Text 7076, 118 rader
Skriven 2006-08-27 19:26:00 av Robert E Starr JR (7573.babylon5)
Ärende: Re: More B5 TV / DVD Movi
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* * * This message was from Joseph DeMartino to rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.m * * *
         * * * and has been forwarded to you by Lord Time * * *         
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alexballs@supanet.com wrote:

> If JMS owns the rights, surely he can go ahead and do a B4 story if he
> wants to..., or maybe I missed something important?

This is incorrect, for all the reasons given in other posts.  Also you
should have received a message upon joining this group stating the "no
story ideas" rule, and giving examples of what would and would not be
considered a story idea.

As it happens I don't think your post remotely counts as a story idea.
We've seen Sinclair, we know his connection to Babylon 4 and we know
Michael O'Hare played the character.   So to say, "I'd like to see more
about Sinclair and Babylon 4 and wouldn't if be nice if Michael O'Hare
reprised the role" is hardly a violation of the rule.  To suggest a
specific plot or story would move you into the danger area. (E.g.
"Sinclair/Valen decides he likes this whole time travel thing so much
that he goes into it full time.  He ditches Zathras for a pretty girl
sidekick, regrows his hair, loses the bone, moves to the U.K. and
changes his name to Dr. Who.")

The classic real example of this was when a fan asked a question after
seeing "The Quality of Mercy" - what would happen if someone who
underwent the "death of personality" and was now leading a blameless
life suddenly started to remember his murderous past?  At that point
"Passing Through Gethsemane" was already planned for the second season.
 I think the script may already have been written.  Also the question
is at least as likely to have occurred to JMS as it was to the fan, it
is, in fact an obvious question, given the concept, and an obvoiusly
dramatic situation.  The implications of the death of personality are
unlikely to have escaped the guy who invented the concept, after all.

But some people are greedy and some people know so little about how TV
and movies are produced that they don't understand how common ideas
are, how often different people will hit on the same or *similar* ideas
for a story (epecially when both are influenced by the same outside
stimulus like a news item or social trend), and how little value a raw
*idea* really has in the grand scheme of things.  (Which is why
professional writers keep getting "offers" to sell them really cool
ideas that they then need only flesh out into finished scripts.  With a
50/50 split of the profits, of course.  <g>)

So the fan who asked that question could, upon seeing "Gethsemane" a
few months later, filed a lawsuit seeking a piece of the pie action
either in the honest belief that JMS had used his idea or because he
figured the studio would pay him to go away and his usenet post was the
internet version of a winning lottery ticket.

Either way he could have had a shot.  Priority of authorship is
something that could only be proven for JMS by the testimony of  those
who worked for the show - and a cynical jury might think they had
reason to lie to please their bosses.  Even if the case looked like a
slam dunk win for JMS and WB, it might not be worth the cost of
fighting it.  There is no "loser pays" provision is such lawsuits in
the U.S.  So even a court victory can bankrupt the "winner" in some
suits.  Often it is cheaper to settle and pay the person to go away.

JMS has a stubborn streak about a mile wide, however, and a sometimes
Quixotic sense of justice *, and an impractical, if romantic,
attachment to the idea of fighting a hopeless battle against
overwhelming odds for a noble cause (something about a guy named
Horatius and a bridge.)   All of this makes him unwilling to even open
himself to the possibility of such a suit, if he can avoid it.  So he
shelved the script until he could have the fan tracked down, the
situation explained to him, and his signature affixed to a legal
release, so that the episode could air in the 3rd season.

But those were an awful lot of hoops to go through because a single
question was answered on a message board.  I also know that one
well-known fantasy author (and someone with a better memory than mine
will have to supply the details) lost an entire completed novel when a
fan posted a story idea the slightly resemebled some piece of it in a
forum she was known to visit.  Her publisher simply refused to risk the
lawsuit and probably years of work by the author and an enitre story
her fans would have loved was as effectively destroyed as if the only
manuscript had been lost in a fire.

Better to err on the side of caution in these matters. <g>

Regards,

Joe

* All of which operate on offense, as well as defense, BTW.  Once upon
a time a jerk forged a message in my name on the TNT "Babylon 5"
message board.  Said message claimed inside knowledge about a real
project JMS was negotiating at that time and could have caused him
endless headaches or even killed the deal if anyone believed it.  I
knew nothing about any of this, since the forger had posted to a part
of the board I never visited - but JMS or someone he knew sure did,
because he within hours he ended up with a copy of the message - and my
*real* e-mail adddress, which the forger had thoughfully included.  I
suddenly had an e-mail message from the Man Himself and he was Not
Happy.  He told me I had "x" amount of time to delete or edit the
message or his lawyers would do - well, I never actually looked this up
but I'm fairly sure that some of what he suggested would have fallen
outside the canons of conduct of the ABA - unpleasant things to me.  I
explained that his e-mail was the first I was hearing about this, and
that I was powerless to edit or remove a message I had not created, but
I would do what I could.  I did post a message in the same thread
exposing the forger and denying what he'd written, and despite its
being a Sunday night I was able to e-mail someone at TNT who ultimately
got the post removed, all of the forger's accounts deleted, the
individual banned and who smoothed things over with JMS.  He later sent
another note saying that he had been similarly victimized by imposters
on the 'web and off and commiserating over what a pain in the ass it
was to have one's good name highjacked like that. 

JD
                                   
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