How can I legally use someone else's suggestion?

[breakaway]

For example, if I am making a show, and somebody e-mails me with a suggestion on what I should do in an episode (like fan-fiction), is it legal for me to use it? Are there any potential problems I should look out for?

 

[quincy]

Ideas cannot be copyrighted, so, yes, it is legal to use someone else's idea.

If the person who emailed you with a suggestion has fleshed out his idea with a plot line and characters and action scenes, and then registered this developed idea with the Copyright Office, THEN you could have trouble using the suggestion made if you were to copy these expressions of the idea. Otherwise, as long as you take the person's suggestion and make it your own, there should be no problem.

Although, I should add, and as you know by now, breakaway, from being on this forum, anyone can sue for any reason whatsoever, even if they have no chance of winning a suit, so there is always a risk of that, however slight it might be.

 

[fairisfair]

Ideas cannot be copyrighted, so, yes, it is legal to use someone else's idea.

If the person who emailed you with a suggestion has fleshed out his idea with a plot line and characters and action scenes, and then registered this developed idea with the Copyright Office, THEN you could have trouble using the suggestion made. Otherwise, as long as you take the suggestion and make it your own, there should be no problem.

Although, I should add, and as you know by now, breakaway, from being on this forum, anyone can sue for any reason whatsoever, even if they have no chance of winning a suit, so there is always a risk of that, however slight it might be.

HEY!!!! That was MY idea!!!!

bwahhahahahhahahaha

 

[quincy]

I thought it sounded familiar.

 

[breakaway]

If the person who emailed you with a suggestion has fleshed out his idea with a plot line and characters and action scenes, and then registered this developed idea with the Copyright Office, THEN you could have trouble using the suggestion made if you were to copy these expressions of the idea.

But if it is shown that he is the one who suggested this and gave me permission, then wouldn't that over-ride everything else?

 

[The Occultist]

As pointed out, ideas are not covered by copyright. If your question is whether or not it is possible for you to lose an infringement case, the answer is still "maybe". It would certainly take a law suit that would be costly for both sides to determine this.

That being said, I do wish to make mention of the philosophy held by the semi-popular "Weird Al" Yankovic (for those that somehow do not know, a musician that specializes in writing comedic parodies of other artists' songs): he downright refuses to use any song idea pitched to him and only uses material he comes up with on his own (or possibly within his band, that much I don't know).

 

[quincy]

Weird Al also ALWAYS gets permission from those he wishes to parody and from those whose work he wishes to parody, even when his parody of the copyrighted material will most certainly be considered fair use.

Permission is usually easy to obtain, and silly not to obtain, when a potentially costly lawsuit hangs in the balance.

And, breakaway, it is always wise to get everything in writing. This is invaluable if there is any dispute later on.