I know I am seriously late to the party here. I feel your pain. My writing partner and I had a series stolen from us. Not the entire series mind you, but the key concepts, characters, and situations. It turns out a production company was already working on a series by the same name (it happens). My partner and I were filling in the outline and beats in a public place (Barnes & Noble). I know (now) that was a big mistake. Long story short, someone overheard us and lifted our ideas. We know this is when and where it happened because my partner date and time stamps all of our notes, and the specific stuff they stole came from that particular session. A friend who did makeup on the show told us the production company had already shot two episodes and scrapped them all of a sudden with a Page 1 rewrite shortly after out writing session. We had/have absolutely ZERO legal case in this matter because there is no reasonable expectation of privacy in a public place. It was our mistake to discuss potentially sensitive material in public. Lesson learned. As was stated here before, it was a mixed bag. On the one hand, our show was strong enough to replace one already being shot (and run 4 seasons). On the other, we got absolutely nothing out of it except a very painful lesson. On a side note, our idea wouldn't have gotten bought/made if it hadn't been stolen because the original concept of the other show was close enough that nobody would have touched it because it would look like we copied them. I may have ranted about this on here at the time.
and my name is your pen name, so go and sue them. The studio told him we got your email. The writer friend told them I don’t send any email and how the fucck trust any email. Finally they payed the writer friend 34 millions.
