Upon writing a short short film script (5-10 minutes long), should it be registered or not, to protect it as intellectual property? If registered, should it be registered with the Writer's Guild or with the Copyright Office, or both? Cost is a factor of course, o/w the simple and obvious answer is to register it and to register it with both. Or is it not even worth spending money to register a short film screenplay? I am curious what others here who write short film scripts do to protect the script as intellectual property, or what you all would recommend. I can not really afford/justify registering my short film scripts I write at both sites, so given the option of registering at one site only, the WGA is significantly cheaper ($20 compared to $45) than the US Copyright Office, so is there any real advantage to paying the extra for the US Copyright Office? I know legally there is, but for a short film script maybe it is not really worth the extra cost? I could see paying the extra and doing both for a feature film script, certainly. WGA is cheaper registration, easy and quick online, but then it sort of worries me that the WGA registration of a script expires in 5 years (but I guess if a short short has not been filmed in 5 years then maybe the script is not worth protecting beyond that anyhow; and even though the WGA expiration happens, I would think there would be some archive of it somewhere). Your thoughts?
?Beowulf
USA (thus the WGA and US Copyright office would be the two pertinent sites for me for registering scripts)
Writer's Guild (WGA): $20 fee for non-members
?url? http://www.wga.org/subpage_register.aspx?id=1183?/url?
US Government Copyright Office: $45 fee (ouch, significantly more than WGA)
?url? http://www.copyright.gov/register/literary.html?/url?
Independent Filmmaking
http://borealpictures.com
The simplest, cheapest and a legally efficient way to protect your script is to mail it to yourself by Registered/recorded delivery. When you receive it, don't open it.Just keep it somewhere safe. If it was ripped off by somebody else, you can prove when you wrote it with the paperwork from the post office.
quote:
Originally posted by hethwheel
The simplest, cheapest and a legally efficient way to protect your script is to mail it to yourself by Registered/recorded delivery. When you receive it, don't open it.Just keep it somewhere safe. If it was ripped off by somebody else, you can prove when you wrote it with the paperwork from the post office.
I do that also. But I have also heard of scoundrels that counter and replicate that method by mailing themselves a pile of unsealed envelopes postmarked e.g. today. Then they wait, and wait and wait, for years, for the screenplay they want to rip off. Then they write it as theirs, stuff it on one of those dated envelopes dated years prior, seal it, say they wrote it.
Independent Filmmaking
http://borealpictures.com
quote:
Originally posted by hethwheel
The simplest, cheapest and a legally efficient way to protect your script is to mail it to yourself by Registered/recorded delivery. When you receive it, don't open it.
Any competent lawyer could easily demolish that by pointing out you could mail yourself an empty envelope and put the script in later.
Frankly, I wouldn't bother: very few people make money from short movies and most people write their own anyway. If you think you have a really good script then register it at the WGA.
quote:
Originally posted by MarkG
?quote?... register it at the WGA.
Done. I decided registering with WGA was the fastest, cheapest, most efficient route.
Independent Filmmaking
http://borealpictures.com
quote:
Originally posted by hethwheel
The simplest, cheapest and a legally efficient way to protect your script is to mail it to yourself by Registered/recorded delivery. When you receive it, don't open it.Just keep it somewhere safe. If it was ripped off by somebody else, you can prove when you wrote it with the paperwork from the post office.
Called "the poorman's copyright" it can easily be faked and won't hold up in court.
According to the official copyright website (copyright.gov):
?The practice of sending a copy of your own work to yourself is sometimes called a poor man?s copyright. There is no provision in the copyright law regarding any such type of protection, and it is not a substitute for registration.?
Of course you can save that pesky fee and use this myth. If nothing ever happens and you never need to prove the date your writing was registered, then you're in good shape and you have saved $40.
If some time in the future you need to show proof of ownership with a specific date, your sealed envelope won't offer that proof in a court of law.
About three years ago I got into a discussion with someone who swore they heard of a case where this method held up in court. It prompted me to do a lot of research. I then started shooting a documentary. I interviewed sixteen lawyers who specialize in copyright infringement in New York, Los Angeles, Austin and Chicago. I spoke to five judges and fourteen established writers.
In three years of research I have never found a single case, nor heard officially of a single case where this method has held up in court. I managed to tracked down six people (writers, photographers and composers) who had tried and failed in court. Type "poorman's copyright" into Google and you'll find several hundred articles written about this. Use it if you must, but use it knowing the facts.
http://www.snopes.com/legal/postmark.asp
http://www.legalzoom.com/articles/article_content/article13787.html
Try this yourself:
Take a blank envelope and write your own address on it. DO NOT SEAL THE ENVELOPE. Mail the envelope to yourself. In a couple of years, when a hot, new movie movie comes out, pick up a copy of the script, scan it into your screenwriting software, change some stuff around, print it and put it into the envelope with the June 2007 date and THEN seal it.
You now have an envelope posted in July 2007 with your work version of the script that is AMAZINGLY similar to the version in the theaters. Any well paid copyright lawyer can poke holes in the ?poorman?s copyright?. Is it really worth saving $40?
hethwheel - if you have any evidence that this method is a legally efficient way to protect your script I will pay you for that info. After three years of work I have found no such evidence so my doc is really one sided. I don't think you would offer legal advice without some prior experience so it will really help me.
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The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but progress.
Joseph Joubert, essayist (1754-1824)
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The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but progress.
Joseph Joubert, essayist (1754-1824)
quote:
Originally posted by certified instigator
?quote?
In three years of research I have never found a single case, nor heard officially of a single case where this method has held up in court. I managed to tracked down six people (writers, photographers and composers) who had tried and failed in court. Type "poorman's copyright" into Google and you'll find several hundred articles written about this. Use it if you must, but use it knowing the facts.
http://www.snopes.com/legal/postmark.asp
http://www.legalzoom.com/articles/article_content/article13787.html
...?snipped?
You convinced me. I will stop even doing the poor man's method, I am a believer it is essentially worthless now. For shorts I am going to do the WGA method at $20 US, perhaps also US Copyright (I live in USA) if it is a really really really good short script. For a feature film treatment or script I will definitely do both WGA and US Copyright.
Independent Filmmaking
http://borealpictures.com
Another way to do it is to post the thing on the internet. As soon as the thing is in a public forum with a date attached you have a shot in court of proving you wrote it and had it posted publicly by that date. Of course if everyone knows the content of the screenplay it might be less valuable.
RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA
RJSchwarz
There used to be a service which would timestamp digital files for you; I don't know whether it still exists, costs much or was ever successfully used in court. The technology was sound, but paying $20 to the WGA for something that's proven to work is probably still a better plan.
quote:
Originally posted by rjschwarz
Another way to do it is to post the thing on the internet. As soon as the thing is in a public forum with a date attached you have a shot in court of proving you wrote it and had it posted publicly by that date. Of course if everyone knows the content of the screenplay it might be less valuable.RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA
A middle approach to that is that I generally develop my scripts first on google docs, and that is private unless I invite viewers, and yet I assume has a time stamp and is stored in backups somewhere on google servers; of course how long it is stored and how easy it would be to access in case of a legal dispute is another thing. Another feature of google docs useful for a legal trail is that google docs maintains a revision/editing history for docs edited there. Google docs, followed by WGA registration at least is pretty good I would think, at least for short screenplays. Similar to google docs is emailing yourself a script or treatment; you can hang on to email quite a long time in a folder in gmail for example, theoretically for many many years as long as you do not delete the email or folder. Google Gears is a new feature coming soon that will also allow working both online and offline with google documents.
Independent Filmmaking
http://borealpictures.com
I don't know how it works in the states, but in Ireland if you send it by registered post the envelope is security sealed by the postal service.
