Please do not post story suggestions for my view here. Any time this
is done jeapordizes my ability to do anything approaching that story
because of the ever-present reality of plagiarism suits. What you just
proposed cuts into a story that we're developing, and now we're going to
have to modify that in order to avoid any problems. This kind of thing
causes us great difficulty. You can reassure all you want, but that
doesn't change the reality...you seem like a nice fellow, but I don't know
you, don't know if you'll change your mind, don't know anything. So I've
had to make a blanket policy regarding stories: you can come up with
stories, or I can be present. It's one or the other. I don't mean to
sound harsh, because I know your intentions are good, but if this occurs
again, I'm going to have to bail out of Internet altogether. This has
happened once already; three would be too much.

jms

I think the alt.tv.babylon-5.creative might work. Frankly, all I
see of Internet is what's fed to me through GEnie, and it's just this
one thread. I'm not on it per se. So all I have to do is make sure I
don't get this thread to be at least marginally protected.

jms

Okay, expressing ignorance here: what is a "group" when one says a
"creative group?" I kinda got the impression it was a private thread of
some sort.

jms

In 1989, the bible, treatment, screenplay and artwork for Babylon 5
was brought to Paramount. This is documented. It was reviewed, in depth,
by many of the development people there, meetings were taken, and at one
point, it looked as if we might have a deal. Very abruptly this prospect
evaporated, with Paramount passing on the grounds that it then had an SF
series that had just gone on, and it would conflict.

What a development person at a studio does, incidentally, is to work
with writers and producers involved in studio projects. The development
person guides the writers and producers in ways that the development
person thinks that the project should go.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I do not believe that
either Berman or Pillar ever saw the B5 material. Further, that if they
were asked to rip anything off, I think that they would outright refuse
to do so. These are honorable men.

They would never knowingly do anything inappropriate.

jms

Just because there seems to be some misapprehension going on here,
a point of clarification. My initial "not here" message was not in
response to some idle speculations about the show. There was a message
which contained a *detailed* story suggestion. With luck, someone here
who saw it can verify that. I do not react like that lightly; only when
necessary.

You may think that this "paranoia thing has gotten out of hand."
That's as may be. You're not on the receiving end. I know many friends
who have been at the receiving end of nuisance lawsuits, which consumes
literally hundreds of thousands of dollars, and months to a *year* of
someone's life. And that even though they win the case. It can kill a
year of your life, exhaust your bank accounts (which are often not able to
be recovered) in a lawsuit which may not even get to *court*. Sometimes
its a lawyer-spouse, sometimes just another goddamned greedy ambulance
chaser who doesn't know a thing about creative issues, who's only after it
in the hopes of getting a big settlement rather than a prolonged court
case.

jms