I started coming up with a story about two years ago and i have been slowly (very slowly) hammering it out into a book. Right now it is two and a half chapters and about sixty pages long. I would like to share ideas about it to see what people think of it and just get some feed back. But my question is this: If i put like the first chapter up on like a webpage or put up a piece here would it be copyrighted it all or could anyone take it? Also if someone gave me a suggestion and i used it could they later sue me for use of the idea? Posted by El JT de Spang (Member # 7742) on :
Copyright issues aside, this is a bad idea because a lot of publishing houses don't want something that has been available on the internet; they consider that published. A better plan is to email it to people and ask for critiques.
I think you'd have some success with that here.
Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :
*waves magic copyright wand*
You have copyright automatically, whenever you fix it in any form (write it, basically).
If you ask for suggestions on your story, and someone gives you one in response (and doesn't ask for anything in return), you're free and clear (or if they make clear they're suggesting you use it in your story, and don't ask for anything in return). Or if they do ask for something in return, and you give it to them, you're fine.
Feel free to put pieces up anywhere. So long as its only a segment, most publishers won't care. If you want to put more than a small bit up, put it on a password protected page so most publishers won't consider it "published".
Posted by 0range7Penguin (Member # 7337) on :
Ideas are not copyrightable, nor are titles. So if someone gives you an idea, they can't sue you. For that matter, if you steal someone's idea, they can't sue you.
Written works, however, are something entirely different, and yeah, as Fugu's said, if you post only a segment, it doesn't matter.
Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :
Well, it all depends on what you mean by an idea. For instance, whenever someone writes down an idea to send it to you, that idea is copyrighted, just like anything else creative that has been written down or otherwise manifested in a fixed form.
This is one reason many game companies keep tight control of their review process for submitted ideas, and why authors don't admit to reading fanfic.
A close example of this occurred when Neil Gaiman sued Todd McFarlane over (among other things) the copyright on Medieval Spawn. Gaiman was involved in creating the character (a derivative of McFarlane's original Spawn) as part of a collaboration with McFarlane. Medieval Spawn proved popular, and McFarlane kept using him. Gaiman sued for copyright violation (and won).
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