Sorry to get to the boring serious stuff.

Loads of us are sounding stuff out here and I just wondered how we stand with copyright.

Obviously we're quite happy to share ideas and welcome advice or comments but what if someone nicks any of these ideas?

All contributions are dated so would that act as proof if anything dodgy happened? Will they all stay on this site forever or is there a finite limit.

If they have to be cleared does anyone have a comprehensive record of everything here? I'm just thinking for everyone's benefit

If anyone nicks our ideas, they are a) here dated and everything, so we can sue there arse.
b) They are thieving bastards and we can beat their arse.
I will go on that Punch and Judy show and tell the world what thiefus's they are.

By law you own copyright on everything you publish on this forum so if anyone were to steal it they'd be breaking the law.

It's worth pointing out it is very hard to actually prove someone has stolen your work and sometimes people do independently genuinely come up with the same idea / joke. That said, blatent rip-offs can be prosecuted.

I'd also like to point out that to date I'm not aware of any copyright breaches - I think it's pretty safe putting your stuff on here (in fact it can be a good way of proving you thought of something first).

And, to answer your other question - We at the BSG keep complete and regular backups of all 12,000+ posts so if you've said it on here we've got it. At least for the foreseeable future all posts will be kept online and accessible - although it may reach a point that, for efficiency reasons, we do eventually have to archive some old posts.

p.s. Dave - can you type thread subjects in lower case in future please (e.g. 'Copyright' rather than 'COPYRIGHT') - its advisable to only use all caps when you've got something really important to say. Cheers.

Not this can of worms again

Basically as long as you can prove when you wrote something. e.g date it, email it to yourself, post it to yourself etc. Then you'll be protected by copyright. I wouldn't rely on a website record, just produce your own.

If in doubt don't post it David.

Just wanted to clarify a few points - not just for my sake.

Sorry about the CAPITALS. Unintentional here but I do use for emphasis.

I wasn't thinking about the regulars stealing but anyone can view what's on offer. For instance our competitions. I know most of them are spur of the moment without taking them too far.

I did put the opening scene from my sitcom (Hitmen for Hire - plug plug) and got some positive feedback which has encouraged me to persevere with it. I don't plan to put any more on for now but may see if someone wants to work with me. I'm open to offers.

Useful to know that you keep them for a long time though.