http://chortle.co.uk/news/2009/10/06/9739/chris_rock_sued
I thought the Dan Brown court case meant that ideas were fair game, but the actual writing isn't. It'll be interesting to see how this turns out.
Can you copyright an idea?
She won't win. Unless his film pretty much follows the same narrative as hers verbatim, she's got no intellectual property rights over the idea to make a documentary on African-American hair. (I'm presuming of course that there was no development deal etc between her and Rock after he viewed her film.)
I doubt it'll go anywhere. I'm fairly sure you're allowed to do a documentary on a subject even if someone else has already done one.
The Dan Brown thing was quite amusing - the two guys suing him for nicking their idea had originally published their book suggesting that it was historical theory, not fiction. I'm not sure you can copyright history, although in the early 90s it did occur to me to try to copyright the year 2000 and charge everyone who used that year royalties for doing so.
I guess if she'd not sued and CR's film had done well, her documentary could've ridden the wave of its popularity for a while and appeared on a few TV channels. Instead, CR's film gets a load of free publicity at her expense...
Quote: Afinkawan @ October 6 2009, 11:47 AM BSTI doubt it'll go anywhere. I'm fairly sure you're allowed to do a documentary on a subject even if someone else has already done one.
The Dan Brown thing was quite amusing - the two guys suing him for nicking their idea had originally published their book suggesting that it was historical theory, not fiction. I'm not sure you can copyright history, although in the early 90s it did occur to me to try to copyright the year 2000 and charge everyone who used that year royalties for doing so.
I thought that was great.
The only way they could win was by saying they made it all up.
Something they'd been accused of, and vehemently denied, for years.
An idea isn't copyright AFAIA but character and dialogue is. And I guess they are the writer's idea... in loose terms.
I actually wrote something which uncannily paralleled something I'd never seen, even though the plot (in synopsis) is way out in leftfield. When I watched the particular TV show, it was weird and unsettling - I literally felt tingly as the plot unfolded. No court would ever believe I hadn't subconsciously copied. Although the way I handled the subject matter was totally different.
Yes, you can copyright an idea, just as long as it's in a 'form' of some kind.
It's not strictly copyrightable but you have the right to be commissioned or credited for an idea if you know what I mean... in some amount.
Make sure you write a detailed synopsis and register it on script smart: You have to write a special claimer on this on the title page of your script, the website for script smart tells you everything about this.
It's a hazy area, which is why you sometimes get legal cases about it.
What it boils down to as far as I am aware, is that you can't copyright a particular idea or plot {%} for a book or play etc, if as one author you keep on producing books/plays/films set in the same 'world' and develop the characters eventually it becomes generally agreed that you have copyright of that scenario and in the characters, thus Mickey Mouse & Donald Duck etc are copyright characters, Superman is a copyright character etc.
For example, though you might get away with setting a book on a generic DiscWorld (standing on Elephants on a Turtle), if you included the specific characters or towns that Terry Pratchett writes about, that would infringe his copyright.
{%} Classic plots are often re-used in different settings for example "Tiger Tiger" (aka "The Stars my Destination") has the same basic plot as "The Count of Monte Christo".
http://tinyurl.com/disclosureofideas
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You can nick an idea really easily. Anybody got any good ones they would like to share?
Quote: Marc P @ January 3 2010, 10:48 PM GMTYou can nick an idea really easily. Anybody got any good ones they would like to share?
I've got one about a rogue cop who doesn't follow the rules and is always in trouble with his boss for being a rogue cop who doesn't follow the rules.
My idea is boy meets girl, they hate each other, but then they fall in love. Where can I copyright it?
My idea was to start a new topic asking if you could copyright ideas - where's my lawyer!!
I have an idea for a mokcumentary type show that could easily be sold to various countries. But it could easily be copied too. For example, could the makers of Quantum Leap have copywritten the format of that or could someone they sent the initial script to have copied it and filmed something similar with a different name?