Is copyright enough protection

[keithtowers]

Hi,
Just a quickie!

Can anyone tell me if copyright registration with LC in Washington is enough to keep my screenplay from turning up as someone else's work?

As I live in the UK it isn't always easy to track where work is at any point in time. Your comments will be helpful.

Keith

[Keith Kocaine]

Yes. Use Form PA. You can download it at:
www.copyright.gov (http://www.copyright.gov)

[keithtowers]

Thanks Keith,

I have already done this, but was just wondering how effective this really was. It was cheap too; about 10 bucks.

[Keith Kocaine]

Keith T:

Nothing can stop someone from stealing your work. But if it's registered with the Library of Congress, then you have positive proof on which to sue the thief.

[gaterooze]

About $10? Registration at the LoC is $30 US.

[Keith Kocaine]

The brother probably meant it cost him about 10 quid.

[MNHC]

...copyright infringment requires proof that the copy wasn't accidental. Once you register copyright, the rest of America is presumed to know that your work exists, and you don't have to prove that an infringer ever saw your work.

Incidentally, if a room full of monkey-men typed Hamlet, and they had never seen Hamlet, and Hamlet wasn't registered with the LoC, it wouldn't be copyright infringement. If Hamlet were copyrighted, it would be, because copyright gives notice to the world, which includes monkey-men.

(Or does it create a rebuttable presumption? I'm not sure.)

[kullervo]

Um, no, the rest of America is not presumed to know your work exists, as there is no mechanism by which the copyrighted material can be searched. The legal system doesn't recognize psychic phemomenon. To show infringement you absolutely, positively must prove that your material was seen by the accused, and that is one of the most difficult standards to meet in law.

kullervo

[BROUGHCUT]

In order to have a prima facie case of infringement a plaintiff must prove i) ownership of a valid copyright, and, as already pointed out above, ii) "copying of constituent elements of the work that are original" by the defendant.

To answer your Q, a timely certificate of copyright registration establishes a rebuttable presumption that the work is copyrightable and that the copyright is valid. (The burden is strictly on the defendant to prove the copyright is invalid.)

But this is just the first element of a case.

As far as the rebuttability of the presumption goes, the validity of a timely copyright certificate is pretty inviolable. The defendant would need to contest the actual copyrightabilty of the material (ie prove the registered work was originally copied from the public domain), or need to show "proof of deliberate misrepresentation" by the plaintiff when filing the copyright registration (the defendant must prove the plaintiff defrauded the Copyright Office, simple mistakes/errors on the registration aren't sufficient grounds to find the copyright invalid).

That's how I understand it anyway. My only advice would be to register completed scripts with the LOC first and foremost, and to take particular care filling in the form.

[kullervo]

Copyright gains you exactly two advantages over registration with the WGA:

1. The right to sue for infringement in federal court.

2. The right to recover legal fees in the event of a finding for the plaintiff.

That's all, folks!

kullervo

[MNHC]

of innocent infringment (and I mixed up both ends of that). I don't think you need to register to put the notice on a work. (However, I do believe that it's an offense to put and (R) on a TM that is not, in fact, registered.)

I was confused.

My bad.

[Augie Kestrel]

"2. The right to recover legal fees in the event of a finding for the plaintiff."


...assuming you registered your work within 3 months of publication OR before the actual infringement occurred. A nit-pick, I admit. :)

[Lulu1000]

MNHC,

Although you own the copyright in a work as soon as you write it, that (c) notice means that you've registered your copyright; it's your notice to the world that you've done so. Thus, you can't use it without registering the work. (And I suspect that if you ever had to go to court, your having used the notice without actually having registered the copyright could work against you.)

But you are entitled to put that (c) on your work as soon as you put your paperwork in the mail -- or click to send it online.

[JustinoIV]

LOC registration is an one time deal, while the WGA registration must be renewed every 5 years. Also, LOC registration is the only legal registration. When a studio or prodco buys a screenplay, they are going to register it with the LOC.

[zuzuII]

What if you've taken classes and rewritten several times and thus have registered a script several times in various forms? Does that ever cause problems? Or can it only help?

[JustinoIV]

Because the actual law concerning copyright protects a document from the moment you create it, there isn't a need for you to register.

Technically, you don't have to register at all, because your works are protected from the moment you create them. But should someome plagarize your work, the burden of proof will be on you. Which is why people register their scripts.

If you have registered your script, and you've made changes to it, keep your copies saved electronically. (along with any notes you may have) As in your hard drive and back it up elsewhere. If it ever went to court, the first draft will be registered, and all changes that were made from first draft to final draft will be evidence because you saved all your copies.