Should I sent my script to a start up company?

Let's write a movie about a production company who steals scripts and see if we can find a production company willing to do the project....hehehehehehehe!!!!

Tina

Copyright DOES apply to screenplays (they even have a special form). It also lasts your lifetime plus (I think) 50 years. In every other country, in every other industry, copyright CAN NOT be sold. A French screenwriter OWNS his script forever, and leases it to a producer for a fixed amount of time. That screenwriter still has the right to sell that same exact script to an American company, a Japanese company and a German company for different language versions of the film. (a friend of mine sold a script to a German company, and retained ownership - but he can't find a US company that will buy "rights" rather than the copyright.) He can reuse his characters in other scripts. The US is the only country where copyright can change hands (without someone dying).

But once this guy has all of that paperwork in his desk drawer, should he sell his script to Biff Productions?

- Bill

Dude,

My problem isn't that I can't read...it's that you can't write.

These are your words (and your caps): "A REGISTERED COPYRIGHT ENTITLES THE AUTHOR TO LITIGATE FOR DAMAGES.. WGA OR ANY OTHER DEPOSITORY REGISTRATION DOES NOT."

Now, as I pointed out in my earlier reply, you are wrong, and it's probably because of your comprehension, which is remarkably poor. The word "entitles" is incorrectly used by you to indicate that the government has granted an author the power to litigate for damages in copyright cases. The government does not grant this entitlement, because it isn't an entitlement...it's a RIGHT (caps mine). It's not a copyentitlement, it's a copyright. I guess this is the discussion of rights/entitlements I said we'd have later.

I have the right to sue someone for infringing on my copyright. Period. This right doesn't begin when I plead to the government to let me do it. This right exists as soon as I write the words. Whether I EXERCISE this right is MY decision, not the government's. If I have taken proper steps (registering my work with the WGA and/or the Copyright Office, keeping written records of who reviewed my work and when), then success in my lawsuit will be more likely than if I had just written something down, sent it out, and trusted to the kindness of strangers.

Entitlements are things that the government gives to us. Welfare is an entitlement. A student loan is an entitlement. Even the schoolhouse itself is an entitlement. Rights are things that citizens have at all times and can not be taken by the government. Free speech. Peaceful assembly. Gun ownership (unless you live in New York City or some other place where the Constitution has been winked at).

Yes, it is good to register your work with the WGA and/or the Copyright Office...but registration is not REQUIRED for you to be able to exercise your rights against copyright infringement. Now...what part of that didn't you understand? Because I can explain it a third time. I'm patient.

Your pal,
Couchguy

P.S. Can I get a hallelujah?

I'm sorry, I didn't get that. Would you mind explaining it one more time! LOL! Here's my hallelujah!

Tina

TinaRM,

Maybe I should make a Venn diagram...see, this circle is a right, and this circle is an entitlement. They don't overlap, but this circle is you, and this one is the government, and they overlap like this, and then this one is comprehension, which overlaps right here...

Your pal,
Couchguy

As I have read this thread, I cringe at the incorrect information given, and the correct information that is not explained enough to be 100% correct.

As far as the original question, if the start-up has money or you like them, then go for it. If not, go elsewhere.

On the copyright issue:

Couchguy - Copyright is an entitlement that Section 17 of the United States Code gives to "authors". There is specific language that allows that the author of a work owns the copyright to that work from the time it is "affixed" (meaning pen to paper). Registering a work with the US Copyright Office "entitles" you to add to your lawsuit a claim for attorneys fees, and treble damages (punitive damages, usually three times the actual damages). The amount of money you can get is ostensibly quadrupled by registering your copyright. All due to the Federal Copyright Laws.

Without registering, the only laws you can sue under are state common laws, which don't allow for the same damages (meaning less).

Registering with the WGA does ONLY two things: establishes a date of creation, and archives a copy of your work for five years. That's it.

On a practical side, if you only have the money to do one, send it to the copyright office. An even more practical look at it, nobody (at least anyone I've ever dealt with) wants to steal your script. They are much more concerned with being sued than you are with being ripped off. They've paid lawyers to create release forms and submission standards to protect themselves from all the lawsuits (and making it much harder to submit material).

Take the steps to protect yourself and stop worrying. Focus on writing your next script.

Well said!! A round of applause for DWB1125.

Thank God that's settled. I don't know what's worse, the clowns or where this thread has gone!!

If anyone sings "Send in the Clowns" I'm going to be ill.

I'm telling you, I am psychic! I was going to post that very thing (I'm not kidding) - but since I had told you I wouldn't say anything more about the clowns, I didn't! LOL! That is so funny!

Bill: <swat!>

<laughing> That was wrooooong, my friend, very wrong...(and this is all funny considering I was watching "Poltergeist" this a.m., with its killer clown...)

I'm diggin' all the info here, but, erm... which theory is correct? I was actually being anal about "protecting my stuff!!!!!" <visualize voluptuous Gaelic woman clutching papers to her chest and shrieking> So if I understand a recent post, you SHOULDN'T worry about doing the full-out copyright to your "baby" before sending it off to be perused?? Mah little cynical/paranoid butt is leery o' that idea. (was wondering if this applies to poetry I was considering sending to publishers too...?)