Register with WGA or mail it to yourself?

Mailing a document to yourself and then not opening it, is usually referred to as "poor man's copyright". Generally speaking, it doesn't work. Doing it is a waste of time and postage.


If you really want to protect your script, you should do WGA registration and US copyright. If this is your first script, doing both may not be necessary. (Usually first scripts aren't worth stealing.) The advantage of WGA registration is that it sets a standard widely recognized in the US film industry. The date can be used to establish, among other things, who came up with an idea first.

US copyright is done through the Library of Congress. WGA registration is done through the Writers Guild, the organization that represents almost all professional screenwriters in the Hollywood film and TV industry.

For a first timer, WGA registration alone is quicker, and provides adequate protection. Go to the WGA website www.wga.org for cost info. You can do it online and have your registration certificate in a short time.

All your questions are answered on the WGA site.


I just don't understand why people ask questions here when going to the primary source is the obvious first step.

All your questions are answered on the WGA site.

I just don't understand why people ask questions here when going to the primary source is the obvious first step.

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I dunno about that.

The WGA website is obviously going to be biased towards using the WGA registration. They are hardly going to state that it's a waste of money !

Mac

odocoileus said:

Mailing a document to yourself and then not opening it, is usually referred to as "poor man's copyright". Generally speaking, it doesn't work. Doing it is a waste of time and postage.

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Exactly. It's too easy to mail envelopes to yourself, then at a later date to steam them open, cram something inside, and glue it shut again.

And even if you find a reliable way outside of the Library of Congress to establish a date of creation--like through a WGA certificate--than doing so will not preserve your right to claim statutory damages under the copyright law. At most, you'd be able to hope for actual/compensatory damages only. For that reason, I think the WGA certificate process is also a waste of time and maybe even a racket.

It has been pointed out (by the Australian Copyright Office) that the WGA scheme does NOT provide any evidence that you are the author.

It simply demonstrates that you had access to a single copy on that date.

Nothing more, nothing less.

Mac.

Mac H. said:

It has been pointed out (by the Australian Copyright Office) that the WGA scheme does NOT provide any evidence that you are the author.

It simply demonstrates that you had access to a single copy on that date.

Nothing more, nothing less.

Mac.

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If no one can prove they had access at an earlier time, then you are considered the author in any court of law. In fact, the only thing the copyright office does is prove you had access at a given point of time. All any registration does anywhere at any time is put a date stamp on your manuscript. Anyone who can prove they have an earlier date nullifies the WGA AND the copyright office.

The copyright office doesn't prove you're the author one bit more than does registration with the WGA. If anyone can show they wrote something before the date you register it with the copyright office, they get authorship.

Jamesaritchie said:

The copyright office doesn't prove you're the author one bit more than does registration with the WGA.

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Exactly, I was just thinking that as I read the above post. I say do both LOC and WGA --and if you think it's too expensive, then you clearly haven't put enough work into the material. You want someone to pay you six figures for something that you don't think is worth $75 to protect??

Jamesaritchie said:

The copyright office doesn't prove you're the author one bit more than does registration with the WGA.

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Exactly. That's why the Australian Copyright Office doesn't have a registration scheme.

Their attitude seems to be that all registration schemes (including the one run by the US Library of Congress!) are a waste of money.

My attitude is that if it helps you relax then it is probably worth it.

Mac

Mac H. said:

Exactly. That's why the Australian Copyright Office doesn't have a registration scheme.

Their attitude seems to be that all registration schemes (including the one run by the US Library of Congress!) are a waste of money.

My attitude is that if it helps you relax then it is probably worth it.

Mac

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If the Australian Copyright doesn't register copyrights then what the hell does it do? What is a registration "scheme?"

Joe Unidos said:

If the Australian Copyright doesn't register copyrights then what the hell does it do? What is a registration "scheme?"

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Brits, Australians, etc., use 'scheme' as a synonym for 'program.'

Sassenach said:

Brits, Australians, etc., use 'scheme' as a synonym for 'program.'

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Same point, though --if it doesn't have a copyright program (per Mac H.), then what does it do??

According to the Berne convention, anything copyrightable is copyrighted from the moment it is created.

It doesn't matter if it is registered.

In fact, the international convention clearly states that you can't get 'extra' protection by registering it. (Otherwise there would be multi-levels of copyright)

Following the logic of the Berne convention, the law courts can NOT automatically assume that any particular registration method is proof of ownership. Thus the reason the UK & Australia don't have registration methods. (There is a copyright registration method in the UK that LOOKS official, but if you read the website carefully, they don't actually CLAIM to be run by the government)

The USA doesn't quite follow the Berne convention, as it gives additional protection to works that are registered.

What does the Australian Copyright Office do? The same as the USA equivalent - with the exception that we follow international copyright conventions and avoid having a bureaucracy to register something things which don't need to be registered ...

Mac

Medievalist said:

The WGA program is in part useful in WGA arbitration.

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Nothing to do with arbitration. Only drafts delivered to the company are arbitrated over.

The registry is a racket which by the WGA's numbers earns around $1,000,000 year, mostly from newbs. Who knows what this money is used for. To top-off the strike fund?

Medievalist said:

But the point of it, and LOC copyright registration is not to protect your rights/work, but to allow you to claim larger damages if you win a law suit.

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True. But in practice the real point of LOC is to establish chain of title and keep track of any options on the material. You aim to sell a literary PROPERTY. Whoever buys the script will conduct a TITLE SEARCH first to make sure you wrote it and haven't already licensed rights. Like everything else, this has nothing to do with the WGA registry