Is the Stargate concept copywritten?

[roxics]

Let's say someone else wanted to create a movie or show based on the same general concept as Stargate. People from out time travelling to other earth-like planets through a wormhole gateway like a stargate. Maybe military of civilian or a mix of both. So long as they didn't use the word stargate is this legal? Fan films aside, I'm talking a for profit independent production.

I've always loved the concept, ever since I saw the first movie three times at the theater. Was thrilled to see SG1 come about a handful of years later and expand on it. As much as I love the movie and the shows I've always felt like a version of this concept that was both darker and more realistic would be really cool to see. SGU tried to go this direction but was still heavily influenced by the franchise format as a whole.

A complete reboot would have been cool. So what if one of us wanted to do it but not call it stargate?

[tomaso88]

That would still be considered illegal unless gaining permission and giving credit, through history many scifi films and series have been to caught because concepts can be so similar and many creators would claim this other creator coppied there idea, I think this has happened a few times with star wars, possibly bsg, and many other things.

Unless the idea can differentiate its self enough it's still under copywritten laws.

[roxics]

I'm not sure about that. I'm pretty sure ideas are not copywritable, just works.

[Wyrminarrd]

If you make things sufficiently different then it could be ok. The main thing to consider is the gateway, if that is to similar to stargates then you'd probably be in trouble. Simplest way around that would be to have the gate built by present day Earth and to avoid all historical references and connections when designing the alien civilizations.

[StevenSG1]

As the others have said, if you had things in it that were heavily related to Stargate it's self then it would be a copyright infringement. You could have the showed based around the same sort of setting as Stargate, but pretty much everything would have to be different, weapons, the stargate it's self etc.

[FrodoFraggins]

Let's say someone else wanted to create a movie or show based on the same general concept as Stargate. People from out time travelling to other earth-like planets through a wormhole gateway like a stargate. Maybe military of civilian or a mix of both. So long as they didn't use the word stargate is this legal? Fan films aside, I'm talking a for profit independent production.

I've always loved the concept, ever since I saw the first movie three times at the theater. Was thrilled to see SG1 come about a handful of years later and expand on it. As much as I love the movie and the shows I've always felt like a version of this concept that was both darker and more realistic would be really cool to see. SGU tried to go this direction but was still heavily influenced by the franchise format as a whole.

A complete reboot would have been cool. So what if one of us wanted to do it but not call it stargate?

I'd be shocked if the Stargate concept wasn't already used in written SciFi before Devlin/Emmerich made their movie. Heck even that classic star trek episode had a gate that travelled through time and space.

[Starsaber]

I'd be shocked if the Stargate concept wasn't already used in written SciFi before Devlin/Emmerich made their movie. Heck even that classic star trek episode had a gate that travelled through time and space.

At least 2 different ones I can think of in Star Trek. The trick will be not unintentionally making it more similar than you intend it to be.

[garhkal]

Yup. i would say to avoid issues
1) don't call it a gate or star anything
2) don't have cheverons that lock or constalations on it.
3) try to not use the same cliche of 4 people team, one math/science geek, one mil commander, one alien, and one female.

[Vendikarr]

Yup. i would say to avoid issues
1) don't call it a gate or star anything
2) don't have cheverons that lock or constalations on it.
3) try to not use the same cliche of 4 people team, one math/science geek, one mil commander, one alien, and one female.

And avoid mention of aliens also being ancient gods to humanity. Combine that with your portal and it's just too much to call your own.

The more similarities there are, the harder it is to call your own.

[garhkal]

Good point on the god angle.

[worldmaker]

Time travelling through a gate?
You mean like "The Time Tunnel"??

Now, I wonder where the Stargate writers got their inspiration?

[worldmaker]

If you want a concept (My Copyright 2014), with a ring and time travel, blah, blah, try this....

"Discus"
A group of old elite scientists led by a cranky old Air Force Colonel on the verge of retirement are investigating the mythical (and false) Roswell crash when they come on a strange flat disc buried in the ground.
On investigation they discover the disc, about fifty feet across, is a spacetime travel machine that crashed into a stupid USAF balloon floating over Roswell.
When they manage to understand and master the controls, using a super-duper CIA computer (according to Hollywood CIA computers CAN read your mind, that's why I wear tin foil on my head), they manage to "fly" it through time and then space, casting a magical super-science protective bubble around it for all those onboard.
And so begin an infinite series of adventures of wacky wild and way out travels through time and space.
As time goes by they discover the distress beacon was still active when they switched the disc back on and aliens want their disc back (because they use it in a really frooby game of space cricket). Chases and battle ensure, blah, blah.

(So that's my ten minutes of creativity for today.)

[roxics]

Thanks. That's what I thought. I was just considering the concept in general. It's such a great concept I'm surprised more shows and movies haven't used it.

How many tens or thousands of shows and stories do we have of people getting on spaceships and going to different planets? Spaceships are universal in sci-fi.
How many of those spaceships have some kind of faster-than-light/warp speed/hyperspace mode that lets them get places quickly? Another universal concept in sci-fi.

So I'm just surprised there aren't more gateways-to-other-worlds devices being used across the sci-fi genre.

The idea of people from our time discovering a device or something that allows them to travel to other earth-like planets is something I particularly like and it's one of the reasons I loved Stargate from the beginning. The characters and earth-based scenarios are relatable because they are from our time.