Is it possible to copyright a concept? Say, we go back a few years
before "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire" was developed and broadcast.
Now, in total, it was a fresh and interesting innovation BUT there is
nothing really new in the elements that go to make it up: asking
questions; selecting answers from givens; getting help; increasing
risk etc. What is largely new is the packaging/the way in which the
whole thing is put together.
If I had put the idea of that show together in my back bedroom/den
(Oh, the fantasy, though I have done something similar for something
new, hence the question), how could I have protected that intellectual
effort as I went round the TV people trying to get them to buy into
it? After all, the only way to sell it is to tell it and, thereby,
give it away! |
