Intellectual Property Question - Did they steal my script?

S

sigamy

Well-known member
OK...I know this is probably going to go nowhere but I have to ask.

I wrote a script back in 2004 and produced/directed it as a short film. It was my first film, nothing up to the level of most of the work here, but I was learning and having fun. The plot is a young woman with a strange addiction. Turns out , she is addicted to her cell phone. It almost breaks up her relationship, the Radio Shack Geek is her dealer, etc. Funny script (if I do say so myself).

The short has been online on a number of web sites. It hasn't gathered many views, it's not a big internet sensation or anything.

So, I'm watching some TV the other day and I see a commerical for a Sprint cell phone that is an iPhone competitor. The commerical is set as a "product placement movie" or something.

The thing is...this commerical is very similar to my movie. There are some scenes/lines that are almost exactly the same EXCEPT for the fact that instead of the girl being addicted to the phone, in the commerical she is falling in love with the phone.

So, what are the odds they saw my movie online, changed it up and made a ad? If they did, do I have any claim that they stole my IP?

I did register the script with WGA.
 
talk to a lawyer if you really believe they "stole" your idea.

i can tell you it won't be easy trying to prove that especially since ideas and concepts aren't copyrightable.

unless you can prove someone from that company had contact with your script or short personally you'll be ifghting an uphill battle.

a friend of mine had a script where a hitman kills a priest inside a church to disrespect God, etc. then boom, i saw that same scene the way he described it in some low budget film collin ferell made recently. happened exactly the way he said his script is....but his script hasnt even been seen by anyone yet, hasnt even been printed.

my point...no idea is original.
 
sigamy said:
So, what are the odds they saw my movie online, changed it up and made a ad? If they did, do I have any claim that they stole my IP?
Click to expand...
Slim. As much as we'd like to think that our ideas are unique, they seldom are. If you are working on a story that you think has a great chance to do big things, you can bet somewhere, there's someone else with a similar idea.

Now, it could be that some ad guy saw you video but it's much more likely that if you came up with a novel idea, someone else may have had a similar idea. But who knows. If you want to spend the time and money on a lawyer go ahead and do it.
 
Thanks for the honest replies everyone. I apprieciate it.

I pretty much agree with all of you. I've heard stories from friends in LA about the volume of similar scripts they get. I guess it is a coinecidence.

I'll take it as a compliment that my idea was good enough for a major ad campaign!
 
Sad that ideas don't get more protection. I think the value of a great idea in our business is vastly underestimated. And a bit contradictory in law that a composer can sue for theft of a "hook" in a song (literally a handful of notes in a certain order), which can be the basis for an action, but theft of the underlying ideas in a film doesn't have the same degree of protection. But such is the case for we creators of film. The ideas get very little protection. You have more protection now that you've actually made the film than if you'd only written it. Would you be willing to provide a link to both the commercial and your own film? You might be overblowing the similarities in your mind (because artists can feel pretty protective of their work), or you might be right, and the similarities could be very obvious. I can't think of any harm showing the world the similarities. Maybe it would even help bring attention to the situation.

If the similarties only amount to "scenes d'affaires" (sp?) then you wouldn't have any case at all. A scene d'affaire is a situation which flows logically from a context. So maybe the lines you are worried about actually could be arrived at quite independently from your film, simply because someone happened upon a similar concept.

I don't agree that it's always the case someone just HAPPENED to have a similar idea. It does happen a lot. But even if happenstance vastly outnumbers the incidences of "theft", it's still true that people are often "inspired" by ideas that they've seen around, and they poach them. It's very hard to know when one has happened. Perhaps almost impossible to prove. The evidence has to be pretty damning.
 
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