How And Where To Register Your Script

Screenplay Copyright: Script Registration Facts & Fiction

By Evan Smith

To steal someone's auto, money, parking space-that'due south depression. But to steal someone's story? A little made-up tale? A hundred pages of FADE IN here and CUT TO in that location? Is that even stealing?

Yes dammit! Information technology is! Stealing of the worst kind. Because many hours accept been spent and emotions invested, and, funny, but an original story that's already been read past half of Hollywood just doesn't seem so original when pitched a 2nd fourth dimension. Cars are insured, money can be borrowed, and, okay, a practiced parking space, that can be worth quite a bit, simply to accept someone steal your script? Ouch. That's non but damaging, information technology's personal.

So what can you do? How tin you protect your scripts? Well, anybody says to simply register them with the Writers Order, correct? And all of your problems volition disappear. Unfortunately, at least in this case, everyone's advice is worth slightly less than you paid for it. Let'south talk about what screenwriters really can and tin can't do to protect their piece of work.

WHAT CAN We PROTECT?

Offset, what exactly is it that we're trying to protect? Our brilliant story ideas? Sorry, but we can't really protect those. The police force says that a person cannot copyright a mere thought or concept, and though you can sue for "idea misappropriation," such cases are plush and nigh impossible to show. So know that if y'all blab about a neat story while sharing a salad at Denny'southward, some sleaze at the next table can take the essence of what he overhears and develop a similar project, and you tin't do a thing nearly it. Nor can you copyright the titillating title that you dreamed up for the project. If information technology's associated with a successful picture show some day, it might then qualify for some level of trademark protection, but until that time it'southward open season.

Then what is protectible? A written handling or outline of a fully developed, unique story should qualify for copyright protection, and a completed script ordinarily does. In fact, current law states that you lot do not have to register such materials for them to be copyrighted; protection is automatically afforded "original works of authorship that are fixed in a tangible class of expression." Meaning, just type the thing on paper or save it as a computer file and it's copyrighted.

Of course, if all you practice is blazon a script and store information technology away somewhere, how can you ever bear witness that information technology existed at a certain signal in fourth dimension? (Which you would need to do if you were going after someone who has stolen your work.) You probably tin't, non unless you also register your already-copyrighted textile to create a public record of its beingness. Which is why all of your friends say to register scripts with the Writers Lodge. Which is a practiced idea, but mayhap non the best thought.

REGISTRATION FACTS AND FICTION

Information technology's truthful. Registering scripts with the Writers Guild of America is useful considering it creates a public record of your claim to authorship, and information technology's user-friendly because you receive quick confirmation of the registration and can fifty-fifty register materials online. The process is relatively simple. Start, remember that there are actually two separate screenwriting guilds, WGAwest, based in LA, and WGAeast, based in NYC. Both have a script registration service and their submission requirements are similar. If using regular postal service, you lot will submit a packet containing one unbound copy of the material, a title page on the script that identifies the cloth and its creators/owners, and a check for the registration fee. (The fees are $x for WGA members at either guild, $20 for non-members at WGAwest, and $22 for not-members at WGAeast. Current students can register for $17 at WGAeast.) For the digitally inclined, y'all tin can fill out a form at either guild'southward website and due east-mail them a file containing the material, and pay past credit menu. Whether registering via snail-post or the internet, each social club has its own specific submission requirements, so visit their websites for details (

for WGAw, or for WGAe).

Is it improve to register at one guild than at the other? WGAe charges non-members two dollars more than, only information technology keeps registered material on file for ten years rather than the five yous get with WGAw. With both guilds, you can renew a registration before it lapses, only must pay some other fee to do then. Which is best? Perhaps neither.

Though WGA registration is quick and user-friendly, information technology is not a substitute for registering your cloth with the U.South. Copyright Office, which is well-nigh as piece of cake to practise. The steps are similar. Just transport in a package that includes a completed awarding course ("Form PA"), one copy of the material, and a cheque for $45. Or yous can register online and pay $35. (See the Copyright Part website,

, for forms and instructions.)

While all three registries serve the master purpose of providing writers with a "public claim of authorship," copyright registration offers two additional benefits. Though the WGA branches go along your material on file for either five or 10 years, or longer if yous pay for renewals, copyright registration lasts for the life of the copyright-as in, an author'due south life plus 70 years. Also, if your material has been registered with the Copyright Office and yous end upwardly suing someone, you can seek statutory damages and reimbursement of legal fees rather than but "actual damages and infringer's profits" that you might otherwise receive. If y'all can prove that the theft was deliberate, this could make a big deviation in the bounty you receive.

Is at that place a downside to registering with the Copyright Office? Well, information technology does cost $13-$35 more, depending on your Guild status and submission method. And, typical of a government institution, it takes a long fourth dimension, currently viii months, to receive official notification that your piece of work has been accepted for registration. (Online submissions receive a much faster response.) Simply that doesn't mean that your textile isn't protected during that time; submissions are engagement-stamped as soon as they are received by the Copyright Office and protection (for those materials eventually accustomed for registration) is accounted effective as of that appointment.

Should you annals with both the WGA and the Copyright Office? No, nigh people would consider that overkill. If you choose to do so regardless, refrain from putting both notices on the script's title page or readers will think y'all're an amateur or perhaps paranoid.

"Notices"? If yous annals a script with the WGA, you accept the option of putting a "WGA Registered" notice on the title page. If yous elect to not practice then, you should put a Copyright notice on the script whether you have registered with the Copyright Office or not, to forbid an infringer from claiming that he didn't know that the work was protected. (Calculation this notice is completely legal because, call back, your material is automatically copyrighted the second information technology's put into a tangible class.) Copyright notices consist of three parts, placed in any order: the discussion "Copyright" or the copyright symbol, the name(southward) of the copyright owner(due south), and the appointment the cloth was copyrighted (created).

Are there any other means to protect a script? There are ii, i good and one non so.

1. INDEPENDENT SCRIPT REGISTRIES

Go hunting online and you can find some independent script registries that aren't affiliated with the WGA or the U.S. Government. These companies charge a few bucks less than the Lodge registries but provide the same basic service-they shop a copy of your piece of work to support your claim of authorship. All the same, like the Guilds, independent registries neither enhance your rights in a property nor provide the benefits associated with copyright registration. Further, one wonders if some of these outfits will still be in business in ten years, and what might happen to a registry'south stored materials if it fails. And so approach with caution.

ii. POOR Human being'S COPYRIGHT

Some folks will tell you that all yous take to do to protect a script is seal it in an envelope and mail service information technology to yourself, and then store it un-opened then that the postage mark provides an official, dated record of the textile'due south existence. Sounds great! And it's a lot cheaper than paying those $twenty-$xxx dollar registration fees, right? Which must be why they dubbed the concept a "Poor Man's Copyright."

People love this thought, I love this thought, it's got a dainty average-Joe-finds-a-loophole feel to it-merely it'due south a bad idea. Why? Because mailing something to yourself doesn't copyright the thing; the material was automatically copyrighted when you typed it into "tangible class." Equally for providing an official, dated tape of the textile'southward existence, present, it is and so piece of cake to fake a self-mailing (always hear of re-sealable envelopes?) that whatever opposing lawyer with half a brain is leap to enquire that your sealed bundle be ruled inadmissible as show (leaving you lot with no case if the approximate agrees). Finally, mailing scripts to yourself is non the same as filing for copyright registration, and then you will non exist able to seek statutory damages and legal expenses in a lawsuit. Bottom line, a Poor Man'due south Copyright is a romantic concept that offers trivial in the way of reliable protection.

Okay, so that's how, where, and why one registers a script. But does that truly protect a person's work?

IF SOMEONE STEALS YOUR Work

Unfortunately, while registering original material is a good policy, information technology protects you but in that it proves that your work existed at a certain point in time, providing you with that "public merits to authorship" I keep mentioning. If someone steals your work, you lot can't simply call up and say, "Ha! Gotcha, the script was registered, send me a check and make it a big one!" Rather, if you think you've got a case worth pursuing, y'all should contact an experienced lawyer and go along as brash. (I should point out that I am non a lawyer and zilch stated in this article is intended to exist legal advice. All of the data provided has been gathered from publications of the U.Due south. Copyright Office, WGAwest, and WGAeast.) You might stop upwardly pressuring the infringing political party to recoup you lot to avert a suit or you lot might decide to take the case to court. Exist aware that copyright cases can be hard to win unless the theft is breathy. You lot accept to prove things like prior access, substantial similarities, bodily amercement, etc. Your lawyer will lay out the odds and likely costs and then that you tin can determine what to practise, if anything.

Is there annihilation else yous can practise to protect your work? Peradventure the best defense of all is to practice a elementary bit of mutual sense: be picky when circulating your work. In Hollywood, everyone thinks he'south a producer, director, author, or actor, and all are looking for projects that tin rocket them to a big career. But don't be seduced; no matter how earnest and flattering he seems, when your waiter tries to convince you that he's the perfect guy to go your script fabricated, resist the urge to paw him a copy. Circulate your material only to people who are established professionals or who tin can connect you direct to established professionals.

Lastly, try to relax about all of this. The good news is that, though nobody tin can guarantee that someone won't steal your piece of work, few professionals are interested in doing so. In nigh instances, when someone develops a project similar to another person's, information technology's purely a coincidence-two writers living in the aforementioned globe at the same time, who come upward with the same story. It happens, too ofttimes, but you lot can't let it go to you. Considering the alternative is to non ship your fabric to anybody, which might not exist the best way to sell a script.

Almost Evan Smith

Evan Smith is the Chair of the screenwriting program at Syracuse Academy 's Newhouse Schoolhouse and the author of what many have described equally the seminal book on sitcom writing, WRITING Tv SITCOMS. Evan has written one-act and drama for Paramount , MTM, Fox , USA , and various producers, and has worked as a programming VP developing Idiot box-movies, specials, and series. Evan is acclaimed for his industry seminars and articles on screenwriting technique, and he serves as a script consultant for screenwriters and entertainment companies.

Screenwriting Article by Evan Smith