Your Ideas Will Be Stolen – Sharing Your Script
It never fails to astound me to hear a screenwriter admit that they’re too afraid their work will be stolen if they share it with anyone – they usually have a horror story about a friend who wrote their first script, sent it to Hollywood, didn’t hear back, and just a few months later when watching a movie, they realized the jokes and character and even story they created for their script were all flickering on screen.
My first reaction to this can be summed up with this: Urban legend.
Don’t get me wrong, screenwriters have taken producers, executives, and companies to court before regarding contract infringement, copyright violation, and even theft, but there’s little chance the story above will even occur – for two reasons:
1. Your first script
Let’s face it, it wasn’t that good … in fact, it sucked. As a first-time screenwriter, do you really believe your work will be gold beyond all others – enough so for a jaded producer to invest their time and effort into it for several years without pay? If so, congrats – you’ve got the level of arrogance and confidence needed to conquer this town. If not, you probably realize you need to work at your craft just as Tiger Woods and Koby Bryant did while first starting out. I don’t mean to sound harsh, but it’s better you know ahead of time so you can focus on cranking out a lot of crap before trying to write your masterpiece. Hey even Hemingway said “The first draft of everything is always shit.”
2. Parallel development
I’m not sure who first used this term, but it basically defines the occurrence of two screenwriters, or any creative for that matter, that come up with very similar ideas at the same time. While it might seem your screenplay was completely ripped off, the fact is that the movie you think ripped you off was already in the making long before your baby was even a thought – it takes years to make a film
The point here is this – and the sooner you realize this the better:
Your ideas will be stolen
Here’s how it happens, and here’s why it okay:
A screenwriter will submit their work to a company of some sort, and their readers will review the work. Regardless of the rating, that reader has experienced the story – like all inspiration and past experiences, this might lead to similar ideas and similar development on a subconscious level. In other words, a reader, whether an intern, pro, exec, or producer, those who read your work might use pieces of it here and there in their own work. Though it sucks this happens, it also happens subconsciously so there’s no one to blame.
Though this does happen, I’d highly recommend getting over your fear of sharing your work. As a people business where everything depends on who you know, it’s best to let your work get out there and be seen – if you don’t, its pretty much impossible to start your career.
The one thing that put me at ease after first hearing that your work will be stolen is this: it’s actually more expensive for producers to steal a script than buying or optioning it legitimately – considering the legal fees and reputation damage.
Overall, realize that sharing your work is how you’re going to create a career – and that sometimes people forget the source of their inspiration. This doesn’t mean it’s right, but it doesn’t mean it’s wrong either.
Well, of course, ideas will be stolen because you can’t copyright an “idea”. You can only copyright how you present said idea through your characters and situations (and script registration – duh.
).
That said, part of the problem is that sites out there like InkTip, while presenting themselves as “helping” the fledgling screenwriter, actually hinder the creative process by having the actual script and your story’s logline as separate components of your listing.
I fell into that trap, myself.
Just days after listing my screenplay on the site, I was cruising the “Interwebs” for any “success stories” through InkTip and came across a message board post from someone who claimed that their job while working as a production assistant was to scour InkTip’s loglines every Thursday for ideas to steal.
Over the six months I had my script hosted, I received 75 logline views and only *2* actual script downloads. Hmmmmm….
Needless to say, as a result of MY experience, I’d never again support a “help-you-out-by-getting-your-script-out-there” site that doesn’t make it MANDATORY for a company (prod/co – studio – management – etc.) to download your script when looking around your listing.
In a “marketplace of ideas”, having a category JUST for logline listings is like handing a stranger a blank check that you’ve already signed.
Want my loglines? Read my scripts…. then, we can talk.
CHRIS,
I agree with you. Unfortunately, I was a victim of theft by a greedy executive producer. My script was stolen, given to another writer who re-wrote it and they used 90% of my original script–even character names. I was angry because I worked very hard on that script, but I am a writer, I moved on. I can always write more scripts. I do feel its very rare, but it happens. I’m living proof. I agree that first time writers shouldn’t worry about this. I was well in the business about ten years when this happened.
If you are a first time writer show people your work. Not anybody…but producers, directors and whoever would read it. That’s the idea, right?
Like Chris says, you can’t have a career unless people read your work.
The indie production guide “The Reel Truth” has a chapter on the issue of script theft.
Thats the biggest fear.. For someone who is been in this line for 10 years this happened means what about people who start fresh… who knows their first script could be their best one because they have dreamt about it all their life and so the script will be really original…
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?
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.’
[...] Courtesy of: ScriptXray [...]
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.
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,,
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…
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.
well said
What was the name of the movie?
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…..
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.
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.
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.
Thanks Chris for attempting to better explain the issues around protecting a writer’s work. We hear this fear a lot from writers and are of the opinion that it may be one of the biggest roadblocks to a new writer actually selling their work. How can a new writer get anyone to read their work if they are afraid to let a production company see it? Our recommendation is that a new writer should “get it out there” and let anyone in the industry read as much as they’re willing to read.
At ScriptStork, we only allow pre-screened professionals to read the logline and synopsis of the submissions. But they can do that freely. We do track who reads what, but we don’t limit them. It is important to understand that, even if someone gets a story idea from a logline or synopsis, they still have to do the really hard part, which is to write the script! There are many story ideas out there, and many sources to get them (Amazon Books is a good place), but the production companies are not looking for an idea, they want a finished script. If you won’t let them read your synopsis, how will they ever find your script?
This not to say that production companies don’t hire writers to execute their story ideas which may have originated from something someone read (could have been a NYTs article, or your synopsis). This is a legitimate use of a persons intellect as we don’t protect ideas by copyright. We also are not saying that there are not some unscrupulous producers out there. But there are also pickpockets on the subway and you still need to get to work. As a writer, don’t shoot yourself in the foot by refusing to let someone read your work for fear they’ll steal the story idea. (Quite honestly, if someone can steal the subtly of your story from your script in one read, you need to start rewriting as your script is not nearly finished).
However, we do believe that production companies need to be accountable when they read a script (as most production companies keep very good records of what they receive and who reads it, they agree with this concern). At ScriptStork, we don’t allow anyone to read a script without the consent of the writer. And we of course track when and how a script was delivered to a production company (or an agent). But realize that production companies read a lot of loglines before they read a synopsis, and they read a lot of synopses before they request a script (it is not a small cost to a production company to read a script – it’s how Chris earns a living). You need to get your work out there in order to be discovered. The production companies are not going to come looking for you…
The problem is that even if only the core of the idea is stolen, with no details or specifics used and Hollywood makes the movie, your screenplay is essentially dead. Even if the “details” of your script are significantly different, the idea will seem like a rip-off of the Hollywood movie. Now “your” idea is rendered an imitation even though you came ups with it first. Stealing the gist of your idea without stealing the details is just as deadly. Been there. Absolutely nothing to protect you.
And, friend who had serious inside track to major writing gig for television, direct contact with a very major and very interested executive producer… we’ve tuned in to see significant idea lifts from their material that had been submitted as samples… multiple times! You sue and you’ll NEVER get into the club.
That is the risk of the game and we got no choice but to play.
It is virtually impossible for people to read an endless stream of screenplays or loglines and not be “inspired” down the road, if only subconsciously.
Geez this is scary specially for a first time aspiring screenwriter like myself.
Soo… not even copyrighting, registering AND having close friends/ people you know who can act as witness’s if you do file suit will protect you? Wouldn’t that do anything for you?
Huh. I wrote and acted in a video called Wigs and Guns in the early 90s. A woman saw the video (it turned out pretty funny) and a couple of years later made her own video called….Wigs ‘n Guns! I saw an interview where she said she made the video as part of her audition for a job as a host on a national music video show. Next she recorded an album called….Wigs ‘n Guns!
I agree with the comment that these people have insane egos and they will not hesitate to take an idea. What this woman doesn’t know is that my video was shown publicly to more than 200 people and also referenced in a film by a well known gay filmmaker.
I asked a lawyer and he said it would cost me a lot of money so I didn’t pursue it.
I would love to make her sweat a little though. Any ideas?
I thorughly 100 percent disagree with this article. I was a film student in College back in the 90′s and wrote several scripts that are identical and near identical to the movies that are on screen and on television now. I was a film student and several of my discs were stolen three separate times and I believe I was being targeted because I was monitored by several people when I was writing the scripts out. The scripts and story ideas weren’t copyrighted because I was in the baby stages of perfecting the scripts when they were snatched. So all I have are bits and pieces of my scripts and since others have gotten them copywrighted in their names they could easily say, I just typed it up etc.
It’s already been noted that Hollywood has stolen several people’s scripts and all they have to do is the same as they did with me. Go to a college and target a film student and when they’re busy wrestling with a book or talking to someone just snatch their discs. All they have to know is that you’re working on a screenplay or a novel. And I was always typing and writing constantly. I just didn’t know the right people to help me get it published or to direct me in the right way to go since most people in this field are so competitive.
Another thing they’ll do is look at your script and tell you it stinks and then next thing you know there’s a film out very similar to your film and your idea.
It is not urban myth. And I’ll say about 90% of what you see on television, in the movies and in novels have probably been ideas and stories that have been stolen are taken from some unsuspecting college film student or someone has litterally broken in the person’s house and taken it.Just go back to the past and you’ll discover that most of hollywood films stick to the tried and true methods. They rarely choose something different. So if it’s different. Nine times out of ten it’s been stolen and you don’t know the true creator of the script.
The only best advice I’d give is what one guy told me I should have done in the beginning. Type it up really quick and fast mistakes, flaws and all without editing. Get it copywrighed in novel book format with flaws, mistakes and all even if it’s a script and then get it edited. I learned the hard way and now I’m close to forty even though I wrote most of what I wrote when I was in my early teens up to my late twenties.
This article isn’t posing a point of view, so it’s not about agreeing or disagreeing … I’m not just making this stuff up and hoping everyone agrees. I’m reporting what I’ve experienced as a script reader.
Your outlook on the whole process is pretty dated (sounds like you gave up writing for 20+ years) … give it another shot, and as mentioned in the article, “Though this does happen, I’d highly recommend getting over your fear of sharing your work. As a people business where everything depends on who you know, it’s best to let your work get out there and be seen – if you don’t, its pretty much impossible to start your career.”
No one becomes a professional over night … no one. It’s about persistence, and yes, your ideas will be — or seem like they’re being — stolen.
Get over it and prevail like everyone else, or quit.
Chris,
this is my comment following your, dated May 22,2011.
I can not help feeling that, between the lines, you are actually trying to justify stealing script what done film companies and its writers : It is true your point that “No one becomes a professional over night”, but is that really the reason that the movie companies and their professional writers, who have apparently lost the ability to new ideas, unscrupulously steal other people’s ideas, instead of buy ideas for little money, and then with the permission of the original authors write their scripts by which to make films, of which the movie industry lives and thousands of people in the same. By means you should let that 5 or 10 times a steal, that you may one day be accepted as a screenwriter in Hollywood. I do not agree with you, because stealing is against the law and illegal matter, and US Justice, ex officio, needs to prosecute thefts of any kind, including this one, and it does nothing, which is widely known.
Cordially, Aleksandar,
PHONE NUMBER : 011-381-11-2836-304
Best calling about 1,00 P.M. L. A. time
E-mail address : axxskocajic@elitesecurity.org
Virgie, do you really believe secret sneaky Hollywood producers stalked you when you were in college and stole your screenplays? Sorry, but that is paranoia.
I too have seen movies made from ideas I’ve had and written. Nothing new under the sun. Ideas can’t be copywritten for a reason – many people have the same idea!
I’m sure there’s a lot of stealing of ideas, but it’s alughable you think they stole your scripts in film school. Just the thought of that is a comedy movie inside of itself.
I did script coverage for many years, and I honestly can’t tell you how many variations of the same exact idea would cross my desk in a month.
While it’s true that some concepts have been stolen, writers have to keep in mind that there are literally MILLIONS of people writing screenplays, trying to break into the industry. There are NOT millions of ideas for movies and shows.
As somebody who has been accused of stealing ideas for my company, please allow me to rattle off the most common loglines I came across:
1) Coming-of-age story about a misunderstood aspiring writer as he wanders through his small town.
2) Coming-of-Age story where that aspiring writer comes back home to his small town and finds everything changed.
3) (Fill in Monster) Versus (Fill in Monster)
4) A serial killer has evaded the cop that’s been hunting him for decades. But when (Fill in plot point) happens, the cop finds himself fresh on the trail again.
5) A (Fill in stereotype) and a (fill in stereotype) fall in love. Can these two people make it, being from such different worlds?
6) A day in the life of a college/high school stoner.
7) Any pilot set in a restaurant.
Like I said it’s not unrealistic to think that ideas can and have been stolen, but writers (myself included) need to remember that they are only one out of millions.
Awesome, haha! Thanks for the comment Kevin!
Hi all.
I think I know this but I want to be sure.
I won’t go into specifics of the ‘Idea’ for fear of you all stealing it
I met with a friend over a drink. He suggested a title and the ‘idea, as he talked I conjoured my own ideas. We laughed all night and played both sides of the idea out. I believed it was open for developement and further discussion. That night he text me to say he would drop off the script he’d written about the idea we’d been discussing all night.
Basically, he has 3 scenes in it. The middle one, the funny one, is about a guy with OCD parking his car.
My idea from the night of talking is a guy with OCD, in a car park, going to an ACDC gig, and called it OCDC.
The only link to his ‘IDEA’ is a man with OCD and a Car park.
He’s suggesting I’m stealing his idea and he’s not happy.
What’s goig on here?
Thanks
Maybe this explains the dearth good films coming out of Hollywood these days? This may sound stupid to most of you, but I wrote four screen plays that are just sitting on my desk for the reasons cited in this blog. Yes, I’m an idiot. I’m also a cop and in twenty years I have become quite the cynic when it comes to describing human behavior. When I hear stories about people getting their sceenplays hi-jacked by some unseen, unscrupulous jackoff in Hollywood, I get the jitters about putting a stamp on a manilla envelope containing my work and sending it to a Hollywood address. So what do you do if you have zero connections in Hollywood because you live 1900 miles away in North Carolina? Convert your stories into books and try to get published. I don’t want to go this route, but its where I’m headed now. If anyone has a better idea, let me know. When I was nineteen I saw the movie ET and ever since I wanted to be a screen writer. I’ve been a newspaper delivery boy, dishwasher, bus boy, waiter, pizza cook, delivery driver, corporate head hunter, USMC Captain and now a Federal Agent. Some of those jobs might sound fun and exciting, but deep down, I just want to write screenplays. Looks like I’m going to have to go at this indirectly to reach my goal, by way of a book made into a movie. Good luck.
Who ever writer is destined to make it out there in the Bigs is destined to make it regardless of any circumstance. Period. Good luck to you all.
Chris,
I appreciate your intention to better the suffering looted amateur writers who unscrupulously steal Hollywood machine for years and decades, and no one in the USA is doing anything to stop this evil evil, but one to the end, but you have gone too far in the section of your article titled second Parallel development, – Chris, no one is naive or stupid not to see, so when it comes to a coincidence when it really comes to plagiarism: it is seen by many facts, dates of writing and registration,dates of sending script and registration script of theft-plagiators, dates when the film was shot, and most of the veil of the number of identical or similar scenes in the film, as it was in my case:
I have been writing my script MAGMA TOWN through 1993/1994, registered in August 1994, sent in Autum 1994 in Hollywood, and Jerome Armstrong and Leslie Bohem solds their script to FOX and UNIVERSAL PICTURES in November 1995, for total sum od $1,750.000, and movies VOLCANO and DANTES PEAK were started shooting in April-June 1996, and both opened in Spring 1997, – and you will say – it is coincidence, but I know and have the proofs : it is not coincidence, it is pure hard theft and copyright infringement, and FOX and UNIVERSAL PICTURES knows that, but they have avoided to accept such a obligations and responsebilities.
Cordially, Aleksandar,
PHONE NUMBER : 011-381-11-2836-304
Best calling about 1,00 P.M. L. A. time
E-mail address : aamskocajic@elitesecurity.org