Copyright Nonesense

A friend contacted me this week, asking if I'd work with him on an animation series he's developing. A paid session of brain-storming was what he was after. I agreed, although I was slightly suspicious - I give him my best ideas, he gives me £100 or so. He then goes off and makes the show into the next Simpsons. But we agree to meet up today - no harm in meeting, right?

Then I get an email - "Because I'm under contract to a management group you have to send me an e mail that states all the information I share with you remains the copyright of myself". He wanted me to write "(name of show) and all story arcs, plots, ideas, characters and visualizations remains the copyright of (his name)" in an email which he could forward to his lawyer.

This did seemed rather an odd way to do business, and added fuel to my earlier suspicion. For a start, to my mind, this statement is meaningless. It is not up to me to establish someone else's ownership of copyright. How do I know he owns the copyright anyway? He could have stolen it.

It just felt to me, he (or his management company) was trying to make sure that whatever I came up with during our brain-storming session, he would own copyright.

So I modified it to say, "(name of show) and all story arcs, plots, ideas, characters and visualizations created by (his name) remains the copyright of (his name).

I own the copyright in everything original I write until such time as I assign that copyright for an agreed fee."

Maybe I'm just paranoid. Well, he started it.