McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

just curious

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Danny-boy:
I looked for a thread covering this topic but couldn't find one - sorry if this is old hat

Everybody here seems to be real cavalier about posting unfinished work and/or story ideas and what have you...I think that is really cool, but, is there ever any concern about people's ideas being lifted? Is there just an unwritten rule that everybody is cool enough to follow? I am not super concerned, I just have what I think is a cool idea, would like to get some advice on it and am not sure exactly how all this works.

Also I was wondering...if you post something you have written...does that work kind of like what we used to call a "poor man's copyright" (Mailing something you have written to your own address, so it has a post-mark and therefore proves WHEN you wrote it) - I mean...since the forum keeps track of who posts and when?


I am not in any way questioning anyone's honesty...but...you know...it's the internet.


-Danny-boy

AverageGuy:

--- Quote from: Danny-boy on December 27, 2008, 05:41:05 AM ---(Mailing something you have written to your own address, so it has a post-mark and therefore proves WHEN you wrote it)

--- End quote ---
I've heard people say this before.  It doesn't necessarily work.  For one thing, it isn't backed up by the law so doesn't have any official recognition, for another, it's too easy to insert material into an envelope later.

Anyway, if you're worried, don't post anything.  Honestly, ideas are very rarely wholly original, so any similarities you'd see could easily be coincidence.  And even if someone did steal your idea, it wouldn't keep you from using it later; it's the body of work rather than the idea that counts as IP.  Besides, most people wouldn't bother stealing them.  Ideas are a dime a dozen, people tend to have their own already and won't need yours.  As for the work itself, I'm not sure if it's protected, I've heard DMCA automatically protects what you post but I'm not sure it's true; really, though, it's pretty unlikely anyone will steal it.

Again, if you're that worried, just don't do it.

Cooper:
For the book I'm writing I have to be very careful of what to say on the Internet.  Some of the ideas are really sensitive, and I'm just totally afraid of somebody finding out about it and either ridicule me or rip it off and take the credit.  I keep all of my important notes in a black leather notebook (paper is safe) and use that as a reference.

Danny-boy:

--- Quote from: AverageGuy on December 29, 2008, 06:41:48 PM ---I've heard people say this before.  It doesn't necessarily work.  For one thing, it isn't backed up by the law so doesn't have any official recognition, for another, it's too easy to insert material into an envelope later.

Anyway, if you're worried, don't post anything.  Honestly, ideas are very rarely wholly original, so any similarities you'd see could easily be coincidence.  And even if someone did steal your idea, it wouldn't keep you from using it later; it's the body of work rather than the idea that counts as IP.  Besides, most people wouldn't bother stealing them.  Ideas are a dime a dozen, people tend to have their own already and won't need yours.  As for the work itself, I'm not sure if it's protected, I've heard DMCA automatically protects what you post but I'm not sure it's true; really, though, it's pretty unlikely anyone will steal it.

Again, if you're that worried, just don't do it.

--- End quote ---


yeah...I'm not really all that worried...I was just wondering what was what.

Starbeam:
This post has an edit to take out what someone posted, with an explanation.  There's a mention of something about something that happened with Mercedes Lackey, but dunno what exactly it's referring to.  Although googling anything similar, it sounds like she has some very crazy fans.

Also, with copyright, there's another thread here somewhere that discusses that, and the validity of mailing a copy to yourself to get a copyright.  I also remember reading/seeing something somewhere that if you post a complete story on a website/forum/whatnot, that it can be considered some kind of publishable format, or works for first rights, or something like that, and some publishers/agents won't accept anything like that.  I don't know the specifics of that one.

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