This movie is against my copyright

I THINK YOU'LL FIND THEY STARTED THIS PROJECT A LONG TIME AGO. COINCIDENCES DO OCCUR.

I think you'll lose, Kevin, Not that I'm being mean, but take a gander at (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078681/) that link. I remember the TV show from the 70s. All they need do is point out how many similarities from your book there are in the series.

I looked at the description, noticed all of the grammatical errors, and said to myself "this must have been edited by Publish America." Sure enough..

For those of you who don't know, Publish America is basically a dishonest vanity publishing house that tricks their clients into believing they're something legitimate. Actually, getting this work published by PA was the topic creator's big mistake, especially considering that they're the ones who own the rights to the story now, not him. Of course, he probably couldn't have gotten it published anywhere else - PA is where people turn when no real publisher will accept their works (although I'm sure there are a few good books written by naive authors; unfortunately, PA holds on to those for dear life).

Here's how it works: you give Publish America your book and they "screen" it for acceptance - actually, they'll accept literally anything. In fact, some scripts that were made to be completely terrible on purpose passed with flying colors (check out "Atlanta Nights" by "Travis Tea"). Then, their "editors" will run a spell check on it and probably introduce several new errors. Then, they give you $1 as a bogus commission to own your work and make you feel like a real published author. Then, they make the book available, but online only and for a significak markup over competing publishers. Finally, they pressure you to buy dozens of copies to give to your friends family and offer you special deals. This is how they make their actual revenue; very few of their books actually sell in significant volume. Barnes and Noble will only "stock" it online (probably because they know it'll sell at the author's expense in very low volume) because they know that no one will buy most of the works in a store. In fact, they have a specific policy against stocking Publish America books.

Now, I'm not a writer, but it seems to me that getting something published by PA is as good as flushing it down the toilet, maybe even worse. If this were published by a major publisher and there was in fact a copyright concern then I expect that said publisher would go after the studio themselves. As it stands, I don't think the author will be able to go through all the litigation fees just to keep this in court, and I definitely don't think that the studio will be settling.

You can't copyright an idea, you can only copyright actual works and file suit against infringers based on their mis-use of your works. The IDEA of a story of some guy building his own rocket and the government stepping in is just that - an IDEA. You should study up on copyright law and consult an IP lawyer who isn't an ambulance chaser.

Now, if you want to get into stolen ideas, peep this.

When I was in the 7th grade I spent months outlining a darkly comedic fantasy film that can best be described as the book of Job...as a sex comedy.

In it, God and the Devil are best friends who hang out. But the Devil is bored of things and wants the apocalypse to come so he makes a bet with God. Whomever woo a girl first gets to decide the fate of the universe. The girl in question is a nun in training. While each deity tries to woo her, the other tries to mess up the dates. Think There's Something About Mary meets Bruce Almighty

It was called God, the Devil and Sue.

A few years later, New Line bought this...

http://www.cinematical.com/2006/09/18/new-line-god-the-devil-and-lucy/

,Said the Shotgun to the Head--
Saul Williams

Bump... cause of the fun read this whole thread was.

Any news? :D

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