h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

If I put an idea (or the first few paragraphs) of something I am working on in the alternative writing workshop so I can see what people's reactions are, is there anything to stop other people from stealing my ideas and using them to write their own novels?

Paragraphs 9 and 10 of http://www.bbc.co.uk/terms/ should help you here.

In theory, you are waiving your copyright to the stuff to the BBC, who then have the right to do what they like with your material.

However, other visitors to the site will not be allowed to use your material for anything without your permission, as you still hold the copyright to the material, but the BBC will not help you in any legal proceedings, if someone does choose to copy your work.

Don't take my word as gospel, though. You'd be better talking to one of the content producers - Anna, Jimster, Sam or Ashley - or to Natalie ... see <./>Team</.> for their U-numbers.

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Actually, that's not entirely correct. *Ideas* are not something that are protectable by copyright -- you can post the *idea* for a novel, and anyone, anywhere, can take it, and do whatever they like with it. That's true for anywhere you post anything, anywhere on the Internet. Only actual *words* are copyright protectable.

So say I had an idea to write a novel "about how a little girl wanted to build a playground on Mars". There is *absolutely* no way for me to prevent other people from using that idea now that I've posted it on the Internet. The same thing happens with books that are actually published -- there's absolutely nothing to stop people from reading a book, and saying hey, I like that idea, and using the same idea, but writing their own version of it.

On the other hand, say that I actually wrote such a novel and posted the first chapter here -- the *words* that I used would be covered under the type of copyright protection and the BBC terms and conditions Owl-of-Doom describes above. No one else besides the BBC could take my words and use them. But still, anyone else could take the idea, and write about it in there own way.

That's just the way it works in the writing world. Ideas are free, it's the words that are hard to come by.

Mikey

Hmmmm... In that case I think I'll keep it to myself for the time being!

IMHO it's not the _idea_ that makes a literary piece great, but the words themselves. If someone steals your idea, they're not going to be able to do much with it, unless they're a prolific writer themselves - in which case they wouldn't need to steal other people's ideas.

IMBW...

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But all it is at the moment is an idea! I'll wait until I have something more concrete

Heh. I understand. I myself have a few ideas, but I never have the time or the skill to put pen to paper, usually getting caught up in something else beforehand...

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Actually, I have about a side of A4 typed, but I seem to have got stuck there! I've never really tried writing something like this before though, so I'm not getting worried, I'll keep going back and adding bits

My brother's working on a sort of epic-type thingy, and is taking the "Tolkein approach" of basically working out all the history and background of his various characters and scenes by writing a series of (about 300 word) short stories.

It's a clever idea and it is, after all, the same way Lord of the Rings was written.

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I think that's a bit too big a task for me at the moment! If I can get one short story out of this (though ideally I'm aiming for a novel) I'll be happy!

I must get back into the whole short-story-writing thing. I've only written one, as part of a writing competition at school, years ago - I got second prize, probably for its sheer weirdness. Just for a flavour, it was about a prison for people called John.

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The only time I've ever really written before was for English at school, so it's been 3 years since I did any writing! It's gonna be hard going, but I'll get there eventually. And like I say, I'll probably post bits once I've got a bit further to see what people's reactions are.

It's been a lot longer than that for me! But people like my brother keep talking about writing, and it keeps inspiring me (temporarily)... then I procrastinate and the urge goes away again.

I'll write a masterpiece one day! (That's what they all say...)

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Yeah, my aim is to get something of mine published, so I can go into a shop and see it on a shelf, but whether it'll ever happen is yet to be seen!

Well, just as long as you don't go as far as Jeffrey Archer, good luck!

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What, so if I put something into the AWW, the Beeb would then own it and it'd be theirs and they could do what they liked with it? Not sure I like the idea of that, even at the cost of less criticism...

Apparently you still own the copyright, but you grant the BBC rights to use your work, which will put off most publishers, who want exclusive rights...

So it's basically a baaaaaad thing to put anything on this site that you want to use in a novel then.

Okay!

That depends on how much you tell the publisher about h2g2....

Tee hee hee!