Want to Copyright or Register Your Screenplay with the WGA? | Read this first:
People love to copyright & register their work with the WGA.
Writers feel like it protects them and makes them look more professional, but the truth is -
I almost never see it in the higher levels.
It’s just not a problem.
That being said, let’s talk about copyrighting & registering your screenplay with the WGA.
(Note: Copywriting is different from Copyrighting - if you have fucked that up in the past… you are not alone)
Copyright
Copyright is intrinsic to the act of creation. You write it? It’s yours. Until you transfer the rights officially.
It says so right on the government copyright website:
“While many people believe that you must register your work with the U.S. Copyright Office before you can claim a copyright, no registration or other action in the Copyright Office is required to secure a copyright. A copyright is secured automatically when the work is created, as long as the work contains a sufficient degree of originality, and a work comes into being when it is fixed in a “copy or a phonorecord for the first time.”
If you have an email of you sending your script to whoever (including myself), you can demonstrate the script was originally yours.
That being said, I think there are a lot of false notions about what copyright actually applies to.
“Copyright does not protect ideas, [names,] concepts, systems, or methods of doing something. You may express your ideas in writing or drawings and claim copyright in your description, but be aware that copyright will not protect the idea itself as revealed in your written or artistic work.”
Louder for the people in the back:
Copyright will not protect the idea itself!!!
A lot of writers are worried someone else will steal their idea. And while some ideas are definitely more valuable than others, it all boils down to execution.
If you tell your buddy your idea at a bar, and your buddy takes the time to research and write an entire screenplay based on “your idea” then that script is their intellectual property. Not yours.
At the end of the day, even if you both started with the “same idea” you are both going to come out with two totally different screenplays with extraordinarily different levels of execution.
In the end, it’s the execution that matters
Registering your Screenplay with the WGA
What does registering your script with the Writer’s Guild of America even do for you?
According to a source of mine who works at the WGA:
“Registering a script with the WGA is not a replacement for copyright […] and registering a script with the WGA registry doesn’t make it a WGA covered project.”
- Anonymous WGA Source
In theory, it gives you up to 5 years of “protection,” but you already have that through the intrinsic creation and documentation of your work as demonstrated earlier. So, “it’s mostly a way to potentially bolster cases of confirming intellectual property.”
It costs $25 for non-members and it needs to be renewed regularly.
Honestly… I’m not really sure why you’d do it. In fact, one lawyer has even argued the WGA should shut down it’s registration process entirely.
Want to look at the fine print yourself? Click here: WGA Registration Details
Want to do it anyways?
As I like to say, “What’s the price of peace of mind?”
Copyright your screenplay HERE
Register with the WGA HERE
If you’re new in this world or working with unvetted indie filmmakers it might be worth it to register your screenplay before sending it out. Feeling safe and being able to relax are valid and worthy reasons to register.
If any weird trouble comes up, pulling out an official document could help smooth things over without getting lawyers involved.
(Though in my experience, some people will send lawyers just to scare you even if they know it won’t hold up in court)
However, if you’re sending your screenplay out to possible reps or big players? Leave the number off the cover. It’s still registered even if it isn’t marked.
Including a registration number on your screenplay is a bit like stamping N00b on it in tiny adorable letters 🙃
Bottom line
You’re probably fine to send off your script to whoever without copyrighting or registering with the WGA.
Most of the time a screenplay will be registered when it’s sold.
I imagine this was more of an issue back when people were typing out scripts on an actual physical typewriter - the record keeping just wasn’t built in back then like it is today.
If you only had a paper copy with no digital backup or record of communication? I could see the need to copyright & register.
But in today’s day and age? It’s a hell of a lot easier to just to email a PDF.
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Sources:
https://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-protect.html
https://www.uspto.gov/ip-policy/copyright-policy/copyright-basics
https://screencraft.org/blog/copyright-vs-wga-registry/
