I Built This Because the Industry Banks on Your Silence

Twenty-five years ago, I illustrated a logo brief for a client who refused to pay — and then took the work and used it anyway. It was my first real attempt at getting paid for the hours of drawing, refining, and supporting someone else's vision. I brought a lawyer. The evidence was obvious. I got paid.

But I never realised how common this was. Over the years, I watched it happen again and again — clients who tried to steal the work, executives who treated your pitch deck as their starting point, producers who heard your concept and developed it under a different title.

I once presented my slate of scripts at an open executive meet-and-greet. I had appointments. Two executives were interested and above the line. But it was someone else at that event who took my slate book, my synopses — and I later saw my work produced under a different title. Same concept. Same outline. Similar synopsis. And yes, it traced back to the company where one of those executives used to work.

It's not just a timing issue. It's partly the integrity of an industry that knows it won't be challenged. They bank on your silence — because they've always been able to.

People say you can't claim copyright over an idea. They're right — technically. But with ScriptShield backing the trail of communication, every share time-stamped, every access logged, every NDA tracked — the legal process is already in your favour before you walk into the room.

That's what we do now.