Comments on: Your Ideas Will Be Stolen – Sharing Your Script

By: Justin Smith

Justin Smith — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 14:27:00 +0000

My screenplays are all adaptations of my novels (one published and another soon to be published) so it would be hard for a company to steal my screenplays. It would be extremely easy to prove they stole something (when you can buy a book on Amazon that has all the same characters and situations).

At least they would have to pay for movie-rights.

By: sam

sam — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 12:28:30 +0000

this has made very interesting read. I think what inktip has done is solely wrong. When your a writer waiting for that break and places such as inktip evapourise your work and stop you in your tracks.
Ofcourse people steal ideas doesnt matter if your a well known writer or not.
I think such people and companys that do should be named and shamed.

By: Danny

Danny — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:29:50 +0000

Oh yes, new writers get ripped off all the time. You may be a beginner, but that doesn't mean you're not a good writer. The tactics mentioned by earlier posters here are used all too frequently. Producers, execs et al are well aware of the fact that good writers don't necessarily know how to protect their work. Read books, talk to industry attorneys, go to seminars, everything! You may find yourself spending as much time learning to protect yourself as you did learning scriptwriting, but do it anyway. A year of educating yourself is more preferable to a lifetime of regret. BTW, InkTip, which was discussed by Russ above, is one place to avoid. I've read lots of complaints from writers about InkTip and that many people can't be wrong.

By: Saroj Mayadev

Saroj Mayadev — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 13:30:44 +0000

Well, for some one who has ideas galore swimming in her head…. sometimes quickly penned down or then keyboarded away….. am waiting to come out with my first script. and honestly ( at this point) i would feel sheer happiness if someone rejected it at first and then a few months later i would see/hear/ applaud that very script- albeit with different character names and other situations. ( maybe i feel this way because am waiting and waiting to write my very very first – script………

resolves of keeping count of ideas somehow never seem to work… hopefully it might in the future….. very grateful for site’s like this…..

By: Mike

Mike — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 04:10:24 +0000

Well, contrary to your article, my first screenplay DID get lots of heat and took 2nd place out of 2,300 entries in a major screenwriting competition. Academy Award nominated director’s prodco contacted me, etc., etc. Anyway, long story short, I have meeting notes from my producer assoc. who met with the producer of the first film of the writer who ripped me off. In addition, this producer (who loved my script, by the way) had worked for many years for the prodco. that did three of the films starred in by the main actor of my stolen work. They used the same title as mine and the same exact premise and didn’t even have it copyrighted until 2007. Mine was registered in 1995! Someone upthread said they know they have the lawyer power and you don’t. He couldn’t have summed it up any better. These scumbags will spend a million dollars preventing the honest writer from getting his 100K just to maintain this system of free ideas they get from unsolicited scripts. It’s a treasure trove for the unscrupulous. Imagine if they didn’t have a pool to steal from anymore. They lose a lawsuit and their endless stream of ideas dries up. No wonder they work so hard to squash the great unwashed low-life writer.

By: Ravi Deshpande

Ravi Deshpande — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 06:37:31 +0000

Here, in Bollywood-tollywood land, we call it “inspiration” or “inspired by” such and such Hollywood film of the 1930s to 2009. Sajid Khan, a friend of mine till recently earned his bread by drawing to the audience’s notice the copied scenes, dialogues, scenarios of innumerable Hindi films through his popular tv shows.
Writers who can “adapt” from a bunch of DVDs are in high demand in the land which manufactures the most amount of feature films in the world.
An “original” script or even an “original” film is suspect with respect to it’s “commercial” viability, and is generally looked down upon till it’s release.
It’s a star run system turning in to a young corporate executive run setup.
So many of us trained from the premier film institute of India keep writing scripts which we stash away in our Bank Lockers, waiting for the day that we find ourselves in the correct ‘network’ of people to share them so that they see the light of the day.
It is indeed very scary and daunting, when stealing is a way of life in this film land.
So i do not subscribe to go out there with either my story lines or scripts nor would i advise it to my students.
After 3 modestly successful and much lauded feature film scripts, i tread with caution…

By: Maria

Maria — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 04:17:44 +0000

for me, if someone steals my work it would suck but in a way its their loss because the idea didnt come from them and if my idea was really good for others to steal it then I’ll still feel proud of my work and will keep throwing it out there. I just wonder though if people that do this kind of thing feel content with themselves? there is nothing to be proud of,,

By: Bababobo

Bababobo — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 03:41:25 +0000

I agree that a writer has to share (show) their work to sell it, but it’s not an urban myth that people have the ideas, scenes, characters, and situations, stolen by producers and other writers. It has happened to me many times, both from pitching TV and films. Yes, it happens subconsciously, but it also happens blantently because these people have egos that don’t believe (and rightly so) that you can do anything about it because they have more lawyers than you. This was told to me directly by a writer/producer at Star Trek, who went on to use much of my content. What usually happens is that they steal parts of your script, not the whole thing. If they like a scene or a character, it will magically become theirs. There is no protection against this. On the whole, most people are honest. The system isn’t perfect, and could use an overhaul, but that probably won’t happen because the industry believes it must protect itself at all costs. Just read the standard contract for submitting anything to any studio or production company. Bottom line: you just have to take your chances.

By: Your Ideas Will Be Stolen! « Short is Better!

Your Ideas Will Be Stolen! « Short is Better! — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 13:47:54 +0000

[...] Courtesy of: ScriptXray [...]

By: Wendy Orr

Wendy Orr — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 04:29:06 +0000

This is a great article on a common fear, in all types of writing, not just for screen. I once had a stranger phone me at home to ask for advice on his book, which he assured me was worth at least $1million… but he couldn’t actually tell me what this story was ‘in case you steal it.’

By: William Fu

William Fu — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 04:06:59 +0000

Chris, this is a great article mate! because this is what I have been thinking throughout the days, and I’ve always had the fear of having my concept or ideas being stolen by some company. Still even now, I’m having this grudge that I wouldn’t want to get my ideas stolen…what should I do? so how are you going to deal with his? lets say you spent years writing a script, and you’ve been doing alot of conceptual thinking and creativity, alot of the stuff that you believe would be different and new for people to see…but then it gets stolen by another company. How would you react? what about protecting your scripts? is it possible to get like an agent to secure your scripts? I thought they have those kind of process in the states?
I don’t know because currently I am living in Thailand..and Thailand has a big problem with piracy, it is everywhere and people who made films here had told me that companies are always stealing ideas from writers, and they never wanted to hire the writer or even buy the script. honestly I am troubled to think about this…so what do you think?