Your Freelance Writing Ideas, Stolen

I’ve been at this writing-for-a-living thing for a few decades, so when I hear someone complain that their ideas were stolen, I think back to the first Journalism course I took, which taught me this:

Ideas cannot be copyrighted.

There’s a reason for that. If they could be copyrighted, there would be just one book on each topic. Imagine one book on

• The Civil War
• The Great Depression
• George Washington
• How to make a living freelance writing

Now imagine the writer, knowing he or she has monopolized the topic for generations, just phones it in. Or isn’t very good. Or isn’t very enlightening. Or sucks at research.

You get the drift. Ideas being copyrighted would be far too limiting.

However, ideas being stolen? Yes, it does happen.

A current case in point is the trial that pits Stranger Things creators and Netflix against a man who alleges they stole the idea he described to them in a casual conversation.

It’s not the only instance of someone being blamed for allegedly stealing ideas. In fact, every case of plagiarism is theft. But beyond the swiping of someone else’s existing content, which is clearly protected under copyright law, people do steal ideas. And the defense of those thefts becomes a bit dicey.

It came up in a Twitter conversation yesterday – a writer working in a newsroom had a coworker (and friend) create a “new” story out of his existing audio files.

I’ve seen it happen firsthand. When working at the magazine, a managing editor actually proposed in a meeting that the idea that freelancer pitched could be assigned to someone on staff. Thankfully, the roomful of editors and writers all voiced instant, unanimous dissent, and the managing editor was schooled in what ethical boundaries were.

How the current copyright law reads:

“Copyright, a form of intellectual property law, protects original works of authorship including literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works, such as poetry, novels, movies, songs, computer software, and architecture. Copyright does not protect facts, ideas, systems, or methods of operation, although it may protect the way these things are expressed…..

…. Copyright does not protect names, titles, slogans, or short phrases. In some cases, these things may be protected as trademarks.”

So unless you’ve written it down (and extensive writing has occurred), you could be facing quite a battle should your idea get swiped.

So how are you, freelance writer, going to protect your ideas from being stolen?

Don’t overshare.

Seriously, if you tell everyone you meet that you have this great idea for a novel, you’re increasing your chances of one of those people either lifting your idea or talking to someone else about it and having them lift it. When you’re working with editors, email them. If they lift your ideas, confront them. Don’t worry about ruining that relationship. It’s theft. And let their superiors know. Push it as far as you can.

Write them down. Now.

If your idea is a fully written work, it’s protected. Where it gets iffy is when it’s a partially written idea, or an outlined idea, or ….

If you have an idea, do something tangible with it. A dated computer file is tough to argue with in court. How I did it back when I was submitting children’s manuscripts — I’d mail myself a copy of the manuscript and not open it when it arrived. The postmark served as my time stamp. (Before computers) Also, share the idea (written, ideally) strategically. I know one writer whose book idea has several time stamps — friends, Twitter, blog, you name it. That’s an idea that’s been time-stamped several times over.

Use non-disclosure agreements.

If you’re about to spill your guts about your book idea to a book editor you’ve not used before, get it in writing that your idea stays with you, and that this editor is not allowed to use it or talk about it. Just remember that your idea may not be as earth-shattering as you think. I have signed countless NDAs over the years, and nearly all of them asked me to keep to myself the fact that the author was about to write a book based on common knowledge (in one case, the book was full of other people’s attributed ideas). That’s fine — I think writers and editors should absolutely respect the privacy of their clients, even if their ideas are not novel. But as a client, you should clearly discern in your own head what you’re really protecting.

With magazine editors, that’s a lot trickier. But fortunately, most publication editors know the boundaries. Not all, but the majority work ethically. Hitting them up with a non-disclosure isn’t going to sit well (and may get your name on a “don’t work with” list). Just refer to the first point above. Email them. That way, you have proof and you can remind them without a doubt where the idea originated.

Relax and re-examine.

Theft of ideas happens, but not frequently. Maybe more frequently now as the line has blurred between actual writing and mashup-style article churning, but most people know where the boundaries are and will respect them. Don’t think the world is waiting to pounce on your ideas to the point where you stop sending them to editors and publishers.

In my career, I’ve had one instance of someone stealing my work, and it was a contractual oversight on my part. On, they knew they’d stolen it, but they didn’t care as I was a small fish in their big pond (a now-defunct popular teen magazine). In the end, it was on me because I failed to recognize one word in the contract that allowed them to take the 500 words they purchased and expand it to the 2,000 words I’d sent them originally, and not pay me for the difference.

If something like that has happened to you, look at where you left yourself unprotected. Could be you did nothing wrong and the thief is just that kind of horrible person. Or it could be you overlooked something that turned the situation against you, as I did back in the 1990s.

Writers, have you had ideas stolen?
Have you had written works stolen?
How did you handle either case?