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My POV
Brian A. Wilson
THE RIGHT COPYRIGHT
Here's about the best, most clever take I've heard on the copyright procedure for screenplays.
If you're like me, you've been seduced by filling out Short Form PA. It's fast, it's easy, it's, well, short.
But it's not the best solution.
The following procedure was suggested by John Longenecker, an Oscar-winning filmmaker. I heard him speak at a Sherwood Oaks seminar, and he shared this approach with us.
Here's what you do:
Write your screenplay.
Copy it. Paste it into Word or your favorite word processing program.
Reformat it so it looks like a manuscript or traditional document, not a screenplay.
Register that document on Form TX (Short Form TX is fine as well). This makes your writing a literary work.
Now here's the good part.
Next, fill out Long Form PA for your screenplay. List it as a derivative work of your literary work that you registered on form TX.
That's it!
What does this mean? It means that if you sell your script and ultimately get bumped off the project down the line (common in the early going of one's career), you'll still get screen credit. It'll come in the form of "based on the story by Yours Truly." That's because by registering your writing as a literary work on form TX, you've created the "underlying literary material" upon which your screenplay, or any subsequent screenplay, is based.
The screenplay-written by you or whomever else-becomes a derivative work. So does anything else that comes out of the project-TV shows, theme park rides, special packaging on Wheaties boxes. And guess who is at the head of that revenue stream? You are, because you hold the copyright in the underlying material.
Genius, baby. Wish I'd thought of it, but all props to Mr. Longenecker.
Yes, you're out two $30 copyright fees, but that's showbiz.
It's too late to do this with any scripts you've registered previously, but by all means, use this technique for every script you write from now on. It's a little time consuming, but with global search and replace, it's not that hard to reformat your script.
When those royalty checks start rolling in, you'll be glad you did it.
Annoying but necessary Disclaimer: By the way, I'm not a lawyer, the foregoing isn't a valid legal opinion, and please don't construe it as such or hold me responsible for your copyright concerns in anyway. If you have questions or doubts about copyright law, consult your entertainment attorney.
Keep writing.
BW
LA
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