users there got his Kickstarter failed, publisher dropped him, and he'll never work in the industry again.
 
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Give that idea to five writers and you'll get five different scripts.

If you are going to take many years to write your idea into a
screenplay and you fear that by posting it on line another writer
will write the script, get the financing (or sell it) and make the
movie before you are finished then you have a real (if not realistic)
concern. Do not ask for advice on your idea.

More realistically; no one is going to take your idea and get it made
or sold that quickly. And if they did it would quite different from your
expression of that idea.

Of course if it's truly original and amazing...


Sweetie said:
I read somewhere that the laws between LA and NY (for instance) are different. If you pitch your idea to someone in NY, you're somewhat protected, compared with LA. (check with a lawyer. It may be reversed. Hell it may not even be remotely true). It had something to do with expectations where NY had some expectations under their law, but that expectation wasn't in LA.
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Not even remotely true. Ideas cannot be protected. So NY cannot have
stronger laws than LA. But perhaps people in LA are more apt to steal
ideas then in NY.

There have been vary, very few actual cases of ideas being stolen. Writers
do find lawyers to go after big companies with deep pockets occasionally but
most fail to make the case. The idea and the expression of that idea are so
different.

But bottom line; an idea can be taken. A writer who fears their idea will be
taken and made into a movie or series before they can finish should not
post their idea in public.
 
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Interestingly enough, the most notable cases of actual theft of movie ideas/screenplay, usually involve auteurish directors or big stars trying to expand their imprint on a project by cribbing from projects that are have already been bought and are in development or have been abandoned.

These cases are usually settled, but they are not plagiarism cases per se. Instead, they usually are contractual cases in which the courts must decide if the studios must honor contracts and options. Or they are Writer's Guild disputes about credits on the movie.

  • Art Buchwald sold a treatment to Paramount for a movie called King for a Day. After several years and a bunch of failed attempts at a complete screenplay, Paramount abandoned the idea. Buchwald then optioned the treatment to another studio. However, a little later, Paramount suddenly made Coming to America. Eddie Murphy was hailed as the creator of the project.Coming to America was, basically, King for a Day. Buchwald sued, and in the first part of the case, the court found that it was indisputable that Paramount had stolen his treatment idea. There was a second part of the trial and Paramount settled before that ended.

  • John Ridley wrote a script called Spoils of War and it was bought by Warner Bros. David O'Russel, by all reports took the script and made changes, true, but kept the skeleton core of Ridley's story the same. At first Warner Bros tried to pass the screenplay for Three Kings off as completely O'Russel's, but Ridley fought and after an acrimonious battle, Warner finally relented and gave him a "Story by" credit.

  • Novelist Tess Gerittsen's book about a female scientist trapped in a space station after debris kills some of her crew was optioned by New Line. During one stage of development she even took part in writing a third act of the screenplay in which the scientist is detached from the space station and has to float about untethered. Oh, the title of her novel? "Gravity." The movie was eventually abandoned and then years later, when the movie Gravity came out, friends and fans of her writing began to mention the similarities to her. Before she saw the movie, she assumed, like others on this thread talked about, that it was just a case of two people coming up with similar ideas. However, she then learned, which she had not known before, that years ago, back at New Line, Alfonso Cuaron was attached for a brief time as the tentative director for her Gravity.

The Gravity lawsuit is currently going on. It apparently hinges on whether or not Warner Bros, which bought New Line years ago, has any obligation to pay out Gerritson on her original contract that said she would be paid if her novel was ever successfully made into a movie.

All this to say that the irony for writers is that your ideas are most likely to get ripped off AFTER you've been published, optioned, bought, etc. Sometimes after your movie is ALREADY made. Everybody wants a piece of something that everybody else already wants. Nobody is that much interested in ripping off something that can't get sold, yet.
 
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directorik said:
Give that idea to five writers and you'll get five different scripts.


More realistically; no one is going to take your idea and get it made
or sold that quickly. And if they did it would quite different from your
expression of that idea.
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It is difficult and takes years to break into the industry. I think that unless you are giving your ideas to people already established in Hollywood (Speilberg, Scorcese, etc.) , then you are probably not going to have your idea stolen. And even if they did steal your idea, the finished script would probably come out a lot different than yours. Anyway, studios are known to have similar type projects in development at the same time. All stories have already been told. So, I think the belieft that your idea will be stolen should not be something that holds your back from telling people what you are working on, especially if you are still trying to break into the industry.
 
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Generally nobody is going to steal your idea.. especially one that you need feedback on.

I have an amazing idea for a sci fi epic. Everyone I've ever told it to thinks it's awesome and never been done before. With that sort of reaction, I would never post it on a forum full of film makers!
 
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Not even remotely true. Ideas cannot be protected. So NY cannot have
stronger laws than LA. But perhaps people in LA are more apt to steal
ideas then in NY.
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Within context, I was not talking about the copyright of an idea, which I specifically later stated you cannot, when pitching an idea, you may have certain protections depending on where you are.

http://www.kgslaw.com/articles/the-idea-submission-case-when-is-an-idea-protected-under-california-law/#II

Then again, it's on the internet, it must be true ;( It's good to have your point of view on copyright, though that wasn't quite the topic.

But bottom line; an idea can be taken. A writer who fears their idea will be
taken and made into a movie or series before they can finish should not
post their idea in public.
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This I completely agree with.

The Gravity lawsuit is currently going on. It apparently hinges on whether or not Warner Bros, which bought New Line years ago, has any obligation to pay out Gerritson on her original contract that said she would be paid if her novel was ever successfully made into a movie.
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I read news this morning regarding this. The case was dismissed recently. From what I read, she has 20 days to refile. It's quite scary as she had a contract with the New Line studio (which was bought out by Warner Brothers).



http://www.tessgerritsen.com/gravity-lawsuit-affects-every-writer-sells-hollywood/

So if they might get away with this, what do you think might happen if they like your idea and they can legally steal it?

I'm trying to create a teen mystery horror drama type pilot and I would like to know if my idea is idiotic or not but at the same time I dont want to hand it out
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It does sound like it's best to check with a lawyer to see if you're protected if pitching your idea. If so, pitch it. If they like the idea, you may get it made.
 
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