How To Register Number On Script

Screenplay Copyright: Script Registration Facts & Fiction

By Evan Smith

To steal someone's car, coin, parking space-that's low. But to steal someone's story? A trivial made-upwards tale? A hundred pages of FADE IN here and CUT TO there? Is that even stealing?

Yes dammit! It is! Stealing of the worst kind. Because many hours take been spent and emotions invested, and, funny, but an original story that'south already been read by half of Hollywood just doesn't seem so original when pitched a 2d time. Cars are insured, money tin can be borrowed, and, okay, a good parking infinite, that can be worth quite a flake, but to have someone steal your script? Ouch. That's not only damaging, it'south personal.

And so what can you do? How can you protect your scripts? Well, everyone says to just register them with the Writers Social club, right? And all of your problems will disappear. Unfortunately, at least in this instance, everyone'south advice is worth slightly less than you paid for it. Allow's talk almost what screenwriters really can and can't do to protect their work.

WHAT Can Nosotros PROTECT?

Kickoff, what exactly is it that nosotros're trying to protect? Our bright story ideas? Sorry, just we tin't really protect those. The law says that a person cannot copyright a mere idea or concept, and though yous tin sue for "thought misappropriation," such cases are costly and well-nigh impossible to show. And so know that if you blubber well-nigh a bully story while sharing a salad at Denny'southward, some sleaze at the next tabular array can take the essence of what he overhears and develop a like project, and you can't do a thing near it. Nor can you copyright the titillating title that you dreamed up for the project. If information technology'southward associated with a successful film some day, it might then qualify for some level of trademark protection, but until that time it's open up season.

And so what is protectible? A written treatment or outline of a fully adult, unique story should qualify for copyright protection, and a completed script usually does. In fact, current law states that yous do non have to register such materials for them to exist copyrighted; protection is automatically afforded "original works of authorship that are fixed in a tangible grade of expression." Pregnant, just type the thing on newspaper or save it every bit a computer file and it's copyrighted.

Of course, if all you do is type a script and shop information technology away somewhere, how tin yous ever prove that information technology existed at a sure point in fourth dimension? (Which you would need to do if you were going afterward someone who has stolen your work.) Y'all probably can't, not unless you too register your already-copyrighted material to create a public record of its beingness. Which is why all of your friends say to annals scripts with the Writers Order. Which is a good idea, merely maybe not the best idea.

REGISTRATION FACTS AND FICTION

It'due south true. Registering scripts with the Writers Social club of America is useful because it creates a public record of your claim to authorship, and it'due south convenient because you lot receive quick confirmation of the registration and can even annals materials online. The procedure is relatively simple. First, call up that in that location 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 like. If using regular postal service, yous will submit a package containing i unbound copy of the textile, a title page on the script that identifies the material and its creators/owners, and a check for the registration fee. (The fees are $ten for WGA members at either social club, $xx for non-members at WGAwest, and $22 for non-members at WGAeast. Current students can register for $17 at WGAeast.) For the digitally inclined, you can fill out a form at either order's website and electronic mail them a file containing the textile, and pay by credit bill of fare. Whether registering via snail-mail or the internet, each order has its own specific submission requirements, so visit their websites for details (

for WGAw, or for WGAe).

Is it better to register at one social club than at the other? WGAe charges non-members two dollars more, simply it keeps registered material on file for 10 years rather than the five you become with WGAw. With both guilds, you can renew a registration earlier it lapses, but must pay another fee to do so. Which is all-time? Perhaps neither.

Though WGA registration is quick and user-friendly, information technology is not a substitute for registering your material with the U.S. Copyright Office, which is almost as easy to practice. The steps are similar. Just send in a package that includes a completed application class ("Course PA"), one re-create of the cloth, and a check for $45. Or yous tin can register online and pay $35. (Run across the Copyright Part website,

, for forms and instructions.)

While all 3 registries serve the master purpose of providing writers with a "public claim of authorship," copyright registration offers two additional benefits. Though the WGA branches keep your material on file for either five or ten years, or longer if you pay for renewals, copyright registration lasts for the life of the copyright-as in, an author's life plus 70 years. As well, if your fabric has been registered with the Copyright Office and you finish up suing someone, you tin seek statutory amercement and reimbursement of legal fees rather than just "actual damages and infringer's profits" that y'all might otherwise receive. If you can testify that the theft was deliberate, this could make a big difference in the bounty you receive.

Is there a downside to registering with the Copyright Office? Well, it does cost $13-$35 more, depending on your Society status and submission method. And, typical of a government institution, it takes a long fourth dimension, currently 8 months, to receive official notification that your piece of work has been accepted for registration. (Online submissions receive a much faster response.) But that doesn't mean that your material isn't protected during that fourth dimension; submissions are date-stamped as soon equally they are received past the Copyright Office and protection (for those materials somewhen accepted for registration) is deemed effective equally of that date.

Should you register with both the WGA and the Copyright Part? No, virtually people would consider that overkill. If you cull to do then regardless, refrain from putting both notices on the script's title folio or readers will call back you're an apprentice or perhaps paranoid.

"Notices"? If you annals a script with the WGA, you have the option of putting a "WGA Registered" notice on the title page. If you elect to non do and then, you should put a Copyright find on the script whether y'all take registered with the Copyright Office or not, to preclude an infringer from claiming that he didn't know that the work was protected. (Adding this discover is completely legal because, remember, your textile is automatically copyrighted the 2nd information technology's put into a tangible form.) Copyright notices consist of three parts, placed in whatever order: the word "Copyright" or the copyright symbol, the name(s) of the copyright owner(s), and the date the material was copyrighted (created).

Are in that location any other means to protect a script? There are two, one good and one not and then.

1. INDEPENDENT SCRIPT REGISTRIES

Go hunting online and you can detect 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 Guild registries just provide the aforementioned bones service-they store a re-create of your work to support your merits of authorship. Yet, like the Guilds, independent registries neither enhance your rights in a belongings nor provide the benefits associated with copyright registration. Farther, one wonders if some of these outfits will all the same be in business in x years, and what might happen to a registry'south stored materials if it fails. So approach with caution.

ii. POOR MAN'Southward COPYRIGHT

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

People dearest this thought, I love this thought, it'due south got a prissy boilerplate-Joe-finds-a-loophole feel to it-but information technology'southward a bad idea. Why? Considering mailing something to yourself doesn't copyright the thing; the textile was automatically copyrighted when you typed it into "tangible form." As for providing an official, dated tape of the material'due south being, nowadays, information technology is so easy to fake a cocky-mailing (ever hear of re-sealable envelopes?) that any opposing lawyer with half a brain is bound to ask that your sealed package be ruled inadmissible equally evidence (leaving you lot with no case if the judge agrees). Finally, mailing scripts to yourself is not the aforementioned as filing for copyright registration, so you will not exist able to seek statutory amercement and legal expenses in a lawsuit. Bottom line, a Poor Homo's Copyright is a romantic concept that offers picayune in the manner of reliable protection.

Okay, and so that'due south 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, it protects you lot only in that information technology proves that your work existed at a certain point in time, providing you with that "public merits to authorship" I go along mentioning. If someone steals your work, you tin't merely call back and say, "Ha! Gotcha, the script was registered, transport me a cheque and make it a big 1!" Rather, if you think you've got a case worth pursuing, you should contact an experienced lawyer and proceed every bit advised. (I should bespeak out that I am non a lawyer and cypher stated in this commodity is intended to be legal advice. All of the data provided has been gathered from publications of the U.S. Copyright Office, WGAwest, and WGAeast.) You might terminate upward pressuring the infringing party to compensate you to avert a accommodate or yous might make up one's mind to take the case to courtroom. Exist aware that copyright cases can be difficult to win unless the theft is blatant. Y'all have to testify things similar prior access, substantial similarities, actual amercement, etc. Your lawyer will lay out the odds and likely costs so that you can decide what to practise, if anything.

Is there anything else yous can do to protect your work? Perhaps the best defense force of all is to practice a simple bit of mutual sense: be picky when circulating your work. In Hollywood, everyone thinks he's a producer, director, writer, or player, and all are looking for projects that tin rocket them to a large career. But don't be seduced; no matter how earnest and flattering he seems, when your waiter tries to convince you that he'south the perfect guy to get your script made, resist the urge to mitt him a copy. Circulate your fabric only to people who are established professionals or who can connect you directly to established professionals.

Lastly, try to relax about all of this. The good news is that, though nobody tin guarantee that someone won't steal your piece of work, few professionals are interested in doing so. In most instances, when someone develops a project like to another person's, it's purely a coincidence-2 writers living in the same world at the same fourth dimension, who come up up with the aforementioned story. Information technology happens, too often, just you can't let it get to you. Because the alternative is to not transport your material to anybody, which might not be the all-time way to sell a script.

Near Evan Smith

Evan Smith is the Chair of the screenwriting program at Syracuse University 's Newhouse School and the author of what many accept described every bit the seminal book on sitcom writing, WRITING Idiot box SITCOMS. Evan has written comedy and drama for Paramount , MTM, Fox , USA , and various producers, and has worked equally a programming VP developing TV-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