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SimplyScripts Screenwriting Discussion Board  /  Screenwriting Class  /  Protection question
Posted by: JohnI, January 3rd, 2019, 12:21pm
Had a script that I registered with Wgae and copyrighted. Since then I changed the title and tweaked the ending. About 90% remains rel;actively the same. Do I have to protect it again or is it still copied.
Along the same venue does anybody know how much change would cause the need to redo the protections.
As always thanks in advance.
Posted by: FrankM, January 3rd, 2019, 1:27pm; Reply: 1
I'll toss in my two cents but would defer to someone with actual experience in producing a script or suing over authorship.

Under US law, copyright is automatic once the creative work is laid down in some tangible form. A tangible form could be just about anything, though speaking/performing your work does not count. Writing out what you want to say ahead of time or recording the performance (even if never published) gets you protected again.

The problem is proving your work was in a certain form as of a certain date. That's where services like WGA come in.

My current understanding is if the current form could only possibly exist as a derivative of your most recently WGA'd version, and you aren't worried about someone stealing the tweaks on their own, the most recent WGA's version should suffice.

A rewrite from page one? You should get a new version in the vault.

Tightening the prose and typo fixes? You're fine with the old one.

Added some spectacular new twist? Judgment call.

Would like to hear from someone with more direct experience in this area, especially if someone has lived through a dispute.
Posted by: Gary in Houston, January 3rd, 2019, 8:21pm; Reply: 2
Just my two cents, as an attorney (but not in this particular field), you don't have to re-register the script just because of some minor changes and a name change.  All you should need to do is add the WGA registration number on your title page of the script with the new name. But as Frank says, if you've rewritten over 50% of the script and you've changed the name, you might want to consider it.  

Gary
Posted by: DustinBowcot (Guest), January 4th, 2019, 4:21am; Reply: 3
I've never registered a script and never will. IMO, it's just a waste of money. Here in the UK copyright is automatic.

Proving anything, even with a WGA number isn't going to be easy.

The old method of sending yourself a manuscript is just a good a record as any. Obviously, today you can just email a copy of the script to a trusted person who can then email you it back. There you have a timestamped record of a full copy of your script.

I'd be happy to do that for any writers here that want to better protect their work... and, if it came to it, I'd back them in court too. Although my character from 20 years ago may be questionable, so I'd pick somebody else... but you get the idea.

I see no difference between the two methods aside from one is free.
Posted by: Matthew Taylor, January 4th, 2019, 4:35am; Reply: 4

Quoted from DustinBowcot
I've never registered a script and never will. IMO, it's just a waste of money. Here in the UK copyright is automatic.

Proving anything, even with a WGA number isn't going to be easy.

The old method of sending yourself a manuscript is just a good a record as any. Obviously, today you can just email a copy of the script to a trusted person who can then email you it back. There you have a timestamped record of a full copy of your script.

I'd be happy to do that for any writers here that want to better protect their work... and, if it came to it, I'd back them in court too. Although my character from 20 years ago may be questionable, so I'd pick somebody else... but you get the idea.

I see no difference between the two methods aside from one is free.


I've done the post thing in the past - Never thought about email, I might do that, although I think the chances of anyone stealing my work are pretty slim.

On a similar vein, would sending the script to this site to host be similar? It will have a posting date stamp, your name etc
Posted by: DustinBowcot (Guest), January 4th, 2019, 4:53am; Reply: 5
Yes. Obviously, this is all my opinion. With the WGA, you are merely paying for a timestamped, witnessed record of your script. That's all. The same can be achieved for free. That it's a business at all, I find surprising. It appears, to me, to be a business that operates solely through fear.
Posted by: Mr. Blonde, January 4th, 2019, 12:17pm; Reply: 6

Quoted from DustinBowcot
It appears, to me, to be a business that operates solely through fear.


Which ones don't?

In regards to copyright and registering, registering is wholly unnecessary. Copyrighting, if you're in the U.S., is a smart decision, just as a way to cover your ass although, odds are, you won't ever need to.

Now, in regards to the changes, you're trying to protect the execution of your idea. Changing the name doesn't require you to re-register but changing how your script fundamentally plays out does. Of course, that would mean that the new script doesn't even resemble the old one and that's at your discretion.
Posted by: Grandma Bear, January 4th, 2019, 12:21pm; Reply: 7
If I remember correctly, a former member told me that you can copyright a script and when you rewrite it or re-title it you can just simply add it to the original piece as a collection. That way you don't have to pay again either.
Posted by: FrankM, January 4th, 2019, 1:01pm; Reply: 8

Quoted from Grandma Bear
If I remember correctly, a former member told me that you can copyright a script and when you rewrite it or re-title it you can just simply add it to the original piece as a collection. That way you don't have to pay again either.


Looking at WGA-East, they seem to want separate payment for each document... and would be pleased as punch if you threw in a treatment, a synposis, etc. for good measure.

The fee is $10 per document for dues-paying WGA members (Do we have any of those on this site?), $17 for nonmembers with a student ID, and $25 for nonmember grown-ups.

I think WGA registration is a bit better than the email method only because when and if someone challenges the authenticity of the timestamp, it's WGA's problem not yours to provide a geek who can testify. Whether you think that insurance is worth $25... up to you.
Posted by: Grandma Bear, January 4th, 2019, 1:13pm; Reply: 9
I was talking about copyright with the Copyright Office a part of the Library of Congress.

WGA is only good for 5 years, I think while copyright is good for 75 (?).
Posted by: Gary in Houston, January 4th, 2019, 3:05pm; Reply: 10
This a good article to help answer most, if not all questions related to copyright:

http://www.hanleybradylaw.com/2014/09/should-you-register-with-the-writers-guild-of-america-west-or-the-copyright-office/

Worth a read.

Gary
Posted by: eldave1, January 4th, 2019, 5:32pm; Reply: 11

Quoted from Gary in Houston
This a good article to help answer most, if not all questions related to copyright:

http://www.hanleybradylaw.com/2014/09/should-you-register-with-the-writers-guild-of-america-west-or-the-copyright-office/

Worth a read.

Gary


Great article - thanks
Posted by: JohnI, January 6th, 2019, 12:36pm; Reply: 12
Hawkeye - great article thanks
Posted by: MarkRenshaw, January 7th, 2019, 7:56am; Reply: 13
That article is correct. Registering with a recognised organisation will not protect your material from being stolen, but it does determine how much compensation you will be entitled to and make it easier to prove your claim.

Registering with the Library of Congress not only covers you for decades more than the WGA but you get more compensation.

As to the original question, I tend to register the first draft I'm happy with (to the Library of Congress) and don't bother re-registering on subsequent drafts. If the script changed considerably, I would.
Posted by: Lon, January 9th, 2019, 6:57pm; Reply: 14

Quoted from Matthew Taylor
I've done the post thing in the past - Never thought about email, I might do that, although I think the chances of anyone stealing my work are pretty slim.

On a similar vein, would sending the script to this site to host be similar? It will have a posting date stamp, your name etc


The post thing -- aka "poor man's copyright" -- doesn't hold up in court.  Mailing a script to yourself via registered mail proves only one thing: the date that you received the script in the mail.  It doesn't prove that you wrote the script even if your name is on it, and it doesn't prove the date on the script cover is the date it was written.  To establish that kind of record, you need to register it with a body like the WGA or LoC.

Script theft is much more a rarity than a common occurrence, mostly because anyone in the biz with half a lick of sense in their head knows it's easier to simply buy your script from you than to steal it, film it, release it, then have to fork over a big settlement to you after you prove in court that they stole it.  Still, better safe than sorry.  WGA or LoC is the way to go.  Some writers even register with both.
Posted by: Warren, January 9th, 2019, 7:22pm; Reply: 15

Quoted from Gary in Houston
This a good article to help answer most, if not all questions related to copyright:

http://www.hanleybradylaw.com/2014/09/should-you-register-with-the-writers-guild-of-america-west-or-the-copyright-office/

Worth a read.

Gary


Great article, thanks for putting it up.
Posted by: Sandra Elstree., January 11th, 2019, 10:45pm; Reply: 16
Registering scripts for young writers generates a lot of money for That Kingdom.

I don't recommend it, although I do understand it provides a sense of security.

Once you get to the point where you are a professional writer, you don't care...

At that point you know ideas are regurgitated, a dime a dozen etc.... But the real deal comes from your hard work day in day out just like everyone else grinding it out in the workaday world. No different.

What gets me are sites, books etc... trying to "sell the dream" to new writers and make money off them with "that" as their definitive perfunctory narrative.

Not to take anything away from "them". But they are really GOOD ANALYSTS. They figured out the niche for themselves (and that's good) but I wish they would come clean that they, have not necessarily written the stuff they're writing about.

It would help us connect and feel good about reading their material as they being "the scientists" of the writing world. Maybe that sounds wrong But...

I'm still struggling with "the connect" between real writing and "the analysts" with their plot points.

The best help I've come across so far which I highly recommend is:

The Plot Whisperer

By Martha Alderson

I really felt her book was honest and connected on an organic level.

Sandra


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