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Alternative Copyright Means: Publication and Email

O

OrangeMango

Another related topic to my other post, but I thought I'd create another thread, since they're not too related. Basically, I'm wondering about other means of showing proof of authorship that might not have the legal strength of an official copyright registration but might be useful otherwise.

I never post my scripts online for the general public, but I have published one in my university's literary magazine, which goes out to a limited audience. Would the publication date of the magazine hold up in court?

Also, I've emailed my script to various friends and colleagues. Does an email date provide any proof of ownership, or does it at least help my case? If it ever came down to it, could I call upon my friends and colleagues as "witnesses"?
 
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Depends what you are trying to protect

In my opinion, you'd be wasting your money on copyright registration for short scripts. I guess my question is, what are really trying to protect?

1) Your ideas, plots, concepts, etc.? The only way to do this is to keep it secret and hope no one comes up with something similiar. Ideas and plots can't be copyrighted.

2) The actual verbatim text, dialog, scenes, you've written? The best way to do this is to put them out in public with the word "copyright", and your name on it. The law is going to favor the person who can show first "use", and by putting it out there for the world to see and claiming a copyright, you're doing that. It's kind of like olden times when all you had to do was stake off some land and it was yours.

Better yet, if you got some great script that you're worried someone will steal or use your ideas, go make it into a movie, quick.

Of course, I'm not a copyright lawyer, so what do I know?

-ahab
 
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You can register a script with the Writers' Guild of America.

http://www.wga.org

$20 to register each script, and it remains registered in 5 year blocks.

(It's $10 if you actually join the WGA itself)

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Many people seem to like the "poor man's copyright", aka mailing yourself the script. If you do that, you need to make sure that you get delivery confirmation, or registered delivery, or insured mail, or any other postal sevice extra that requires a rubber-stamped date stamp. That way, you can place the service label over the envelope's flap, making a kind of "seal".

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The date on an e-mail means absolutely nothing. With a few clicks of the mouse, I could send you an e-mail dated 1630, and identifying myself as Bill Gates.

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What Zen said. If you mail it to yourself, the post stamp can serve to show that you wrote it first. Obviously, the envelope has to remain sealed until such time as you need to prove your case...
 
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Zen-- WGA sounds like a good balance. $20 still seems a bit much for a 10-page script, but I'll look into their membership deals. As for emails, I've discovered that in certain cases, emails are valid as signatures, so I can't imagine a dated email would be any more or less valid. I'm not too sure though.


Demo,Zen-- I've heard bad things about the envelope deal. Namely, that you could mail yourself an empty envelope, steam it open and seal it again when necessary. Of course, that's a lot of work just to fake ownership of a tiny script



Ahab-- I do the copyright thing and put it on every page. I understand that it acts as a good deterrent but doesn't offer much in the way of real protection.
 
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Well, you could always print every copy of your script on top of a large watermarked "Copyright Me"... that would make photocopying it impossible. Though if someone really wanted it, they could still retype it all.

As for mailing... it's by no means a legally binding copyright. It's simply a piece of evidence in your favour.
 
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Hey good idea, Demo. A lot of photographers and visual artists I know do that. Why not do it a script, too? I doubt my writing's so great that people would just re-type it to steal it. Again, it'd be a low-cost detterent for a low-cost project.
 
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Great book on copyrights and clearances

Clearance and Copyright: Everything the Independent Filmmaker Needs to Know by Michael C. Donaldson

I have personally found it to be the most useful and relevant book on the subject. There is also a ton of information on optioning and licensing content and scripts.
 
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Hmm, 2 threads, same topic. Okay, this is what I said in the other thread about mailing it to yourself.

I wouldn't recommend this, this is a fallacy. You could mail yourself the envelope unsealed, and stuff new material in it. This is the reason it will not hold up in court.

By law, all works you create are already copyrighted. What you pay for is registration of that copyright. If it's something you cherish, get the copyright or WGA registration. It's a drop in the bucket.
 
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