MP and Copyright

[Raellus]

I'm thinking of writing a book and/or screenplay using the basic premise of the MP game as it's starting point.

Basically, during the height of the Cold War, the U.S. government initiates a program to cryogenically freeze small teams of reconstruction experts for "activation" a few years (2-10?) after a nuclear war. The project is put on ice with the end of the Cold War but is ramped up again as tensions rise in the early 21st century. Several teams are frozen in various bunker-like installations around the country (there are also a few equipment caches). There's a malfunction at one or two of the complexes and... my team awakes 100-200 years behind schedule.

That's all I plan on using- just the basic premise- and with significant modifications. The world in which my protagonists emerge will be entirely my own creation. It seems like certain premises are basically open source and the MP premise is not entirely original in its own right. I just don't want to get tagged for copyright violation somewhere down the line.

Any advice? Should I contact the publishers? Consult with a lawyer? Forget about it all together? I'm not asking for legal advice, just a little general guidance. Thanks.

[kato13]

Originally Posted by Raellus

I'm thinking of writing a book and/or screenplay using the basic premise of the MP game as it's starting point.

Basically, during the height of the Cold War, the U.S. government initiates a program to cryogenically freeze small teams of reconstruction experts for "activation" a few years (2-10?) after a nuclear war. The project is put on ice with the end of the Cold War but is ramped up again as tensions rise in the early 21st century. Several teams are frozen in various bunker-like installations around the country (there are also a few equipment caches). There's a malfunction at one or two of the complexes and... my team awakes 100-200 years behind schedule.

That's all I plan on using- just the basic premise- and with significant modifications. The world in which my protagonists emerge will be entirely my own creation. It seems like certain premises are basically open source and the MP premise is not entirely original in its own right. I just don't want to get tagged for copyright violation somewhere down the line.

Any advice? Should I contact the publishers? Consult with a lawyer? Forget about it all together? I'm not asking for legal advice, just a little general guidance. Thanks.

Given you have the US government form the teams you have already significantly broken from the Morrow Project template. I think if you lose the word cryogenic (perhaps long term hibernation) you get even further away. If you avoid a time traveling prophet of doom, a group of powerful US industrialists, a universal antidote, vehicles run by fusion plants, Powered Armor, etc I don't think they could touch you.

[Raellus]

That's encouraging.

Here's another question and this one probably requires a lawyer.

I kind of want to game out some of my ideas. This would entail running an MP-type game. I'm worried, though, that if I ever did write a remotely successful book or screenplay, former players in my game would claim that certain portions were their idea. That could get messy.

Another option would be to find a writing partner. I find that I work better when I have someone with similar sensibilities to bounce ideas off of. I don't know anyone who fits this bill, though.

What to do?

[kato13]

Originally Posted by Raellus

That's encouraging.

It is only my guess but it seems reasonable.

Originally Posted by Raellus

I kind of want to game out some of my ideas. This would entail running an MP-type game. I'm worried, though, that if I ever did write a remotely successful book or screenplay, former players in my game would claim that certain portions were their idea. That could get messy.

You need to get them to sign a release. That would require a lawyer to get the proper wording (a review at minimum).

[Targan]

Pure gold. I would love to see this idea become fully developed. Good luck Raellus.

[Project Olympus Rising]

Originally Posted by kato13

Given you have the US government form the teams you have already significantly broken from the Morrow Project template. I think if you lose the word cryogenic (perhaps long term hibernation) you get even further away. If you avoid a time traveling prophet of doom, a group of powerful US industrialists, a universal antidote, vehicles run by fusion plants, Powered Armor, etc I don't think they could touch you.

In general, technologies are not copyright-able (in the sense that a person can prohibit others from making reference to them or using them conceptually), so cyrogenics/cryonics is perfectly useable as a concept here, as are fusiion power vehicles, etc..

In actuality, copyright generally is easy to get around. It's the particular embodiment and presentation of the concepts that is copyrightable, not the basic concepts themselves.Now trademarks are another story.

It would be entirely possible to write, for example, a story that had a human captain of a starship representing a peaceful association of worlds set in the 23rd century with an alien XO, etc.

So long as you're not doing a story about Starfleet Capt Kirk of the USS Enterprise representing the United Federation of Planets set in the 23rd century and his Vulcan Science Officer Spock, you can ape the forms fairly closely.

Protecting the idea itself (industrialist sets up cryo frozen teams to rebuild the world after disaster) would require a patent. I don't know if that has been done.

I'd recommend contacting a lawyer who is skilled in copyright and patent issues really. Even though you may be perfectly in the clear writing a conceptual near-clone of the Project legally, the MP holders could and likely would try to sue anyways. It's happened before.