With regards to the "don't share with anyone you don't trust" I'm astounded that there are whole websites where people put up log-lines for critique by their peers. That's madness surely?

That's a bit different because you have the objective reality of a time-stamp in a public forum to verify your idea. I'm talking about a private conversation where it's just your word against theirs. The chances of someone ripping you off are slim. If you are repped very, very slim. Perhaps the larger point to the advice is you want to make sure you have vetted strategy with your reps, don't just go off half-cocked spewing an idea in a meeting without having talked over how to approach it, the meeting, etc. And then the REALLY larger point is the first one: Always be generating story concepts. Often the best way to come up with a great idea is to come up with a LOT of ideas.

I went around town mouthing off about a brilliant concept to everyone I met and no one ever stole the concept from me. Then I sold it and got paid nicely to write it. However - years later after the project languished in the wake of exec moves and other things out of my control -- I used the WGA 5 year window to try and move it to another studio without luck. THEN - one of the studios that I used a personal connection to get into, mailed me my script with their notes in it in a studio envelope. Then the person I was getting hot with got fired from there too. Now that same studio is making a total rip off of my movie with an A list producer who I pitched the original movie too in the first place. Same title, same concept, only slightly different in one tiny way... I can't wait to sue them after it's come out and is a box office smash. I'm guessing I can make a lot of money since I have the hardest evidence possible.

I should not that the studio never even changed the title of the movie - and the title is unique and IS the concept.

Sorry to hear this. Reminds me of this recent situation to hit the trades. Your story underscores the importance of concretizing an idea as thoroughly as possible, the best route to write a script and copyright it. At least then you have something tangible on which to make a legal claim. Good luck.

Scott, to help people brainstorm concepts, I created the Idea Factory at the forum. It's a bit like the logline workshop, but for premises: I put up a news article or odd fact (every day, if I can manage it), and we toss around ideas about how to turn that into a movie premise. We also share good resources for triggering story ideas, strategies for brainstorming premises, and some people are even putting up their premises to workshop and get feedback on. Some of it is as silly as the recent news story about Flaming Viking Cheese that was just in the news, and often the silly prompts are the ones where people feel free to get really creative and throw out wild ideas. To be honest, I created it originally as a challenge for myself, to come up with an idea, or a prompt for an idea, every day (yes, inspired by your annual spring "idea a day" series), but the users are running with it now, and the brainstorming that's going on is really fun. It's turning into a sort of "brain gym" for working up your mental muscles for working out premises, which was my secret hope all along. If anyone likes the creative spark of brainstorming with other fun and brilliant people, or if you want to generate a story concept every day but don't know how to get started, you're all really welcome. PS This is all part of my secret plot, along with the logline workshop, to drive Max Millimeter crazy by making him have to choose between truly excellent loglines for exciting, commercial, cinematic story premises when you relaunch the Quest next summer. ;)

Good grief, Michael. I really hope this resolves in a positive way for you.

Amazing. Thank you for posting the link to the Disney lawsuit. Guess what studio stole from me? Yep -- Disney. They seem to have a very long history of this kind of behavior and it's sickening. My guess is one regime finds the notes and emails and left over projects from a previous regime and they just steal it and play dumb.

Scott, I'm glad you're talking about protecting your ideas and copyrighting because it's something I've been worrying about. Would you suggest copyrighting a logline? Also at which stage in our writing process should we be copyrighting? When we're writing the treatment, the outline, after writing the entire script? And which stage should we be developing a pitch? And another thing - when we're discussing our project with a producer, are NDAs any use at all?