Quote: Bomsh @ February 8 2012, 5:45 PM GMTProfessional? I think if you're a pro, you get a LOT more protection.
Certainly that is true in Soho. I think up North it is different.
How do I protect a TV idea? Page 2
There are lots of theories about protecting TV ideas - like mailing them to yourself and all that. The fact is that this stuff just doesn't really come up in the industry at all. An idea for a sitcom has most likely been done before by someone somewhere somewhen.
My worry is that people think that some sitcom formats are so brilliant and clever that it makes them bulletproof and guaranteed funny. They're not. It's not. They can't be. It's all in the execution. Modern Family is a show about a family. There is no format. All in the writing.
Anyway, I did a short blog about this last year which probably adds nothing to what I've just said (except linking to a Rob Long bit), but there it is... http://sitcomgeek.blogspot.com/2010/07/its-all-in-execution.html
Quote: sitcomgeek @ February 16 2012, 10:42 PM GMTThere are lots of theories about protecting TV ideas - like mailing them to yourself and all that. The fact is that this stuff just doesn't really come up in the industry at all.
Yes it does. Ideas get nicked all the time nowadays. It's what happens when the creatives are marginalised.
I bet it doesn't happen so much with sitcom, because as mentioned, what could they steal? The basic set up? They've all probably been done in some way; it's the execution that's needed, and that means the original writer is required. It's the writing that appealed, the way they fleshed out the basic set-up, not the million dollar idea of two brothers who don't get on running a Pub.
Set ups are a dime a dozen.
Thats the corporate line Matthew but it isn't strictly true. I agree with you re not so much in sitcom - but look at the legal ideas of not optioning things and trying to sell without paying the writer - while getting him/her to draft re-draft willy nilly without wedge. I know what I think about that. If set ups are a dime a dozen then some numpty no credit writer is never going to get a look in. Oh hang on that is TV nowadays! 
Many years ago, I wrote a sitcom about four flat mates that were given ten grand to arrange a party for business associates. They hired an old brewery and did it up etc. The party, they decided would be a cowboy/indian theme. Everything goes wrong of course but in the middle of the ep, a cow is brought onto the dance floor but craps all over it. I sent it to Ch 4. Cut to Pheonix Nights...set in a night club; in one ep a horse comes on the dance floor and craps. I think they nicked that idea from me. But one can never prove it.
Either way it's a crap idea
And you may find the idea has a longer history than that!
I'm with James on this one. It's not worth anyone's while to nick a sitcom idea, although aspiring writers are paranoid about it, and seem to believe that the BBC has a bunch of favoured writers in the basement waiting for ideas to be thrown to them. And in any case, experience suggests that however wild an idea is, someone else will have had it too.
Entertainment formats are another matter, of course.
I know an actor some years ago that wrote a TV series. The TV company took it off him and gave it to another writer, saying, if you complain, you will never work for us again. The series was a success. In Publishing and I'm going back 20 years, a publisher rejected a manuscript, then photocopied it, and handed it to one of their 'seasoned' writers. Be aware, the business like others is corrupt. To protect yourself from this, the best idea [rather than email etc] is to post the manuscript to yourself Special Delivery. Sign across the flap where you have sealed it so your signature goes half on the flap and half on the envelop. Write on the back the title of the manuscript Don't open it when it is delivered, store it. Then send out your script for acceptance or not but if it is nicked, you take the Special Delivery item to a solicitor to open.
Quote: bushbaby @ February 22 2012, 8:11 PM GMTI know an actor some years ago that wrote a TV series. The TV company took it off him and gave it to another writer, saying, if you complain, you will never work for us again. The series was a success. In Publishing and I'm going back 20 years, a publisher rejected a manuscript, then photocopied it, and handed it to one of their 'seasoned' writers. Be aware, the business like others is corrupt. To protect yourself from this, the best idea [rather than email etc] is to post the manuscript to yourself Special Delivery. Sign across the flap where you have sealed it so your signature goes half on the flap and half on the envelop. Write on the back the title of the manuscript Don't open it when it is delivered, store it. Then send out your script for acceptance or not but if it is nicked, you take the Special Delivery item to a solicitor to open.
Doesn't work they'll just say you posted yourself an empty envelope.
Quote: JohnnyD @ February 23 2012, 8:11 AM GMTThis advice is often given here. Surely it has never held up in court.
I protect my stuff as follows:
I seed the speeches of one character (usually a woman) with Humphrey Bogart quotes. At any subsequent court hearing, the plagiarist will be undone my his lack of this knowledge.
Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine.
(This doesn't only work with Bogart.)
Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
Doesn't anyone ever notice?
The best protection is to write nothing that anybody wants to steal.
It's cunning, but I can tell you, it's really working out for me.
What a brilliant witticism I'm stealing that Yoink!
I've Arrived! I'll take 15% of the gross or 50% of the back end.
On Bushbaby's friend [sorry, quotes don't seem to be working properly]: It seems your friend had a problem with a threat of blackballing not with copyright. Even if he/she had sealed it in a vault witnessed by 5 upstanding men of the parish, he/she would still have got blackballed if he/she had pursued a claim.
I have a funny feeling there is an inverse correlation between the level of paranoia about being plagiarized and the actual chances of that person ever producing anything worth nicking.
There are plenty of ways a writer can get ripped off - stealing of ideas would barely make the Top 20.
The trick is to be a good writer - that's a bankable commodity no-one can steal.