DMH
I'd do the smart thing. First off, I'd alert everyone I could online. Every community from webcomics to general media, claiming to ask for advice and any help they may have. Next, I find a good lawyer who will work pro bono because he can see from the evidence it's a pretty open and shut case.

But, before I do that, I find a way to contact the people and make them an offer. 30% gross profit on whatever the liscence makes and I don't sue, plus $20 million up front to keep my mouth shut, which shall be under the guise of buying the rights.

Of course, that's only for someone big like Fox, Warner Bros. or Disney. For smaller companies I'd probably ask for less up front.

Lol, good luck with that offer. Writers are poor for a reason!

But anyway, my comic is completely un-copy-able. I'd struggle to come up with a plot myself, though I certainly will do so at some point.

First, I would be mind numbingly stunned that it had happened.

Second, I would wonder just how pathetically starved Hollywood was for good ideas if they had to rip ME off.

Third, I would just keep on going with my story and comic. I wouldn't stop.

Product Placement
There's a claim that Lion King is stolen and the evidence is quite strong. Some old show called Kimba the white lion.

http://www.kimbawlion.com/rant2.htm

What? I remember having Kimba the shite lion on video as a child, and I remember it being nothing like the lion king.

BffSatan

Product Placement
There's a claim that Lion King is stolen and the evidence is quite strong. Some old show called Kimba the white lion.

http://www.kimbawlion.com/rant2.htm

What? I remember having Kimba the shite lion on video as a child, and I remember it being nothing like the lion king.

I saw Kimba back in the Dark Ages before anime even had a name (early 1970s) When Lion King came out I had the strangest feeling of deja vu. It's true and certainly enough to do a lawsuit.

Fortunately Shakespeare is public domain as his ancestors could sue too, The Lion King is also based on a Shakepeare Play. But when it's public domain and so much a part of our culture just take what you want.

Face it every story on Drunkduck has some actionable inspiration from Shakespeare. ;)

Good artists copy, great artists steal.

;)

Maybe I should've added this as well… Not only does Hollywood steal your comic, but they send you a “Cease and Desist” order for you to stop your comic as it infringes on their intellectual rights…. or something like that. I've always wondered if they could do that. The poor man's copyright could probably work against this since those are postmarked. I'm assuming of course that you can mail your stuff to yourself.

Lonnehart
I'm assuming of course that you can mail your stuff to yourself.

I don't see why not. All the post office really gives a crap about is that it's got proper postage on it. You could probably just send it out without postage so it got “returned to sender” stamped on it since that has the date and time it was rejected for the mail delivery.

Lonnehart
The poor man's copyright could probably work against this since those are postmarked. I'm assuming of course that you can mail your stuff to yourself.

yup! just mail it to yourself and don't open it, and mail another copy to a friend out of state/country and you're golden.

when i was the front man for a band, that is how we secured our copyrights (even had an appointed lawyer from MTV that told us to do things THAT WAY until we could afford our own copyrights for everything). i'm not entirely sure if you'd have to ship over state lines for a comic…..the way it worked for the band was for me to mail my lyrics to myself and not open it. and to sell a copy of our first CD to a friend of mine out of state for $1. mailing the lyrics to myself proved at what time i had written them. selling/mailing the CD was our burden of proof for the lyrics, the music, the composition, and the name of the band. this actually holds up in a court of law: in the mid 90s, elektra records sued the florida based independent band, hot water music, because they had the same name as a band on that label. the florida based hot water music had been around for a couple years prior to the elektra records' band by the same name and had sold cds across the US. since HWM had proof of their existence before the other band on the major label, they won the case.

the basic idea is that: you are creating a federally marked and dated document, proving your rights to the intellectual property, and a date to which it was created.

I'm actually kind of expecting this to happen with my webcomic.

It seems like every other day they're turning some ridiculous zombie idea into a movie (Pride and Prejudice zombies anyone?) So why not steal mine for Disney's next animated feature.

First I would be pissed, but in the words of Bill Pullman from Independence Day “I would not go quietly into the night!”

The worst part is, some hack would probably end up butchering it, then I'd be really depressed.

If someone does steal my idea, I hope they get Brad Bird (he did The Incredibles, The Iron Giant etc.) To direct. At least losing a pile of money and fame would sting a little less, knowing that my work was being handled by a master of his craft.

Well, you can't sue over an idea, only something that can be copyrighted. Something that is similar is pretty much too bad so sad for the creator. It has to be the same characters, same setting or same plot.

Example: Robin is copyrighted, but the idea of a boy sidekick is not.

If hollywood wants to do a whole “mind switch” or “consciousness exchange” movie, go for it. There have definitely been stories on the same vein in the past, especially from William Gibson and turning human consciousness into AI, etc. Dollhouse, which just came out, has many similarities to my comic. I enjoy it all the more.

Actually, I'm of the opinion it may make my comic more popular. Like the run of post-apocalyptic movies and shows bringing popularity to that particular sub-genre. If they stole my characters and plot, I would sue their asses into the ground.

If Hollywood stole my idea, I'd laugh and say ‘Good luck trying to get money using that ya stupid bastards!’

If they stole mine, they'd get their asses sued off, and not by me. By George Lucas, Hideo Kojima, and whoever the hell made Wanted and probably the Wachoski Bros. A lawsuit from me wouldn't even be worth paying attention to.

I haven't gotten to it yet, but Wal-mart would DEFINITELY be pissed if they showed the doorgreeters as nazi-uniform wearing madmen with smiley face balaclavas and assault rifles.

However, if they did all that BUT got the licensing to do so, then I'd be up in arms cause they're making money legally in every aspect but me. So long as they had a strong cast and a high budget, I'd go see it regardless. I mean, I would be pissed and flattered.

If they sent me a cease and decist order, I'd only triple production just to make them bring it to court so I can have my trial one way or the other.

If Hollywood stole my comic.. they'd have theirselves a pretty lame movie.

If Hollywood ripped off Due East, they'd mutilate it to make it anti-Christian and none of the women would weigh over 110 pounds…so they'd have to either use fat suits or rewrite it to leave out Book 4, and it would be completely unrecognizable. It would likely also have no heart or soul to it…so again, it would be unrecognizable.

I imagine at best, they'd make it about the divorce and falling in love again, and the daughters would be comic relief, getting in the way. By the end of the movie, Doug and Crystal would get married again, Sapphira and Lindsay would be a couple, and Brielle would end up on drugs. Nice Hollywood movie that doesn't resemble our comic at all.

Then after a moment of stunned silence, I think my wife and I would share a laugh and go back to co-writing and drawing the real thing. lol!

I'd be pretty pissed they didn't at least offer me a cut, or some sort of deal where I get money.

As much as I value creative integrity and all that, I also value having a decent apartment and not working as a pizza cook while earning minimum wage while dealing with all the attitudes and personalities that come with the minimum wage food industry.

If I'm writing something that's got good movie potential, I'm probably doing something right. And I'd like to do more of it by not having to struggle to make ends meet.

I'd be amused, but the cease and desist order would piss me off. Then again, I'm sure whoever thought it was a good idea to make a movie with an unemployed mexican talking spider and a female priest would either get committed or sued.

I'm not sure what the laws are for a lawsuit in the states, but my unlce is an inventor and he gave me the best advice for making proof of originality; when you get an idea write it down with a diagram and take a news paper heading with the date and mail it to your self, and when you recieve it, dont open it. When somone tries to say they came up with your idea, sue them and bring the letter to court. bam.

Hollywood DID steal my webcomic!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0461770/
Just kidding. Watching it for its similarities was fun, though.

If they really did steal my comic, I'd probably somehow let it be known where the original source material was (through Wikipedia or something). Then, I'd enjoy the extra traffic the movie sent in my direction.

That's if the movie was GOOD. If they stole my comic and made an AWFUL movie, and it resulted in a lot of negative attention toward my comic, I'd probably just quit the comic and start something new.

I don't think it's that impossible that stproes created by different people can match.
In one of my own character's backstories there's a striking similarity to the backstory of a character from the Da Vinci Code. Even though there's a twist to my version I still didn't know until I actually read the Wikipedia article when I couldn't be arsed to read the entire book.

I didn't make that big of a deal about it. In fact, I'm making a reference to it when I get to that stage of the story.

But I was pretty pissed off with the character design likeness between another character from the same story and a character from “Dogs: Bullets & Carnage”. He'd looked that way since 2005 but the change had to happen. Now I'm a bit worried he looks too unreal to relate to. But maybe if I pull it off it'll work. I dunno.

Even though it annoyed me, I'll be doing a sort of omake-type thing where both characters meet up and talk about how similar they are before flipping it around to how different they are (Backstories and the like). I actually did a drawing plan for a Halloween special picture in which my character dressed up as that character for Halloween after I found out.
Hell, might still do it. Maybe put a spray plaster over some raw wounds.

bravo1102
Face it every story on Drunkduck has some actionable inspiration from Shakespeare. ;)

Hmm… my stuff is inspired from Shakespeare… wow. He must have been a shitty author.

it would be a waste of time and effort and money to steal my comic and put it up as a movie… I'm just doing it cause my imagination won't let me sleep or do my school work.

Well it's in the records here on the site how long you've been doin your comic so that proves it belongs to you. Honestly I don't care what happens to my stuff as long as people are enjoying it.

I would ask them where in my comic do they see a God-Damned elephant.

I would actually prefer Hollywood to steal them so I could see my comics in animation or film. Although I'm particular about the details so I'd want to be in charge of casting and directing. Then I'd try to sue my own production team for stealing my comics to justify that I wasn't baiting a trap to get myself into the industry. …no that's a lot of nonsense.

Frankly, the lines of Hollywood and independent home productions (like online comics) are kind of blurred for me. I mean I'm both doing my own comics which are personal stories I want to tell and I'm also starting out working in film projects overseas. It should all be a matter of time before the two combine.

I still feel pretty silly after throwing one of my ideas at DreamWorks SKG. I felt like a homeless-retard running up to the giant corporation doors and throwing confetti at them, “HEY YOU GUYS LOOK AT MY STUFF!!” They actually called me back to tell me to pick up my portfolio. LOL, I want to apologize for the incident but at the same time I'm pretty damn proud that I had the nerve. *note to self, do not send violent concept art to a kiddie film industry

It would be a sad day in film history if my idea were stolen by a big Hollywood studio. It would be nothing but some guys making cock and your mom jokes. Mostly cock jokes.

GiantPinkWalrus
It would be a sad day in film history if my idea were stolen by a big Hollywood studio. It would be nothing but some guys making cock and your mom jokes. Mostly cock jokes.

Oh, so it would be a Kevin Smith movie.

eh i have a 480$ copyright placed on it that took forever to go through so my characters,story and such is protected and claimed by me only. if some one was to try,ide have proof by the company that protect it. but yeah i would confront hollywood and the wouldnt get by so easely

That is if they can read your copyright form…

Oh, and I have a ton of sketches I've been doing. I'm dating them, not scanning them, and signing them.

Plus, there's the record on Drunkduck, and all that too…

Ryuthehedgewolf
Oh, and I have a ton of sketches I've been doing. I'm dating them, not scanning them, and signing them.

Plus, there's the record on Drunkduck, and all that too…

exactly! so technically u would have proof some where on the net and the original copies that would have them caught

zaymac

GiantPinkWalrus
It would be a sad day in film history if my idea were stolen by a big Hollywood studio. It would be nothing but some guys making cock and your mom jokes. Mostly cock jokes.

Oh, so it would be a Kevin Smith movie.

ZZzzing. I laughed.