At this point in time I would like  to  bring attention to something that Don has on his site in bright red letters:

Please note: All screenplays on http://www.simplyscripts.com are copyrighted to their author. All rights reserved. The screenplays may not be used or reproduced without the express written permission of the author.


It is so uncool to take someone's work and then email them with their version of it and a file name of something completely different without talking to the writer first.

Quoted from CindyLKeller At this point in time I would like  to  bring attention to something that Don has on his site in bright red letters: Please note: All screenplays on http://www.simplyscripts.com are copyrighted to their author. All rights reserved. The screenplays may not be used or reproduced without the express written permission of the author. It is so uncool.

Why is this uncool?  This is to remind people that the scripts on the site are not in the public domain.  This is to stop people from taking scripts from the site and using them without permission.

- Don

The brighter and redder the better. Average person doesn't understand anything about copyright law. Which is why so many youtubers make the mistake of writing "no copyright violation intended" as if somehow stating that makes you immune to copyright infringement.

Don's warning is clear and simple and will hopefully deter uninformed people from straight up stealing someone's work.  

Quoted from Don Why is this uncool?

Pretty sure that Cindy is not saying the notification itself is uncool, Don.

Rather that it is uncool when said notification is ignored

I didn't mean "it " was uncool. What I meant was the person who took my script and rewrote it without my permission was uncool.
Sorry about the confusion. I will fix my original  post.

Ohhh. Yeah, that's unfortunate. Sorry that happened. I'm assuming you've already emailed them back and said you never gave permission for them to do that. Might want to ask the person to delete any altered versions from his/her computer altogether.  

In that case Cindy I wholeheartedly agree with your clarification... who did that?

Who was it?

Hey, Cindy.

There was an incident once with a MoviePoet script - we thought it was just one script, the thief did not even care to rewrite, he just put his name on the script and that was it. Turned out the person took at least two (to my knowledge) scripts from the site, put his name and tried to sell them to a producer. And the producer was about to buy them when the truth broke out.

Very uncool.

Yours is a little different situation. I was in a similar experience once, but a very good writer done it to me. I thought it was not a pleasant feeling as I kind of did not expect to receive a rewritten script all of the sudden. I did not expect anything form that writer, there was no warning of an upcoming script review or anything.
And now we are very good friends. Seriously, the best of friends) It was a misunderstanding I guess.

Quoted from CindyLKeller I didn't mean "it " was uncool. What I meant was the person who took my script and rewrote it without my permission was uncool. Sorry about the confusion. I will fix my original  post.

On my home world this is considered a 'dick' move.  If it is any consolation, periodically someone who has sold one script will decide he/she is now a script doctor and will offer services to "improve your script" to members of the board.  Ironically, these folks usually extend the offer to the better writers on the board...

So, provided that this person only offered to "help you out" and hasn't done anything else with the work (like shop it around or pass it off as his/her own work).  I would laugh it off.  

- Don

I'm not sure who it was, but I did say that I didn't  remember giving him permission  to alter my copyrighted and WGA registered script.
He then told me that he didn't need to steal anyone's scripts, and called me babe.
I just dropped it.

It could be just a misunderstanding, but it angered me.

I thought this was a good opportunity  to remind people that these scripts do belong to people, and if someone  would like to help a writer,  it would be  good  to ask  them before you polish their script.

Wow -

AND he called you babe?  Geez - whoever did *that* needs a major slap down.  Sorry to hear that, Cindy!  Phil had a few times where someone out-and-out stole his script (both shooting without permission, and putting their name on the PDF and posting it on a website.)  Needless to say, he cracked down on each instance - as one should.

I'm sure it's happened to a lot of us... though we don't always find out.  :/

Moral of the story - ALWAYS copy write your work (LOC over WGA, that's my preference for reasons of protection.)

Cheers,

--J (W)

Quoted from CindyLKeller and called me babe.

))) what a dude

Now that would be a great title for a script:

"HE CALLED ME BABE"

I've already got scenes tumbling out of my head.

The re-write thing is both shitty and mysterious. I can imagine nefarious people stealing scripts, but why would anyone re-write someone's script and then send it to the original author???? A very odd scenario.

Same happened to me last year, I genuinely don't think there was any malice in it but the person in question just thought they had some good ideas for the script and got excited and re-wrote without checking first.

I've not suffered anyone ripping off a script of mine so far, fingers crossed!