copyrighting shorts...
- Thread starter Dutchboy
- Start date
(typing on iPhone so please bare with me). Does just adding a copyright at the end of your film actually copyright it or is there paper work that also needs to be done. I won't be 18 for two more months so I don't anything I do is legally binding. And if I can't copyright my work how will I ever get my work out there without fear of my material being stolen.
Technically anything you create is automatically copyrights as soon
as you put in it tangible form. Legally that's difficult to prove so
registering the copyright is important. That give you a legally
provable date when the work was created.
You can put the copyright symbol on your short film, and the
copyright is active, but if you ever needed to prove the ownership
it is MUCH better to have a legally provable date. You get that by
registering it with the copyright office.
You only have two months, DRthunder. If you feel your work may
be stolen within the next two months then my advice is to wait
for two months before you publish your writing, or show your
short film in public.
It's so rare for a short film to be taken by someone and sold under
a different name that I don't think you really need to worry about
it. Same with completed scripts. I don't know of a single example
of a script from an unproduced writer being stolen and copyrighted
under a different name then sold to a prodCo or studio.
That said, registering the copyright is an expense all creative
people should simply add to their budget.
Make sure and use the Library of Congress.
Don't use the Writer's Guild, as they destroy the copy you send them after 5 years (!). So when someone sues you after 5 years you are screwed.
Don't use the Writer's Guild, as they destroy the copy you send them after 5 years (!). So when someone sues you after 5 years you are screwed.