Amazon Screenplay-Writing Software Submits Work To Amazon Studios

An anonymous reader writes: Amazon has released new screenplay-writing software aimed to help connect new writing talent to its original content production company, Amazon Studios. Storywriter contains many of the autoformatting tools familiar to users of similar software such as Final Draft and Celtx, but no other screenwriting tool can claim to actually send unknown writers' output to potentially interested producers.

Could this be used for porn?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm kind of hoping this might lead to better plot lines in typical pornographic films. Historically the quality has been a little bit lacking. If we can make it easier to write screenplays and attract new and better talent, this could go a long way towards fixing this situation.

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[sumdumass]

Why not? I mean you kinda need something besides cocaine to do in between boners. Why not get turned on by the plot just before getting turned on by the content?

Besides, I bet more women would watch more porn if there was a decent plot. Look at the popularity of soft porn like 50 shades of grey.

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[Cow Jones]

Here's some porn with plot [dailymotion.com] for you.
Would have been perfect with Morena Baccarin.

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[KGIII]

I was wondering where that was going and followed it through to the end. I came!

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[GuB-42]

Some japanese "eroge", hentai games or whatever you want to call these actually have very good plots. Good enough to stand on their own without the porn.

That's...odd

[mhkohne]

I simply can not imagine how big that slush pile is going to grow. Even if they run an automated grammar check or something and reject the out-and-out fails without human intervention, they are going to get so many submissions they aren't going to be able to keep up.

I give it two weeks.

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[Anonymous Coward]

Whatever you're on, you need either a lot less or a lot more.

Small print

[Chris Johnson]

Amazon Studios will grow and evolve over time. As it does, we'll need to adapt the terms of this Agreement. Unless we otherwise note at the time of posting, changes to this Agreement will be effective immediately upon posting. You accept changes by using Amazon Studios after we have posted changes or, if we provide you a means of indicating your acceptance online, by clicking to confirm acceptance.

In order to prevent legal claims that could be disruptive to Amazon Studios participants and impede the ability of Amazon scripts, movies, shows and videos to be developed and released, you agree to irrevocably and forever waive any legal claim you may have under any theory of law in any territory, including, without limitation, copyright infringement or breach of implied in fact contract (idea submission), that your rights were infringed due to any similarity between your Content and any other content that is or may become available on Amazon, unless there is substantial similarity of protectable expression under United States copyright law between your Content and the other content and the other content includes a verbatim copy of a material portion of your script or other written material, if your Content is a script or other written material, or a re-use of a material portion of footage from your movie, show or other video if your Content is a movie, show, or other video. Note that the Account Agreement includes additional waivers of claims related to Content that apply to the Amazon Parties, as defined in Section 11.4 below.

9. Compensation. You will have no right to compensation in connection with the exploitation of rights you grant under this Agreement.

I'm not sure WHAT they could possibly change to rape screenwriters harder, in this, but by God if they think of something, you've already agreed to it! :D

And so another field of human endeavor is Uber-fied

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[ProzacPatient]

I'm no lawyer but wouldn't this be considered an agreement of adhesion perhaps even to the point of being potentially unconscionable? I can't see how any rational person would agree to this.

Re: Small print

[Eugriped3z]

Gosh, isn't a, "take it or leave it all," type contract exactly what all 'free software' agreements are all about? You can't tell me this is the first time you've noticed that something is amiss with the $ billions in revenue that accrues to large corporations like banks, wireless carriers, ISPs, and web based businesses that hawk 'their' user's metadata and/or real data because of the assumption that it becomes the property of the company providing the service? However, Courts often use the âoedoctri

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[davester666]

But the person agreeing to it is a screenwriter....definitely not rational.

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[Anonymous Coward]

What this is saying is that by submitting your idea to Amazon, you're acknowledging that Amazon may be receiving submissions with ideas similar to yours, and that because of this, you should not expect to be compensated for this.

This reads similarly to the release forms that Hollywood studios and agencies require you to sign before they consider submissions, especially unsolicited ones.

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[dgatwood]

Yes, this isn't all that unusual at all. It's pretty consistent with the unsolicited ideas submission policies of most major companies.

With that said, if these terms scare you, and if you don't care about submitting to Amazon, but just want a web-based script writing platform, check out WebScripted TV [webscriptedtv.com]. It's kind of preliminary (translation: I'm the only developer, only user, and only tester), and I had to work around dozens of really bad bugs and misbehavior in various browsers' HTML editing functionalit

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[KGIII]

They, the real professionals, might review this site for ideas. They'll just change a few names around, make the setting sightly different, and call the idea their own. This is a stupid idea and they are stupid for enabling it. Nothing good will come of this except for a few key events that are short-lived. It will look like a success on paper (at best) and be in the news no more than three times as a success. If it's in the news beyond that then it will be for negatives such as the above mentioned copying

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[lowkeyknight]

They will Absolutely make something from this and give all credits and plaudits to that writer. My God! The PR boost and free media from all the articles and the talking heads on the "new Paradigm in film making post Amazon/Netflix" alone will make them staggering sums of money.

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[KGIII]

I figure that's true for the first few which is why I included that.

I'm sure there will be a few 'success' stories at first.

Perhaps you missed it or I wasn't clear enough? Or do you think they're going to *keep* doing that after the first few and they've gained the PR boost from it? If so then, well, I don't think that's going to happen. They'll end up getting labor at next to nothing if not just outright stealing the ideas and changing them enough to ensure they don't violate any agreements. Their terms of service indicate that they've already concluded that ma

Re: Small print

[lowkeyknight]

I think they'll roll out 2-3 a year to keep interest up. There is actually an interesting model for this type of work submission in the non marvel/DC comic book publishers, some do annual "talent competitions" for direct submissions for writers/artists and publish a handful of the best every year, several of which have got a career.

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[KGIII]

No, they are not agreeing. It's an automated process. You, on the other hand, are agreeing to the terms. They can not be expected to read each and every submission to its conclusion nor can they be reasonably expected to respond to such. No judge, even if they steal your work, will give you any consideration for this. No lawyer will take it on contingency. No jury will award you damages or find in your favor.

I am not a lawyer but this is legal advice: Do not listen to the parent poster without getting profe

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[lowkeyknight]

Seems to me the "If you do post content or submit material" means that you are wrong.

Talented software?!

[doccus]

The title *could* have been written more clearly, you know.. I read it as the *software itself* submitted a screenplay to Amazon. So that's where A.I. develops literary talents? Frankly, it could be an improvement// I suppose.