How do i protect my idea???

I would have prefered to post this in "ask gamespot" but i am not privy to that forum right now.

anyway, i have decided to submit my Developer For a Day design document as part of my writing samples for jobs. the only thing is, how can i make sure that it isnt co-opted?

I mean, when i submitted it to Gamespot i felt relatively safe about it.

And of course had they ever hosted it and put up a page about it that alone possibly would have been good liable proof. Anyhow, i just want to make sure it isnt misused without my permission.

i'm handing this in physically, not to mention a .pdf wouldnt help, peope can still print it and read it which still offers plenty of oppurtunity to use it.

i thought about getting a copyright, but i dont know how to do that or even if it's necesary, or overkill. I'm wondering if there's any other way.

The good news for you is that when you create something, it's automaticaly copyrighted. You don't even have to do anything. They've changed the copyright laws fairly recently to say that a work passes into copyright the moment it is put in a "fixed media", which means paper, a word document, a .pdf...essentially, if it isn't just in your head and you've put something down, it's your copyright and you hold that copyright for 70 years after your death.

As for someone stealing your ideas...that kind of thing happens a lot less than you would believe, and as long as you can assert your creation of the copyright you should be fine.

In other words, don't worry about it, really, your ideas are safe for the most part.

I didnt know that wasnt always technically the law though, and wouldnt imagine that would have been a recent change.

Well, yeah much in in the same way it's illegal to rob a bank, but if no one can prove you did it then there's no legal recourse.

The real burden is of course proof, of course it's illegal to steal someone elses idea if they ascribed it first, the problem is of course proving it you thought of it first, and of course anybody can change a name or date thought of.

I guess i suppose thats why i asked about a method other than actively copyrighting it, since even i know all i really need to do is prove i developed whatever it was first (but simply dating it on a piece of paper and/or "my word" isn't exactly factotum).

If you want to truly protect your work, you should copyright it. Its not difficult at all and you can find all of the information needed at copyright.gov. You just fill out a form, send them a copy of your work, send them a money order, hear from them in about 6 weeks or so, and thats it.

The "poor man's copyright" isnt a very good idea, nor is it good relying on the rule that anything you make is copyright by default. Yes, while those are both true, the problem is if someone else copyrights your ideas before you do, neither the "poor man's copyright" or your default copyright are valid, under any circumstance.

Heres the thing: If your work is truly good enough that someone would steal it, its worth copyrighting. If its not worth stealing, then it probably wasnt good enough to have ever become a game, movie, book, or whatever kind of publication. Taking the steps (and money) to copyright it shows you actually have some kind of value to your work.

Well obviously it's a bit hard to know it's worth stealing until after the fact, my whole point is i'm unsure of its viability, but the last thing i want to do is find out it's worth stealing because someone actually did it.

I do just want to make sure there's some verifiable manner of me proving I am the original creator, even if i send it out to other people. It may not have to be an official copyright, but just something that gives me legitimate original claim on it.

Well, the "Poor Man's Copyright" is to print out whatever it is, put it in an envelope, *mail it to yourself and never open it* until proof is needed in court. The post date stamped on the envelope by the post office acts as the proof of date.morph_basic

that doesn't work. You can sent opened unsealed envelopes in the mail, have them postmarked and then put whatever you want into the envelope. It hold just as much legal clout as simply asserting your copyright

Again, I would just say don't worry about it. Your copyright begins when you write it down, and if it came down to a court of law, you would probably be able to win

Also, Xaosil, just because someone pays to register a copyright for something doesn't automaticaly make it a brilliant and marketable idea. I could scribble on a piece of paper and register it with the government just as easily as a 500 page masterwork novel. In the eyes of the government, they have just as much legal weight. A developer isn't going to look at a game proposal and say "oh, wow, this is copyrighted, this is better by default"

The problem i'm noting is that i have no proof of when i conceived the idea, i mean i could write any date of creation i want on it, just as well as whomever possibly could take it would.

I know you're saying that I have legal claim to it once i put it on paper, but thats relatively obvious, i'm just saying now that i'm sending it around for other reasons, i want to make sure i have some verifiable claim that i was the original creator no matter what happens to it or how it was altered.