I. When “Creativity” Runs Naked: The Nightmare 72 % of Writers Share
“I sent them character bios, an eight-episode outline, and a world bible in one go. They said, ‘We’ll think about it.’ Six months later, their new series dropped—beat-for-beat structure, and the lead’s name differed by a single character.”

This isn’t a Zhihu horror story; it’s the “darkest hour” reported by 72 % of respondents in the 2023 China Screenwriter Ecosystem Report.

Why can the idea you bled for—hair follicles included—be borrowed right under your nose?
Because the law protects “expression,” not “ideas.”

That mind-blowing twist, that once-in-a-lifetime character arc, the cyberpunk universe you spent three months architecting—so long as they’re still “ideas,” they’re not your private property.
The moment you pitch them aloud to a producer, drop the outline in a WeChat voice note, or snap a photo of a white-board structure and post it in a group chat, they bolt like wild horses you’ll never recapture.

That is “idea streaking.”

II. Lock Your Ideas in a Safe: Three Leaps from “Thought” to “Protected Expression”
Most writers panic at the words “copyright registration”: complicated, hundreds or thousands of yuan, a month-long wait—projects won’t wait!
Today, tech has compressed “idea proof-of-ownership” into a ten-yuan, one-minute job.
Break it into three copy-and-paste steps.

STEP 1. Textualize: Give Your Idea Fingerprints
Remember: the law only recognizes “fixed expression.”
• Knotted character webs → PNG diagrams with your name on them
• Jumpy episode beats → Word docs with a timeline
• Sprawling world lore → PDFs with a table of contents

Pro tips

Your “feeling” is now a time-stamped, diff-able, court-ready digital fingerprint.

STEP 2. On-Chain Deposit: A 10-Yuan Birth Certificate
Blockchain evidence = synchronizing your file to a judicial consortium chain to obtain a court-recognized “birth certificate.”
Path (tested, 3 minutes):

Judicial weight:
• In 2023, 36 Chinese courts cited blockchain evidence in judgments.
• Hangzhou Internet Court: “Electronic data deposited on blockchain is presumed unaltered after creation.”

Ten yuan buys your idea “judicial accident insurance.”

STEP 3. Tiered Disclosure: Every Page You Show Has a “Watermark Bomb”
Writers fear: no outline, no meeting; outline sent, idea stolen.
Solution: tiered disclosure + traceable watermarks.
• First contact: one-sentence logline + low-resolution character map (full-screen watermark).
• Deeper evaluation: first-three-episode outline (PDF, footer: “For XX project evaluation only, date”).
• Pre-signing: full script via WPS link-share—7-day expiry, download disabled, full access log.

Advanced play: turn the watermark into the NDA itself:
“This file is provided solely for evaluation of the XX project by XX Company. Any reproduction, distribution, or adaptation beyond this scope constitutes infringement; the author reserves all legal rights.”

The watermark is both technical barrier and legal notice.

III. Toolkit: Write, Store, Protect—All in One Backpack

IV. Real Case: How Screenwriter L (b. 1990) Fought Back in 48 Hours
March 2024: L pitched an 8-episode sci-fi thriller “Deep-Space Prison” to a platform.
Two weeks later: “Not proceeding.”
Early April: the platform launched a similar show “Stellar Cage”—structure and core concepts almost identical.

L’s counterstrike

Within 48 hours, lawyer’s letter + evidence certificate + watermarked files forced the platform into settlement: compensation + co-credit.
L: “Without that 10-yuan certificate, I’d have spent 3 months and 30,000 yuan in court.”

V. To You, Still Rewriting at Midnight
Your idea is your only asset—and the most fragile.
It has no red deed like real estate, no trade confirmation like stocks; it lives only in your mind, on your screen, between the keystrokes.
Stop betting tomorrow on “they wouldn’t be that shameless.”
Stop skipping the 10-yuan step because “the schedule is tight.”

Every 3 a.m. minute you stay awake deserves protection.
Turn your spark from “idea” into “evidence,” from “streaking” into “bank vault.”
Just three moves:

Your story will one day stun the world.
Until then, make sure it safely belongs to you.

—END—

If this helped, share it in your writers’ groups.
Leave your own horror stories or favorite tools in the comments; let’s drive that “72 %” down to “0 %.”

#ScreenwriterSurvivalGuide #FilmTVCopyright #BlockchainEvidence