its called copy righting your work.

If you do so person Y goes to jail.

Actually person X goes to jail as person Y would be the writer ha-ha

Yeah you could do that or you could just do what most do, never post the best copy. Post unpolished drafts.

Well, someone actually stealing a screenplay is quite rare primarily because they don't know the story very well, couldn't pitch it very well, and it's not worth the potential legal headaches, not to mention the possibility of the work being copyrighted. Can anything stop anyone from stealing from this site? No. Absolutely nothing. Will a posting date on this site help any case? Probably not. I don't know if an internet time stamp is admissable. Should be, I think, but not certain.

If you are afraid of someone stealing your work, spend the $30 to copyright it, or the $20 to register it with the WGA. If a producer wants to read it, you'll have to do that anyway. Generally, word for word plagiarism is not a huge threat.

As for posting unpolished drafts, I find that to be self-defeating since the only reason I post is to get feedback, and if I've already fixed the problems everyone comments on, then I'm not getting any help at all by posting it. While I want people to like what I write, I would rather be told how bad certain sections suck, than be told it all rocks.

At the risk of sounding like an ass, don't people already leave reviews that say it rocks? You could post an early draft if people aren't even going to give you reason why it rocks.

Why do you think I have nothing up anymore? It's a pointless waste of time and that's a shame because I'd really love to be posting more work.

Anyway before I say things I already said I just wanted to leave you with the following...

If sites like this could guarentee protection for scripts posted would that make you more inclined to actually attempt to write great screenplays? If the answer to that question is yes than maybe we should look into the subject and see if you can get legal a bill passed into law that says an administrator or whatever they call guys who own websites like Don can be used as proof as to who wrote it.

And if not stop bitching about it and spend the 30 bucks.

While some people do leave simple reviews that just stroke the ego, there are a fair amount of people (myself included) who review completely and honestly. I'm sorry that over the years, some of the people who have come and gone have left a bitter taste in your mouth over these things, but there will always be those. There will also always be those who are willing to read and review to give you an honest idea of where you stand.

I never know if anyone will read what I've written, but I'll post it anyway because it takes no time to post it and no money to leave it. Basically, posting a script on here is a win for me, and the only conceivable way to lose is in the off chance that someone somehow steals my script.

Besides, my ultimate goal in life is not to be the most read person on this site. It is to be produced. And whether anyone reads my work or not, I will send queries out to producers or agents and see if they want to read it. One of them said yes once. Another wants me to rework the story. I have two others who plan on filming in 2006 (both low budget independants who think what I've written for them is festival worthy material). Do I know if they will actually make them or not? No. Do I still have some good scripts I can pitch elsewhere? Yes.

If someone has a look at my stuff and gives me a suggestion to make it better, I'll take it with thanks. Will my world come to an end if no one looks at it ever again? No.

I'm sorry you've had a bad experience on here, and I'm sorry you're cynical over it. But you're talking about a segment of people who don't last on here. You're talking about people who come and get pissed off and leave. I don't care if they read or not. I'm not interest in their opinions. I'm not interested in teaching them anything. But those who want to learn, who want to read, who want to know what can be done right occasionally...those are the ones that will figure out something that works, and their reviews will go from "it rocks" to "it rocks because..." Give them time.

This kinda goes with the thread, but if one were to title their work "Star Wars Kid," could that be in violation of copyright laws?

Quoted from Magius I have a question about the safety of copyright. What would prevent person X to visit this site, and when he sees a script he really likes by person Y, copy-paste it and send it to a producer as his own? It seems to me that person Y wouldn't really know about the plaigarism until it would be too late, and the only evidence he might have that the work was originally his- this is assuming he ever found out about the trickery- would be that he can claim to have posted under the internet alias, which is far from proof. Now, I have the feeling I'm not the first who thought of this, and that there is a safeguard against this. My question: if so, what is it?

Copyright your work.  If someone produces yourv work, you can sue the supposed write and the studio who produces it.  


Phil

Quoted from Old Time Wesley Yeah you could do that or you could just do what most do, never post the best copy. Post unpolished drafts.

The problem with this is that a plagerer might make changes in the scripts.  Very possibly the same changes you would've made if you wrote a polished version.  If this happened, you would have less of an arguement in court as the scripys would be different.


Phil

All I'm saying is look at all the mistakes in the scripts posted and think if they are really giving it an effort or rushing to get it up so people will read it.

Frankly I'm not in it for the money so copyrights are not for me. People who aren't willing to pay shouldn't bitch though because they are cheap and cheap isn't in a Hollywood book. The words sellout, whore and George Lucas are though.

Quoted from greg This kinda goes with the thread, but if one were to title their work "Star Wars Kid," could that be in violation of copyright laws?

You can't copyright a title, but I'm pretty sure "Star Wars" is trademarked, which is a whole other ball of wax.

Unless Lucas was the first person to use the phrase 'star wars,' he probably doesn't have any legal control over it.  This, however, wouldn't stop him from suing you just to put you out of business.  This happens all the time in the brewing business.


Phil

Ahhh, another copyright related question.

As I'm pondering a title change for my current "Cobb Hill Massacres," I've come to one title in particular which I would consider, but it's also the title of a song.  "The Hands that Built America" was the Academy nominated song by U2 and I'm looking to find out if there are restrictions on giving films the same titles as songs.  

Thanks

I don't think titles can be copyrighted.  As long as you don't steal the actual work of another piece or writing, you should be fine.

I think we have discussed this before but did you know about the song before you thought of the change?

Song, Film, TV Show, Book it's all fair game because you cannot copyright titles, you can only copyright the work itself and even that is sketchy as a lot of films bare shocking resemblances to other films.

Originality is dead in film so why should titles be any different?

Along the same lines, I have read about wrestlers getting a trademark on their names and logos so... The lines may be a bit blurred at the end of the day. (Most famous case being World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) forcing then World Wrestling Federation to change because people were getting confused about which is which.

Therefore, if you call a film The Shark Boy that wrestler may come after you but "The Hands that Built America" is perfectly fine in my books because it is neither a name nor a logo for the group or any corporation.

(If people went crazy copyrighting everything every word in the dictionary would be owned by someone and we'd have to pay money for every word in our screenplays. The world isn't that pathetic, lets party )

let me put things in perspective for you:

http://www.imdb.com/find?s=all&q=payback