Is there anywhere in existence a pool or repository of ideas for
fiction--a place where somebody like me can post or offer an idea that
somebody else, say a scriptwriter, could take and develop into a
full-blown product?

I have a lot of interesting ideas, but realistically I know that I am
not going to develop them.  However, if they were made into a movie, I
would love to go see them.  So I am not concerned about protecting
them.  I'd offer them free to someone who has the means and machinery
to turn them into something.

So I am just wondering if there is any central posting place where
homeless creative ideas might meet people who could take them in and
give them some support.

For instance, I saw this sentence in a story on CNN's website about
the election crisis in the Ukraine:

In Washington, meanwhile, the White House issued a statement saying
the United States is "deeply disturbed by extensive and credible
indications of fraud committed in the Ukranian presidential election."

And I thought:  what a great idea for a movie!  Turning the tables on
a couple of generations of spy stories, let's have a plot where the
Russian spies come into the U.S. secretly and do what we can't do for
ourselves--namely, uncover the true story of a fraudulent American
election and put things right (of course without their part in it
becoming known)--in order to force the American government to withdraw
from meddling in the internal politics of their nation.

Now, how could I put that idea before someone who might be able to make use of it?

Thank you,
Archae0pteryx

Hi ArchaeO,

Oh, I wish someone would make that movie!  Or better yet, another
award-winning documentary ...

I think your idea is a good one; did I dream it or did you say you
live in Silicon Valley?  Surely you or someone on your block could
create the website, no?

I guess the pragmatists among us will say 'consult a copyright
attorney first!'     hmmm...

ts

Creative Commons has an interesting concept:

http://creativecommons.org/learnmore

Your notion of an "idea clearinghouse" is interesting and indeed there
may be sites out there that offer this service (you might peruse
http://www.wga.org for more info--the Writer's Guild is fairly web
savvy).  But I see one major hurdle, and that is that ideas are not
protectable under current intellectual protection schemes, except
through patent law, and that's not relevant to your facts.  Thus, if
you posted all your great ideas on such a web site, anyone would be
free to take the idea (note: NOT the embodiment of the idea as you may
have chosen to express it) and run with it and make a movie or
whatever.  I understand this is OK for you, but it is likely NOT OK
for others, and thus such a clearinghouse would likely falter or fail.
 Perhaps you should open one on the web?  Anyway, this is why most
screenwriters and authors create at least a precis/treatment/outline
of their work first and either register the copyright in that
particular embodiment or register it (if it's a screenplay) with WGA. 
Neither is an absolute barrier to plagiarism and in the case of a WGA
registration you get no copyright benefits per se, but it's better
than nothing.

Another problem is that most people in the industry will not look at
unsolicited materials for fear of copyright infringement allegations. 
So even if you set or found such a clearinghouse or repository, nobody
would use an idea found at such a place for fear of a lawsuit, unless
the idea was clearly being given away or licensed under one of the
free schemes pinkfreud suggests at Creative Commons.  Sorry to be a
buzzkill, but it is very difficult to even give away a good idea in
Hollywood today due to fear of litigation.

Perhaps you could share your ideas through a writer?s forum like the
Silver Quill at Delphi?  See
http://login.prospero.com/dir-login/index.asp?webtag=writersforum&lgnDST=http%3A%2F%2Fforums%2Edelphiforums%2Ecom%2Fwritersforum

Ipfan

Ipfan

I agree that this is a great idea. There's a movement in the software
world called "open source," which is about the unhindered
collaboration of individuals to create and improve intellectual
property.

The good news is that there's actually a format known as "wiki" that
is ideal for creating, sharing, altering, and updating ideas. The
best-known use of wiki is something called the "wikipedia," which is a
free, shared, open Internet encyclopedia.

I bet you could find a wiki site to house your idea. Start with wiki.org.