{Yes, there are plenty of fans who would sign a waiver to give JMS free
ownership of story ideas, but that still doesn't matter. *Someone* would
bring suit. Someone, maybe, who holds a grudge for a real or imagined slight,
or just because it's easy money...}

The probelm is not just one fan. People are *constantly* suing because they
think their idea -- sometimes just that, an idea -- was stolen. Steven
Spielberg was sued by *three people* each one independently claiming that ET
was based on their story. Obviously, that three different people say the
same thing means they're mutually contradictory...it can't be based uniquely
on all three. Two of them have to be wrong at minimum (and as it came out,
all of them lost). But they were True Believers.

And yes, 98% of these cases are nonsense, and are eventually won by the
original writer; but the process of defending such a case can literally
consume *years* of your life.

jms

Here's an example of this, btw. On another service, someone without
considering what he was saying (not his fault, it just happened) said, in
essence, "What if somebody on B5 found out that he had been mind-wiped, and
used to be something awful previously?"

Well, I'd had "Passing Through Gethsemane" on the wire at that time, but when
I saw this, I had to scuttle the story. It lay there, untouched, for over a
year, until I could finally meet the fellow and get a signed release
indicating what'd happened. If that fan had not been fair and reasonable,
that episode -- which many consider one of our best -- would never have been
made.

jms