Protecting your script

Nope.

I don't worry about it. Locks only keep honest people honest. If they're going to steal your work, a registration of some kind won't stop them.

Register your script with Library of Congress and WGA.

That won't stop people from stealing your material but at least you can take them to court over it.

Theft presupposes a couple of things: 1) that your script is so bloody brilliant it's worth stealing, and 2) that whoever steals your script is willing to risk his career and reputation so he can claim he wrote your bloody brilliant script.

Just what are the chances of those two factors coming into alignment?

Seriously, put your paranoia away and get on with writing the best script you can write. When it comes time to send it out, register it and send it out.

-Derek

actually you "copyright" with the library of congress and "register" with the wga (east or west depending on which side of the mississippi you live on).

A US Copyright is what you need to protect your work from theft. Title 17 of the US Code is the Copyright Act, and the protection of the Copyright Act is only afforded to you if you register with the US Copyrigt Office.


As for that OTHER matter of the WGA .....

(Down below in Post #10, NMS says I'm wrong about the following information. Hmmmmm .... )


WGA registration is only used for credit arbitration. That means when two guys write a script together, the WGA registration is what determines whether they split the paycheck 50/50 or 60/40 or 70/30, etc. And it also determines whose name gets to be listed FIRST on the script and whose gets to be SECOND, etc. And .... in the event that a total rewrite of the script happens, the WGA registration can help out as far as the way the movie credits themselves get listed on the screen (the opening credits during a film). Such as "Screenplay by John Doe" and then "Based on an original screenplay by Jack Smith." I've even seen more than once in the opening credits of a flm some variations on that:

"Screenplay by John Doe, based on a treatment by Jack Smith"
or even
"Screenplay by John Doe, based on an idea by Jack Smith"

And unless Jack Smith can finagle his name into the "Screenlay by" part of the credits, it's going to be John Doe who gets the Oscar, NOT Jack Smith --sorry Jack!


Your post seems more concerned with actual theft than with who gets credit. In that case, just be aware that even though WGA registration is cheaper than US Copyright (I think twenty or thirty dollars cheaper, I don't remember) US Copyright is the only thing that will help you out in court as far as "theft of material" goes. So cough up the extra cash and do the Copyright thing. You'll sleep better.

If we're getting technical, the copyright is also a registration of the copyright which exists from the moment one's script is saved to a fixed medium, such as one's blood on the walls.

Maryn, stickler for detail

Plot Device said:

A US Copyright is what you need to protect your work from theft. Title 17 of the US Code is the Copyright Act, and the protection of the Copyright Act is only afforded to you if you register with the US Copyrigt Office.


As for that OTHER matter of the WGA .....


WGA registration is only used for credit arbitration. That means when two guys write a script together, the WGA registration is what determines whether they split the paycheck 50/50 or 60/40 or 70/30, etc. And it also determines whose name gets to be listed FIRST on the script and whose gets to be SECOND, etc. And .... in the event that a total rewrite of the script happens, the WGA registration can help out as far as the way the movie credits themselves get listed on the screen (the opening credits during a film). Such as "Screenplay by John Doe" and then "Based on an original screenplay by Jack Smith." I've even seen more than once in the opening credits of a flm some variations on that:

"Screenplay by John Doe, based on a treatment by Jack Smith"
or even
"Screenplay by John Doe, based on an idea by Jack Smith"

And unless Jack Smith can finagle his name into the "Screenlay by" part of the credits, it's going to be John Doe who gets the Oscar, NOT Jack Smith --sorry Jack!


Your post seems more concerned with actual theft than with who gets credit. In that case, just be aware that even though WGA registration is cheaper than US Copyright (I think twenty or thirty dollars cheaper, I don't remember) US Copyright is the only thing that will help you out in court as far as "theft of material" goes. So cough up the extra cash and do the Copyright thing. You'll sleep better.

Click to expand...

I have to correct you here, PD.

WGA arbitration has no relationship to the WGA script registration program. That program is, in fact, designed to provide evidence for a writer (member of the guild or not) in the event of a lawsuit. The guild will testify that a particular script was delivered, either physically or electronically, to the guild and was held by them, in the form delivered, from that date until the time it was delivered to the court. Thus it is a legally valid way to confirm that a particular version of the script existed as of a particular date.

That is its purpose.

That has nothing to do with credit arbitration.

With credit arbitration, there isn't any dispute as to who the writers are, or even what they wrote. It's a more subtle issue. It has to do with the "weight" of what they wrote as determined by certain rules that have been laid down by the guild credits board.

That is, it isn't just a matter of counting lines, because a new writer might come in, leave the story, as written by the previous writer essentially untouched, but simply rephrase it -- put it into his own words -- and the same with the dialogue, and then claim that the entire work is his. And if you simply went through the script you'd come through and say --"Well, yeah -- every line of this thing is his."

But beneath every line is a story, characters, situations, sequences -- *none* of which are his. All of which belong to or were created by the previous writer.

So a great deal of *weight* is given to that in calculating who receives the final on-screen contribution. If all you've done is a dialogue polish, for instance, that will rarely rise to the level of earning you on-screen credit. You will really have to demonstrate that you have brought some significant change to the story itself -- introduced new characters, new sequences -- done a real revision.

Then the relevant drafts will go before an arbitration board -- three active members of the guild will read those drafts and any defense that you wish to submit either pro or con (that is, if you want credit or if someone else wants credit and you don't think they should get it). They'll read everything and a majority of the three have to decide how the final credits will read.

But, as I said, it has nothing to do with the guild's script registration service.

NMS

WHAT???

I have been SOOOO told wrong then!

Shees! What is this?

NMS--this arbitration board .... where do they get the scripts that they compare one to another?? I was told they got the scripts from the WGA registration files. No???

Plot Device said:

WHAT???

I have been SOOOO told wrong then!

Shees! What is this?

NMS--this arbitration board .... where do they get the scripts that they compare one to another?? I was told they got the scripts from the WGA registration files. No???

Click to expand...

No. Absolutely not. Look, I went through this process on "Thirteen Ghosts" so I can tell you exactly how it worked.

First, there will come, at a certain point, an initial letter of notification from the producers, telling you how they intend the credits to read -- how they want them to read. And they send that out to everyone who has written a draft of the screenplay.

Now, with Thirteen Ghosts, that was a bunch of people. First, it was based on a screenplay by somebody else. Then I wrote a few drafts. After that, they got tired of me. They brought in (I think) two different writers to write drafts. Then one of the execs was talking to my agent and told her how much trouble they were having (because they were committed to going into production on this thing) because the script was a mess -- and my agent reminded her that they had a couple steps left on my contract -- why not bring me back?

So they did. The script was, in fact, a complete disaster. I told them straight out that where they were at with the current draft was enormously farther away from having a shooting script than they when I left, and for me to start trying to patch up the draft they had was a waste of time. What I would do is go back to my last draft and work from there, if they wanted.

So all of that stuff was thrown out. We went back to my last draft, we did a couple of other drafts. At which point, they said thanks, good-bye and they threw me out again, and brought in another writer to do some other stuff -- some of which was stuff that I hadn't wanted to do because I just thought it was stupid (like making the family poor -- yet they had a nanny) -- and some other changes which I thought were okay and other things that had a lot more to do with production than anything else.

So I got the initial credit notification, and originally, it was going to be "based on the screenplay by the original writer" -- and I was going to be the only one getting the credit" -- which was fine by me.

And the other writer, the final writer lodged a protest - he wanted to share final screenplay credit.

As to where the drafts came from -- they came from the studio. And the studio, as I recall, indicated which drafts they were going to send that they considered to be relevant to their decision.

Now you have to understand. This was all work for hire. None of these drafts were ever registered with the WGA. Why would they have been? Warner Brothers had contracted with me to write them. They owned them outright. Who would have registered them and for what purpose?

At any rate, I wrote up a lengthy document in which I went through the final script and (as far as I was concerned) showed how I believed that the overwhelming majority of that final script consisted of my material and that most of what the other writer had done was largely editorial --rearranging material from earlier drafts and cutting things out and that what he had altered didn't add up to the percentage that warranted screen credit (I think it required thirty percent new material - I don't really remember off the top of my head).

All this material went off to the arbitrators (who were and remained anonymous).

And ultimately the decision came back -- one of the three arbitrators agreed with me. Two agreed with him. So we ended up sharing screen credit.

That's how it worked.

NMS

Wow, NMS, thank you!



And this whole anecdote of yours means so much more to me simply because I have seen Thirteen Ghosts!

I've noticed those most paranoid of having their scripts stolen, tend to write the poorest scripts in the first place. Ironically, I don't think they have to worry so much.

Okieslims said:

Meh. It's just like anything else. You wouldn't leave your product unprotected if you worked in a jewelry store. You wouldn't leave your credit card info out where anybody could view it. You wouldn't leave your keys in your car. Why then would you be so carefree with 2-3+ months of your own hard work? It's a cut throat world. People will use you as a stepping stone if you give them the chance.

I'm certain that the best writers in the world seek out every single option available for protecting their work. At the very least, I will have that in common with them.

Click to expand...

What you say is true -- but it's important for a beginner to recognize (and many do not) the actual value of what they have created.

In this respect, the previous poster is accurate, in that many beginning writers tend to wildly over-estimate the quality, and thus the desirability (the stealability) of what they have written.

Back when I was working in development -- when my job was to look for material, I remember getting a call from a writer -- anyway, someone who wanted to be a writer and he told me that he had a screenplay that he wanted to send to us (and by the way, the fact that he was even able to reach me and have that conversation was pretty unusual in this business) -- so I asked him, "Well, could you tell me something about the script?"

And he said, "I'd rather not."

That is -- he wanted it to send it to us -- but he didn't want to tell me what the script was about.

So I said, "Well, thanks anyway, but --"

And he was actually confused. He didn't understand why I -- first, wouldn't want to read his script without having any idea what it was about and, second, why I wouldn't want to be in business with a complete fucking nut -- which he clearly was.

So the point is this -- you copyright your material and then you have to go out with it.

Now, can it get stolen?

To answer that question, you have to understand the way in which intellectual property, like a screenplay can be owned.

You can't own it the way you own a lawnmower, like physical property.

Copyright law dicates what, specifically, can be owned, in the sense of being copyrightable.

What can't be owned -- are ideas. The "idea" -- the premise of your story cannot be owned -- only it's execution in a fixed form.

Like -- A great white shark attacks a New England Resort Community.

Nobody owns that. You want to write a screenplay about that? A book? Make a movie about it? Go ahead. It's yours.

After Jaws a bunch of people did.

Only a particular execution of that idea can be copyrighted.

So no matter what you do, you can't stop people from "stealing" your idea -- because you don't own it, legally.

Only it's execution, as embodied in your script. So that execution, as well as the idea, had better be great.

NMS

Captain Morgan said:

I've noticed those most paranoid of having their scripts stolen, tend to write the poorest scripts in the first place. Ironically, I don't think they have to worry so much.

Click to expand...

Nope, just n00bs.