I am almost done writing the script for my next short film (about 20 minutes). Since there will be allot of people involved, should I consider registering my script with the U.S. copyright office?

No. You already own the copyright, since you wrote it, assuming, of course, that you did write it.

I am almost done writing the script for my next short film (about 20 minutes). Since there will be allot of people involved, should I consider registering my script with the U.S. copyright office?

One thing some writers do is to seal a copy of the script in an envelope in front of a notary and mail it to yourself registered mail, keeping it sealed once it arrives. Now you have positive documentation of the authenticity of your claim to authorship and the date of creation should someone try to steal it.

One thing some writers do is to seal a copy of the script in an envelope in front of a notary and mail it to yourself registered mail, keeping it sealed once it arrives. Now you have positive documentation of the authenticity of your claim to authorship and the date of creation should someone try to steal it.
There is very little a writer can do to protect themselves. That is just a fact of life. Mailing your script to your lawyer or lodging it with the WGA are good things to do but they aren't fool proof. You can't prove that you wrote a screenplay just because you mailed one to yourself, that only prooves that it was written by the date specified.

If I were you I'd concentrate on getting the job done rather than worrying about who's gonna rip you off.

I'm not going to register the copyright because its $45 now and I could use the money for making the movie. But I will register the movie when I get done with it.

If you make a SAG film I believe you have to pay for it to be copyrighted anyway.

Here are some usefull 'facts'.

You cannot copyright an 'idea'... only the tangible expression of one - IE a 'script' or 'treatment'.

You need not register your script with the copyright office, for it to be 'copywritten'. It is already copywritten once it is fixed in a tangible form of expression (IE: written down).

HOWEVER. If you wish to seek damages for intentional infringement in the future, having it copywritten will ease the process and allow for greater damage awards.

You can 'register' the script online with the WGA for twenty dollars. This is NOT a copyright registration, merely a depository for scripts which can come in handy when trying to prove prior ownership.

Mailing your script to yourself is useless in a court of law. Why? Because today, I will mail myself four empty clasp envelopes. Next year, I will go watch a blockbuster, then go home and type up a rough version of the script and 'seal' it in one of those envelopes... "Yay" I now have 'proof' that I mailed it to myself a year earlier. This is positive documentation only of the date of mailing for the enelope, not the contents. Save yourself the postage.

Read over the excellent faq on copyrights on this forum.

If I copyright the movie, does that mean I can prosecute intentional infringement? For example, if someone was to copy my movie, would that be illegal?

On the old mailing trick... someone at the post office told me once... seal it in front of the postal worker... then have them stamp all seals with the date stamp...

Not saying it will protect you... but it'll show that they didn't stamp an empty folder...

A writer friend and I were talking about the idea of someone stealing your script...

He said once in LA he was in this bar where industry people go... said some guy was in there pitching his script to a producer. The writer said he was afraid that the studios would steal his script.

The funny thing was that everyone in the bar heard his story... my friend said it was quite good... the only problem was that half the writers in the room could have gone home that night and wrote a movie based upon his pitch...

I've always heard they'll steal the idea more than the script... because they'll hire a writer they worked with to write your idea...

Kinda of depressing I know....

If I copyright the movie, does that mean I can prosecute intentional infringement? For example, if someone was to copy my movie, would that be illegal?
Nick,
You're just starting out in this business and you're already looking for people to sue?

In answer to your question, no you won't be able to prosecute anyone. Well, not unless you've got a thousand-bucks-an-hour intellectual copyright lawyer who's well versed in international law and even then you cant prove anything.

Just get on with making the film and have a little trust in people.

Nick,
Just get on with making the film and have a little trust in people.

I mean, really!

...He said once in LA he was in this bar where industry people go... said some guy was in there pitching his script to a producer. The writer said he was afraid that the studios would steal his script.

The funny thing was that everyone in the bar heard his story...Years ago some of my co-workers went on a business trip to Beaverton, OR. After work they went to a local pub where they started grousing about the parent company not investing in any new ideas, or taking any risks. After a number of drinks, they got pretty loud, and started saying, "They should just do it!" It became the tagline of the evening. "Just Do It"

Nike headquarters are also in Beaverton. A few months later the "Just Do It" campaign started. My friends always wondered if their antics started it.

Am I missing something here??? It was my understanding that the point of mailing yourself a copy was that you would have a sealed and dated envelope to open in court or during a deposition to help prove your case. Certainly you would not open it when you got it in the mail the next day.

Randy

You misread. It was that you can mail empty, unsealed envelopes to yourself, then fill them with whatever you want and seal them.

Nick,

You should register it with the Writer's Guild. But the amount of ripping off that goes on is great overestimated. I promise you, that regardless of how original your script, there are at least 15 floating around with the same basic storyline - it's all in the execution. In the two years previous to The Full Monty being released, I read a half dozen screenplays about unemployed guys stripping for a living. Two of them had nearly identical custody battle subplots. If you've had a good idea, ten other people have as well. I"m sure everyone one of those writers suspected they'd been ripped off. A long ago acquaintance once wrote a script about a post-nuclear society where women could no longer conceive. Finally, one young woman was located who was pregnant and a man was hired to spririt her out of the country to a ship waiting shoreside to take her to a safer land. That screenplay, after much torture, became American Cyborg - a film so bad the LA Times pronounced the worst film of the year when it was released the first week in January. About the same time the film came out, PD James book, The Children Of Men was also released. Same story line.

Register your idea with the WGA and then let it go. You cannot worry about being ripped off. If someone you work with goes on to pen a screenplay that is produced and does $50m at the box office, then think about suing. Before then, don't sweat it at all.

Seriously.

I made a short film that involved reincarnation and about 4 years later "Birth" came out. The log line for both films were more or less the same and some people suggested I sue. However, although there were scenes which were remarkably similar it was told from a different perspective, different locations and other changes. In the end, it would be rather like suing because someone who had made a film about a bank robbery because I'd made a film about a bank robbery first.

If my film influenced the "Birth" writer, I don't know, because the short went around a large number of festivals worldwide. Certainly, if you're working on that same subject line it's very possible to come up with similar ideas and scenes.

On a short I'd just get on with it, put the copyright logo on the script and post it to yourself by registered if you wish.

The "post office" thing doesn't work from a legal standpoint.

Yes, it's techincally copy-righted when it's written but the registration proves that.
Registering with the WGA west or east provides the same basic protection and proof, but doesn't last as long.
register with one of the guilds and you even get a snazzy certificate suitable for framing.
I think registering with the WGA East is a little bit cheaper and maybe lasts a little longer.

Think of how much work you've put in to it, I think it's worth the thirty or so bucks.

And I totally agree that rampant stealing is as widespread as many people talk about. It's not the idea that's worth money, it's the successful execution of it. It takes a lot of time, money and know how to write a good script. If they can just buy it from you why would a producer pay someone else to write it and maybe end up with a script half as good...

"Registering with the WGA west or east provides the same basic protection and proof, but doesn't last as long."

No, it's not the same as a copyright registration, and the courts recognize this. It serves as a good 'time stamp' but it's not a legal form of 'registration' recognized by the courts, when it comes to awarding damages for intentional infringement.

Then why do it? It's cheaper and quicker than a registration via the copyright office... a 'quick and dirty' time stamp that IS proof of time creation. I use both the WGA registration (as soon as I complete a script or treatment) AND I mail it to the copyright office... call me a belt and suspenders kind of guy. But then , I'm married to a copyright attorney.

For the record, I mailed a treatment into the copyright office on February 6th, and yesterday recieved the registration in the mail. So that took, like ten weeks?

For the last time, sending it to yourself in the mail is NOT a good way to 'prove' creation date.

Yep,
Richard's right. I wasn't clear enough. I was trying to address the "time stamp as proof" issue, but they are def different beasts.

I also know some who register each step of the process i.e. treatment, outline, first draft, second draft etc.
That's a "belt, suspender, sansabelt, elastic waist, overalls" approach...

One benefit of registering with the guild that the copyright office can't address is that the guild uses that as a part of determining a script's authorship especially if multiple writers are involved.

I 've just received paper work to become a guild signatory to option a writer's script, and the paperwork is pretty clear about listing the writer(s) as it appears on the coverpage of the script.

I'm not sure if the full writers guild registration is appropriate for a short film script, for a feature or TV series yes. Unfortunately, short films tend to have little commercial value and their scripts tend not to get ripped off.

Documentary proposals I'd be a lot more wary of than drama scripts. I've heard of so many of these being stolen by in house producers of large broadcasting organisations.

If you've got a great well written drama script with a gripping story, producers will want to option it from you rather than steal it. They've got to pay a writer anyway. However, if you're dealing with the studios you'll need an agent before they'll even look at it.

But the amount of ripping off that goes on is great overestimated. I promise you, that regardless of how original your script, there are at least 15 floating around with the same basic storyline - it's all in the execution.

Register your idea with the WGA and then let it go. You cannot worry about being ripped off. If someone you work with goes on to pen a screenplay that is produced and does $50m at the box office, then think about suing. Before then, don't sweat it at all.

Thank you for this reality check. It amazes me how many people are afraid of their ideas being stolen, assuming that they did not accidentally steal it themselves. This same thing happens with music alllllll the time. That's why it's so difficult to produce original music if you are an avid music listener. Those riffs that you come up with in the shower are most likely from a song you heard last week while napping on the train.

There are a finite number of story pitch ideas and when you restrict the description down to a couple lines, you almost have to refer to another work to help with the description. How many times have you pitched by saying, "Think XYZ show's character, but more edgy and outgoing."

I hereby copyright the story entitled, "Presidential Pardon", about a man who is falsely accused and seeks an audience with the President himself in order to 'make things right'. This could be drama, crime, comedy, civil rights, or any other genre. Despite the idea appearing to be original, I am sure 100 other people have already thought of it, and 100 more will think of it once the end-of-term pardons come around in January. Someone probably also has the exact same painfully obvious and phonetically pleasing title.

My point is that, like music, you can really only protect your scripts from direct copying and not from reinterpretation.


What Brian just posted is pretty accurate.

I was at a pitch session last year. I pitched my "oh so original" idea, that no one else could possibly come up with.
The guy told me it was the second time in two weeks he had heard that exact same idea.

The interesting thing was he then went on to say "that means it's very marketable".

I hereby copyright the story entitled, "Presidential Pardon", about a man who is falsely accused and seeks an audience with the President himself in order to 'make things right'.

Wasn't this just on 24 two weeks ago... they're always giving out pardons...

One thing some writers do is to seal a copy of the script in an envelope in front of a notary and mail it to yourself registered mail, keeping it sealed once it arrives. Now you have positive documentation of the authenticity of your claim to authorship and the date of creation should someone try to steal it.

Unfortunately that won't hold up in court...You must own a copyright.

Unfortunately that won't hold up in court...You must own a copyright.

Here's what BECTU the film & TV union in the UK does:

http://www.bectu.org.uk/resources/scriptreg/index.html

The creator of a work owns the copyright (until it's legally passed on), you're just registering that the work existed at a certain point in time. That's all that any register can do.

If the courts require certain levels of proof regarding the time of creation, you have to meet their requirements. Legal requirements for this can vary from country to country.

As has been stated earlier in the thread PROOF OF CREATION date and REGISTRATION OF RIGHTS are not the same thing. Awards for unintentional and intentional infringement will often hinge around whether or not the script is registered with the copyright office.

Would someone please just go ahead and lock this thread already and give this dead horse some peace...

Here's what applies in the UK:

http://www.ipo.gov.uk/copy/c-claim/c-register.htm