Welcome back! The weekend is almost here you guys and if you’ve been here for a while, then you know I’m excited. Today I’m going to talk about copyright, and I promise you it’ll be worth it.
Once you finish writing your script (and edited) you should really get it copyrighted. First you have to understand what a copyright really is. Technically copyright is created the moment your literary material is created in a tangible medium. Copyright registration is a legal document that protects your proprietary ides like screenplays, from being stolen or plagiarized. Now, you can’t copyright an idea like a story about time travel but as I stated before anything that has been written down is fair game. You could even copyright character breakdowns. To enforce a copyright, you have to register with the U.S. Copyright Office this makes it more official in a court of law. You can register with two places but there is a difference.
You could register through the Writers Guild of America (WGA). This is a labor union for writers. Their focus is an advocating on behalf of writers and providing service for writers to register their scripts. They provide recordation of when the WGA has received the script and to provide proof of authorship of the work. However this isn’t something that can be enforced. The U.S. Copyright Office is a federal agency that actually files and records a copy of protected works with the eLibrary of Congress. This is more official. The purpose of filling in a copyright application and copy of your treatments, script, and/or character breakdowns is to put others on notice that you are the author of the work(s). It could almost be compared to when a dog pees on a tree to mark his spot. You’ll need this if anyone tries to plagiarize your work and it turns into a legal matter.
Registering with the U.S. Copyright Office provides so many exclusive rights. You’re able to reproduce your copyrighted work, you can make derivative works (prequels, sequels, plays, web series etc), you can distribute copies of your work (like by selling it), you can publicly perform or display your work.
Copyrighting your work can be very simple. All you need to do is login to the U.S. Copyright Office and fill out the application, it is a lot cheaper online for $35- $55 or you can fill out the paper application for $85. You’ll need to determine if your script is published or unpublished. If your script is published this means you have offered copies of it for sale or rent. Many people who want to copyright their screenplay have an unpublished script. If you file your registration online, you can upload a copy of your unpublished script. If you registered by mail or if your script had been published, you would have to send in paper copies. Eventually you will get an email confirmation that your script has been copyrighted. If you so happen to creat a piece with another person it’s recommended you get the work copyrights. This means each writer will be recognized as co-owners of the copyright in the work created. Unless there is a written agreement with specifics co-owners share an equal part of the work. Though each co-owner has the right to grant a non-exclusive license to other to commercially exploit the work under the copyright without consulting the other co-owner, but both parties would have to be in agreement for the sale of the work to a third party.
If these tips were helpful leave a comment below and don’t forget to share this post with your friends!
See you next time!