Release from a prodco

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A woman said to write like a man.
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What do you think, guys?

I am not keen in "renouncing" certain rights. See below.

Owner of a New Idea
[Company] will only accept material submitted in written form. Your submission will only be considered at your request and with your guarantee that, to the best of your knowledge, you are the sole originator of the idea and you have the legal right to submit it to [Company] for consideration.

Disclosure Not Confidential
You accept that [Company] may discuss your idea with employees and possibly others, to evaluate its usefulness to [Company]. You understand that any consideration of yor written or verbal submission does not create a confidential relationship between you and [Company].

Conception by [Company]
[Company] may already be explorig programs and ideas generated by employees or other outside sources the resemble your submission. In some cases, [Company] may have considered your ideas in the past, or similar or identical ideas may be generated independently. Therefore, you agree to renounce any claim that [Company] misappropriated any ideas or portions of your submission in any future [Company] programs or activities.

Submission Not Returned
[Company] is not obligated to return submitted materials to you. You should keep a copy of any materials submitted. Do not send any materials you consider irreplaceable.

No Prejudice
[Company's] consideration of ideas you submit, or negotiations to purchase them, does not waive [Company]'s right to contest your copyrights, trademarks, or other intellectual property rights.

No Compensation
Review of ideas you submit does not imply that [Company] agrees to compensate you. However, should [Company] choose to use any portion of your ideas that is legally protectable, [Company] will negotiate appropriate compensation with you.

Modofication
The above conditions may not be changed or waived except in writing and signed by an officer of [Company].

How come it's okay for them to ask me to renouce rights at my end, but also feel the need to stipulate that they aren't willing to renounce any rights at their end?
 

NikeeGoddess

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it's because this -- say an employee has an idea on the table or they've optioned a script or have a script in production with similar ideas to anything in your script. ie - same character name, scene*, location, incident, etc... then they "pass" on your script. later you see that scene* in a movie (the one they produced) that was similar to a scene in your script. you may think they stole it but, in fact they had already had that script and that scene in place. this part of the release says you cannot challenge that scene and claim it as yours. with legalities in place the copyright and registration should prove that they did indeed have a script with that scene and they just don't want the hassle of trying to prove it to every wannabe writer with sour grapes.

make sense?
 

xhouseboy

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I think it's exactly what you descibe it as in your post heading.
 

nmstevens

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What do you think, guys?

I am not keen in "renouncing" certain rights. See below.



How come it's okay for them to ask me to renouce rights at my end, but also feel the need to stipulate that they aren't willing to renounce any rights at their end?


Here's the basic deal.

You can have an "idea" either embodied in a script or independent of your script -- say "Kid Sherlock Holmes" -- that's your idea and you've written a screenplay featuring a kid Sherlock Holmes and a kid Watson and whatever.

What you have to understand is -- you don't own the idea. You don't own it if you simply go up to someone and say, "I've got this great idea."

You don't even own it if you write it in a screenplay or write it in a novel that features the idea.

All you own is the idea *embodied* in a particular fixed form -- a script, a novel, a play, a film, whatever.

I can take that idea -- "Kid Sherlock Holmes" -- and write my own story, script, play, novel -- and you're simply out of luck. You can't sue me for "stealing your idea" -- because you never owned the idea in the first place.

In copyright terms, ideas aren't property.

Now, when I go in to pitch an "idea" to a producer (which I've done), something different is happening.

There is, implicit in that meeting, a *contractual* understanding, based on standard business practices between producers and working screenwriters, that when I pitch an idea for a movie to a producer, if he likes the idea, he's going to hire me to write the movie.

That is the basis for the meeting. That's why I'm there. It's like a job interview -- he's "interviewing" my script idea. If he likes it, he hires me. If he doesn't, he can't then take that idea to another writer.

That is all implicit in the the underlying concept of the "pitch meeting."

If he does, I can sue him -- but I'm suing him not for violating copyright, but for breach of contract.

One of the things that a release form is making clear is that that implicit *contractual* relationship that exists between a producer who is hearing a pitch from a professional writer *does not* exist between that producer and you.

He can read your script and whatever ideas it contains, he is not bound to enter into any writing agreement with you.

NMS