Rome, Sweet, Rome. Coming to a theater near you (maybe) in like 2013. And sure, the main thrust of the film will focus on US Marines traveling back in time to Rome, where they will battle it out Gladiator style. And sure, that may sound like a truly Hollywood tale. But there's a story behind the story that many may never know. To borrow a phrase - The Real Hollywood Story.
To sum: It's the truly inspirational tale of a young writer, James Irwin, creating a very marketable and interesting story, putting it out into the world via posts on Reddit.com as a series of short stories, and then having those stories found and subsequently bought by Warner Bros. A dream of any writer. The Hollywood dream come true.
But wait. There's more. It's Hollywood, not ultimate-dream-come-true-fantasy-land. I mean, have you been? Lots of ins, lots of outs. (Yes. I stole that. Oh sweet irony.)
Recently it has been discovered that Warner Bros. may not have bought the exclusive rights to Rome, Sweet, Rome because Mr. Irwin may not have held the exclusive rights. And why is that? The fine print of course. It turns out in the terms and agreements for posting on Reddit, is this little clause:
"you agree that by posting messages, uploading files, inputting data, or engaging in any other form of communication with or through the Website, you grant us a royalty-free, perpetual, non-exclusive, unrestricted, worldwide license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, translate, enhance, transmit, distribute, publicly perform, display, or sublicense any such communication in any medium (now in existence or hereinafter developed) and for any purpose, including commercial purposes, and to authorize others to do so."
I really hope you just skimmed that. Lots of good legalize there. But it's pretty all-encompassing. So now the real fear is that if Reddit so chose, they could sell the rights to the story based on Mr. Irwins posts to Fox or Paramount. If they do or not remains to be seen, but there is little doubt at this point that Mr. Irwin granted Reddit a license. Of course, the penultimate consequences will be for the lawyers to really decide in closed door negotitiations. If it even comes to that. Time will tell, and won't it be interesting to see what it says (that's mine. but you can steal it).
But like every good Hollywood story, there's a lesson here. Understand what you're getting into. Terms and Agreements do mean something. Someone owns the websites we post on. Twitter just recently instituted a similar clause in its terms and agreements provisions. Mr. Irwin should be fine in the end. But the lawyers on all sides are rumbling. And when lawyers rumble ... well. That Hollywood dream can tumble. And fast.
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